Compliance program evaluation and optimisation in commercial and recreational Western Australian fisheries
There is a need for:
1. A national workshop to discuss issues generic to all State compliance programs, and to develop common compliance measures that may be adopted nationally.
2. The development of clear measures of compliance levels for each fishery sector in Western Australia in order to optimally allocated enforcement and educational activities.
3. Adaptive management techniques to measure the sensitivity of compliance to levels and type of enforcement and/or educational activity (including VFLOs in the recreational sector).
4. The development of new methodologies for improving the efficiency of delivery of compliance activities.
Final report
This project provides a database that can be used to estimate trends in compliance rates for different regulations in different fisheries. This enables fisheries compliance officers and managers to make informed decisions on the priorities for applying limited resources to ensure that the fisheries are managed sustainably.
Keywords: Enforcement, compliance, deterrence, evaluation, co-management, database, Western Australia
Socio-economic valuation of allocation options between recreational and commercial sectors
This project will fulfill substantive and practical needs at both state and national levels:
1) Using existing socio-economic methodologies, the project will provide decision-makers with the results of socio-economic analyses of the benefits and costs of redistributing specific fisheries resources. Thus, the project will help to resolve potentially conflict-ridden allocation decisions by extending the State’s use of a consistent decision-making framework based on socio-economic information.
2) Using socio-economic analysis, the project will advance a consistent methodology and set of tools for rational and defensible fisheries management decisions.
3) By providing supporting information for Fisheries WA’s use of integrated coastal fisheries management (ICFM), the project will help to ensure the ESD of WA’s fisheries resources.
4) By virtue of (i) the types of case studies chosen and (ii) the use of recognized economic evaluation tools, the project will provide substantive guidance for other fisheries management agencies facing similar inter-sectoral ESD-related issues.
Final report
Because sustainable use of fisheries-related resources is finite, the sharing or allocation of these resources is inevitable. It is also clear that allocation decisions can be enormously contentious amongst different stakeholder groups, may be politically difficult, and are typically a significant drain on fisheries management agencies and stakeholder interests limited resources. Nonetheless, fisheries management agencies have an obligation to the public to understand impacts of allocating-and reallocating-fisheries resources so that the balancing act and the trade-offs that characterize fisheries management resource allocation decisions are more defensible and the Agencies and stakeholder interests are better placed to address the socio-economic outcomes within the decision making framework.
The research in this project is to present a benefit cost framework based on economic principles for evaluating resource allocation options, and, then, to apply the socio-economic valuation methodologies and techniques in three Western Australian case study fisheries. This is to test the robustness of the information derived from such analysis to aid the resolution of resource sharing issues between commercial and recreational stakeholders. The techniques used will be applicable elsewhere and the results, although specific to the three case study fisheries, will provide guidance for other State fisheries management agencies that inevitably face similar allocation situations.
This research provides further methodological development and empirical data by case studies extending the value of other FRDC-sponsored research regarding sector-specific socio-economic valuation (Hundloe, et al), and inter-sectoral equity issues relating to ESD.
Aboriginal fishing strategy
There are currently no specific management arrangements in place for the traditional, subsistence or contemporary economic use of fish resources by Aboriginal people in Western Australia. There is a need to include these uses into Western Australia’s fisheries management framework to ensure long term sustainability objectives will be met.
The Fish Resources Management Act 1994 (the Act) applies to Aboriginal people with the exception that they do not have to hold a recreational fishing licence. The Act does not specifically recognize customary, communal or subsistence fishing activities. There is a need for the Act to be consistent with the Native Title Act 1993 (which allows for personal, domestic or non-commercial communal needs) and to include Aboriginal fishing more specifically in order to provide the basis for effective policy and management arrangements.
There is a need to research and develop, in partnership with stakeholders, options for public discussion that will lead to the development of policy guidelines and legislative amendments relating to Aboriginal fishing in Western Australia.
Fisheries WA is also included in State Government strategies to assist Aboriginal economic development from the sustainable use of fish resources.
Final report
The Western Australian Aboriginal Fishing Strategy (the “strategy”) was developed following a three-year consultative process overseen by former Western Australian Supreme Court Judge, the Hon E M Franklyn QC. Formulation of the draft strategy was assisted by a working group, which included representatives of Aboriginal interests, the fishing sector, conservation interests and government.
The strategy provides recommendations to the Western Australian Government, focusing on three areas - recognition and inclusion of customary fishing in fisheries legislation; inclusion of Aboriginal people in the management of fish resources; and, promotion of economic development opportunities for Aboriginal people in the fishing, aquatic eco-tourism and aquaculture industries.
The strategy was developed in response to growing needs to recognise and include customary fishing rights and interests in a sustainable fisheries management framework.
Identifying nursery areas used by inner bay and oceanic snapper stocks in the Shark Bay region, in relation to the effect of prawn trawling on inner bay snapper stocks
There is an urgent need to clarify whether the juvenile snapper taken in the Denham Sound sector of the Shark Bay Prawn Trawl Fishery recruit to the recreationally fished, depleted western gulf of inner Shark Bay stock or the sustainably (predominantly commercially) fished oceanic stock. This information is needed to ascertain whether changes to the management arrangements to the trawl fishery would significantly benefit the threatened inner bay snapper stocks. Successful resolution of this contentious issue (and management change if warranted) in the sensitive World heritage Area will refocus public debate onto the more critical issue of overall resource sustainability.