Given increasing complexity in fisheries management and additional scrutiny on managers, there is a need for fisheries managers from the different jurisdictions to meet as a group to exchange ideas and initiatives and build networks. The Australian Fisheries Management Forum (AFMF), comprised of the respective heads of Commonwealth and State/Territory management agencies, supports the need for such a forum.

Similar cross-fertilisation forums exist between researchers through the Australian Society for Fish Biology (ASFB) and the National Compliance Committee for compliance officers.

It has been a considerable period since fisheries managers workshops were last held. Previous workshops occurred in the 1980s and early 1990s. In March 2014, a two-day national fisheries management workshop was held in Adelaide at the South Australian Aquatic Sciences Centre. This workshop was overseen by the AFMF’s Fisheries Management Sub-Committee (FMSC), with funding support from the Fisheries Research and Development Corporation (FRDC). Recommendations arising from this workshop included convening a subsequent fisheries managers workshop in 12-24 months and the formation of an Australian Professional Fisheries Management Society.

As an interim arrangement pending the potential formation of a professional fisheries managers society as a chapter of ASFB, the FMSC has agreed to hold another fisheries managers workshop, which Queensland will host in October 2017.

Future workshops will be held to coincide with ASFB annually (starting in 2018).