Attendance at the Food and Agricultural Organisation of the United Nations, Tenure and User Rights Conference in Yeosu, Korea 10 to 14 September 2018
Measuring non-commercial fishing catches (traditional fishing) in the Torres Strait in order to improve fisheries management and promote sustainable livelihoods
Developing a positive cultural attitude towards the capture and release of sharks and rays
Preliminary evaluation of electro stunning technology for farmed Barramundi
The Australian Barramundi Farmers Association (ABFA) called for an EOI via FRDC for a proposal to evaluate alternative humane harvest methods for farmed barramundi. Specifically, the ABFA identified electro-stunning as a technology of interest to further optimise animal welfare outcomes, while maintaining product quality. The association needs all available information reviewed to evaluate the technology’s potential and if recommended, to help shape the direction of future R&D into the suitability of electro-stunning for the barramundi industry. As a precursor to possible on-farm trials, the ABFA wants to better understand the nature of the technology and learn from international experience in other fish culture sectors. This full proposal addresses the ABFA’s desire for greater insight into; (a) consumer’s attitudes towards fish harvesting and slaughter; (b) the state of uptake of similar technologies by other aquaculture sectors; (c) how to adapt electro-stunning efficiently into a harvest process for a range of barramundi farm sites; (d) whether local or overseas manufacturers/agents can be engaged to co-fund tests of equipment on-farm; and (e) what requirements must be met to make that testing possible and how it would be conducted.
Approval of the EOI was subject to the full application addressing the need for the literature review to include any work on methodology for establishing product quality indicators in addition to welfare indicators (Condition 9).
A Stock Assessment Toolbox for Australian Fisheries
A review of all stock assessments undertaken in Australia and packages in the USA was undertaken by the FRDC 2014-039 project. This project found that of the 76 data rich assessments developed in Australia, about 52 of these could have been undertaken using off the shelf (OTS) packages. Although developing bespoke packages has advantages, the OTS packages that are freely available for use by analysts, have been evaluated using simulations and been extensively peer reviewed. Due to time and financial constraints in Australia, there is a need for a more strategic view of the framework Australia should adopt with respect to stock assessments. For example, there is a greater need to rapidly assess not only data rich but also data poor fisheries’ stocks, which will need the increased use of OTS packages. Transition to these packages is hampered by several constraints: but mainly, the packages are not in a single location and capacity needs to be built in their use. There is thus a need to a) develop a toolbox that links to key freely available OTS packages, and b) allows Australian assessors to contribute their models, and c) provides resources for their use.