304 results
Environment
PROJECT NUMBER • 2018-204
PROJECT STATUS:
COMPLETED

Australian Recreational Fishing Foundation National Recreational Fishing Conference 2019

Following on from the success of the 2012, 2015 & 2017 National Recreational Fishing Conferences, the Australian Recreational Fishing Foundation was successful in securing a funding grant from the Fisheries Research and Development Corporation (FRDC) to deliver a National Recreational Fishing...
ORGANISATION:
Tasmanian Association for Recreational Fishing Inc (TARFish)
TAGS
Recreational Fishing
Communities
Environment
Environment
Blank
Communities
PROJECT NUMBER • 2016-206
PROJECT STATUS:
COMPLETED

Indigenous fishing subprogram: Business Nous - Indigenous business development opportunities and impediments in the fishing and seafood industry

The Business Nous Project (BN) research and outputs have been finalised in November 2019 with the completion of the website and workshop outputs and the project evaluation. The project delivered successfully on three of the four objectives with the workshop component of the project is being held in...
ORGANISATION:
Affectus Pty Ltd
TAGS
Workforce

Integrating recreational fishing information into harvest strategies for multi-sector fisheries

Project number: 2019-021
Project Status:
Current
Budget expenditure: $444,676.00
Principal Investigator: Ashley Fowler
Organisation: Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development (NSW)
Project start/end date: 31 Oct 2019 - 31 Oct 2023
:
TAGS
Stock Assessment
Software
Resource Sharing
Resource Sharing
Recreational Fishing

Need

Integration of recreational fishing (RF) into harvest strategies (HS) is necessary for many fisheries in Australia, to account for catches that can equal or exceed commercial catch for some key species and to address biological and experiential objectives of the RF sector. Both the Productivity Commission’s report Marine Fisheries and Aquaculture (2016) and the ICES Report from the Working Group Recreational Fishing Surveys (2018) recommend formal integration of RF into stock assessments and harvest strategies. Failure to do so puts sustainable management goals and legislated state and Commonwealth fisheries requirements at risk.

Equitable and quantitative inclusion of RF in harvest strategies is rare. This stems from a traditional focus on the commercial sector and budgetary challenges involved with representatively sampling RF. It is therefore unclear: 1) what types of RF data and monitoring best service stock assessments, (2) which data also track indicators of recreational objectives (often related to the fishing experience), and (3) how to integrate harvest strategy components for multiple sectors. The need to address these knowledge gaps was highlighted by the FRDC priority research call in 2018 - “Integrating recreational fishery data into harvest strategies for multi-sector fisheries in New South Wales”. NSW provides an important test case for addressing issues around RF integration that are faced by most jurisdictions.

Harvest strategy development for multi-sector fisheries requires a transparent and defensible process due to complexities in addressing diverse objectives and apprehension among stakeholder groups. Structured workshops that use easily-understandable, interactive decision support tools and involve independent experts and stakeholder representatives are likely to provide best outcomes. ‘FishPath’ is a leading harvest strategy decision support tool and “bottom up” engagement philosophy that allows experts and stakeholders to interactively contribute to harvest strategy development in a transparent workshop setting. However, it requires additional development in recreational and multi-sector contexts.

Objectives

1. Obtain information on recreational fishing objectives and facilitate improved understanding among recreational fishers of the role of harvest strategies.
2. Identify types of recreational fishing data and monitoring that provide reliable measures of both the biological and experiential performance of fished populations.
3. Interrogate and extend the FishPath decision support software tool to better characterise and integrate recreational fishing information into harvest strategy development for multi-sector fisheries.
4. Develop guidelines and recommendations for the integration of recreational fishing information into harvest strategies for multi-sector fisheries.
5. Develop draft harvest strategies for key multi-sector fisheries using outcomes from Objectives 1-4.

Report

Authors: Fowler AM Chick RC Bolton P Folpp H Harnwell J Lowry M Lyle JM Lynch TP McIlgorm A Nichols R Ochwada-Doyle FA Pepperell J Dowling NA.
Report • 2021-12-15 • 990.17 KB
2019-021 NSW Recreational Fishing Workshops_FRDC interim report_final.pdf

Summary

This interim report provides an update on workshops with recreational fishers, scientists and managers to investigate recreational fishing objectives for three stocks of recreational importance in NSW – Mulloway, Yellowtail Kingfish, and Snapper. The study forms part of a broader research project investigating the integration of recreational fishing into harvest strategies for multi-sector fisheries.
Final Report • 2024-08-20 • 5.66 MB
2019-021-DLD.pdf

Fishing and Aquaculture Workforce Capability Framework

Project number: 2022-153
Project Status:
Completed
Budget expenditure: $127,997.50
Principal Investigator: Deborah C. Prentice
Organisation: RM Consulting Group (RMCG)
Project start/end date: 2 May 2023 - 7 Mar 2024
:
TAGS
Workforce
Leadership
Capacity Building

Need

The objective of this foundational work is to collaborate with industry to produce a Fishing and Aquaculture Workforce Capability Framework. The Framework will be used by fishing and aquaculture sectors / communities for workforce planning and career mapping. It will support a more strategic and consistent approach to workforce planning. This in turn, will enable industry to build its capacity through better understanding of capability needs.

In addition to the universal challenges associated with a tight labour market (e.g. attracting people, barriers to entry, addressing skills needs), the industry is operating in a changing environment. Other challenges and opportunities for the fishing and aquaculture sectors include:
• Adapting to climate change
• Biosecurity
• Managing resources efficiently
• Meeting sustainability standards / social license to operate
• Moving to a circular economy
• Managing global supply chains (developing traceability, addressing counterfeit)
• Competing with other proteins
• New markets through free trade agreements
• Adopting digital technology, and;
• Attracting and retaining people to drive responses to changes that impact on the F&A community.

The AgriFood Supply Chain Resilience report (KPMG, 2022) identified ‘labour supply, wellbeing and succession’ as one of the significant stresses for seafood supply chains. Other significant stresses were weather and climate change, cold chain and freight space availability, sustainability and social licence, pests and disease and market access.

Fish Forever (2030 vision for Australia’s fishing and aquaculture community) highlights opportunities for the F&A community and contains outcomes under each of the following missions:
1. Growth for enduring prosperity
2. Best practices and production systems
3. A culture that is inclusive and forward thinking
4. Equitable and secure resource access
5. Society and consumers trust, respect and value.

This project will identify the capability needs (current and future) to address these challenges and opportunities. Further, it will support industry, to attract and retain people and to provide pathways to build capability. Sectors will be better informed as to how to address capability needs.

Addressing these needs will ensure industry is better equipped to respond to changes, challenges and opportunities that impact the fishing and aquaculture communities. The fishing and aquaculture map (FRDC website) highlights the “complex systems behind Indigenous, commercial and recreational fishing and aquaculture in Australia and how the elements are connected”. It also highlights how issues or events in one part of the system can have impacts on other sectors. Therefore, industry needs to be prepared for changes.

This project will engage with all key F&A sectors to ensure the capability framework is industry-driven and collectively owned. In addition, the project approach is designed to utilise existing sector/industry plans and not replace existing frameworks. RMCG will work collaboratively with industry.

Objectives

1. Development of a fit-for-purpose capability framework for the fisheries and aquaculture industries and individual organisations
2. Engagement and collaboration with key industry stakeholders to enable adoption and use of the framework
3. Establishment of a shared process and terminology for talking about capabilities throughout the fishing and aquaculture industry
4. Mapped critical capabilities highlighting gaps and opportunities for collaborative action

Final report

Authors: Deborah Prentice Sasha Brightman Natasha Frazer and Anne-Maree Boland
Final Report • 2024-06-01 • 14.11 MB
2022-153-DLD.pdf

Summary

In 2023 RM Consulting Group (RMCG) was contracted by FRDC to develop a Fisheries and Aquaculture (F&A) Workforce Capability Framework (hereafter referred to as the Framework) that would be used as a high-level, standardised tool across all F&A sectors. The FRDC and other groups in leadership roles for Australia’s F&A sectors have highlighted workforce development as a key opportunity and priority.
We have created a comprehensive Framework that captures the enablers (the internal and external systems and culture that either help or hinder employees and businesses to thrive and support growth in people’s capability) and the people capabilities (knowledge, skills, abilities and behaviours) that should be considered as a starting point in F&A workforce planning.
The intention of this project was to collaborate with industry to produce a F&A Workforce Capability Framework. This has been achieved, as demonstrated through the many and diverse stakeholders engaged and the attached Framework. The stakeholders interviewed and engaged had some interest and/or experience in workforce issues so were able to add value to the development of the Framework. They will also be able to champion the subsequent  implementation of projects that emerge from the Framework.
The Framework is a step towards addressing the above challenges and opportunities. It provides a broad, high-level approach to thinking about how to  meet the needs and aspirations of businesses and organisations.
The case studies included in this document offer real-world examples of where innovative thinking has been used to solve issues around workforce  planning, attraction and retention of staff, and broader geographical and social challenges.
The research and the development of this Framework emphasises the need to think differently, innovate and enable collaboration.

Project products

Report • 2024-06-01 • 7.34 MB
2022-153-Capability_Framework.pdf

Summary

FRDC Workforce Capability Framework
Industry

Establishing a national end of life fishing/aquaculture gear recovery system for Australia

Project number: 2023-124
Project Status:
Current
Budget expenditure: $273,080.00
Principal Investigator: Anissa Lawrence
Organisation: TierraMar Ltd trading as Ocean Earth Foundation
Project start/end date: 29 Sep 2024 - 29 Jun 2026
:
TAGS
Wild Catch
Recreational Fishing
Rac Wa
Marine Plastics
Environmental Impact

Need

Building on the circularity discussions and work being undertaken by FRDC and the industry, this project seeks to undertake the legwork required to establish a nationwide on-demand End of life (EOL) fishing gear recovery system for Australia and pilot it in key locations. The materials that many nets and ropes are made of are highly valuable and recyclable and in fact in many other countries, is already being recycled or remanufactured. Until now, having a national system has been cost prohibitive due to the large distances and need for economies of scale and limited local buyer interest. As a part of the national targets set by the Australian Government relating to plastics use and recycling, commercial fishing and aquaculture sectors have been exploring how to move to a circular economy model and reduce plastic inputs through a variety of projects run by FRDC and others. However, with fishing gear the biggest plastic polymer input, and contamination challenges, there has yet to be a suitable system established.

This project seeks to enable the opportunities that addressing EOL gear provides in Australia to the commercial fishing and aquaculture sector through the establishment of an effective EOL fishing gear recovery system for the country to reduce the landfill costs to industry. It seeks to build on the learnings from previous projects as well as the ten years of experience of our partner Bureo has in in operating an EOL fishing gear recovery program. Bureo currently have an EOL gear recovery system active in 9 countries.

The key objectives are:
● By the end of 2026 there is an effective end-of-life fishing/aquaculture gear recovery system implemented across key fishing ports, and key aquaculture centres benefiting regional communities and fisheries conservation and assisting the Australian Government to address plastic recovery/recycling targets.
● By the end of 2024, the enabling environment for an effective and fit for purpose EOL fishing/aquaculture gear recovery system is in place within Australia, with commencement of recycling underway in key pilot locations.

Objectives

1. By March 2025 the feasibility of and logistical requirements are understood to establish a national end of life recovery system for commercial fishing and aquaculture gear in Australia and an enabling pathway for roll out created.
2. By the end of 2026 there is an effective end-of-life fishing/aquaculture gear recovery system for Australia implemented across at least 5 key fishing ports, with measurable benefits being delivered to regional communities, industry, conservation, while contributing towards the Australian Government’s recycling targets.
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