Project Search

72 results

PROJECT NUMBER • 2023-200

PROJECT STATUS:

COMPLETED

Community Sentiment Survey

Australia’s Commonwealth, state and territory governments together with regulatory bodies and local authorities have worked in partnership with the fishing industry, scientists, economists, environmental non-government organisations to establish management frameworks for fishing in...

ORGANISATION:

Intuitive Solutions

TAGS

Survey

Design of a fishery independent longline survey for chondrichthyans in Northern Australia

Project number: 2023-063

Project Status:

Current

Budget expenditure: $82,125.00

Principal Investigator: Ian Knuckey

Organisation: Fishwell Consulting Pty Ltd

Project start/end date: 4 Feb 2024 - 29 Aug 2024

Contact:

FRDC

TAGS

Need

Catch Per Unit Effort (CPUE) from commercial logbooks is often used as an index of abundance in stock assessments. However, the use of commercial CPUE as an indicator of relative abundance can be problematic as the underlying assumption that commercial catch rates change linearly with abundance is often compromised. Although some factors that are reported in logbooks can be used to standardise CPUE, there are other sources of variation including:
• Modified fishing practices to target or avoid species to suit quota availability, meet market demands, or to comply with management arrangements.
• Differences in selectivity of fishing gear and use of bycatch-reduction devices.
• The combined impacts of multiple management restrictions on a fishery.
For example, gillnet operations in what was once the Northern Territory’s Shark Fishery now almost exclusively target Grey Mackerel. This change in practice has resulted in an index that is losing its relevance in assessing shark species.

Over 140 elasmobranchs are listed on CITES Appendix II, with the likely-hood that more species will be added in the future. Of the 11,082t of shark landed by the fishery since 2000, CITES listed Hammerheads comprise 17.25% of the shark catch. Other sharks caught by the fishery that were recently added to CITES Appendix II at the Nineteenth meeting of the Conference of the Parties Panama City (Panama), 14 – 25 November 2022 include: Grey Reef Shark, Dusky Whaler, Sandbar Shark, Lemon Shark, Whitecheek shark and all other members of the family Carcharhinidae (which include the Blacktip Shark complex that is the main shark species caught by the fishery - 4688t or 42% since 2000). These species will require a positive Non-Detriment Finding (NDF) and CITES export permit in order to be exported following the 12-month delay in implementation (i.e., December 2023). The fishery also catches Threatened, Endangered and Protected Elasmobranchs, some of which are also CITES listed.

Gillnet and longline effort has decreased since 2000 and there is significant latent effort in the fishery. There is a desire to utilise this latent effort, however, the CITES listing of the majority of sharks species caught in the fishery will increase scrutiny from State, Commonwealth and International environmental agencies, as well as NGOs. This heightened scrutiny will provide greater impetus to demonstrate that shark stocks are at sustainable levels and that fishing is being undertaken sustainably.

There is a strong need for independent survey methods to gain a better understanding of the abundance patterns of shark species over time that can contribute to the development of appropriate management of these species that meets environmental, fisheries, and conservation needs.

Surveying Northern Australia using longlining methods would provide a fishery independent estimate of relative abundance for sharks that would improve economic security and public confidence in sustainability. However, to make an informed decision of the feasibility of a survey a full understanding of the scope of work and cost required is needed. There is a need to look at existing long line surveys undertaken worldwide (e.g. in the USA and Bahamas), to understanding the methods undertaken and the time period required to develop accurate abundance estimates.

Objectives

1. Analysis of commercial logbook data to inform fishery independent survey design

2. Conduct a literature review to determine potential design of longline fishery independent survey

3. Hold a workshop to discuss options for a NT shark longline survey

4. Develop final design and costs for a NT shark longline survey

PROJECT NUMBER • 2011-514

PROJECT STATUS:

COMPLETED

FRDC Stakeholder Survey Program

This report explores results from the 2020 stakeholder survey conducted by Intuitive Solutions. This survey focussed on the following stakeholder groups: Stakeholders directly involved with fishing and aquaculture sectors (described as being active seafood businesses); Stakeholders who...

ORGANISATION:

Intuitive Solutions

TAGS

National Social and Economic Survey of Recreational Fishers 2019

Project number: 2018-161

Project Status:

Current

Budget expenditure: $1,233,986.95

Principal Investigator: Andy (Anthony) Moore

Organisation: University of Canberra

Project start/end date: 3 Mar 2019 - 19 Jun 2021

Contact:

FRDC

TAGS

Need

Currently there is a lack of national scale, consistent and robust data on the motivations and behaviours of recreational fishers, and lack of robust data on the social and economic contribution of recreational fishing. Where many commercial fisheries have regular collection and estimation process for economic data, this is not the case for recreational fishing in most of Australia. This lack of data also includes behaviour and motivations and how they are changing. These data are useful for informing discussions on resource allocation and in understanding and managing recreational fisheries more generally. If these data are to be used to inform governments and the general public, there is a need to make sure it is collected in a robust way that is representative of the Australian population. Large scale representative data sets are often expensive to acquire and as a result do not get undertaken regularly. One off surveys only provide useful data for any particular point in time, but understanding trends can often be more useful. This study aims to implement and test methodologies to provide a robust and representative sample, while trying to reduce costs to allow for more regular data gathering. To do this requires addressing another need: that of testing new survey methodologies for collecting data from recreational fishers that enables assessment of social and economic contribution. Recreational fishing surveys traditionally use probability based phone or mail surveys, however both methods are experiencing rapid decline in response rates and representativeness. It is expected that going into the future, online surveys that use a range of appropriate recruitment methods will be the most common survey method. There is a need to invest in establishing robust approaches to using these methods, and in understanding how their findings differ to those of traditional probability based surveys.

Objectives

1. Assess social and economic contribution of recreational fishing using multiple methods, including direct and flow-on economic benefits, and market and non-market benefits

2. Identify which approaches to recruiting survey participants and completing surveys produce the most representative and robust results

3. Recommend most appropriate and cost effective survey method to use to track change social and economic aspects of recreational fishing in Australia over time

Final report

Authors: Moore A Schirmer J Magnusson A Keller K Hinten G Galeano D Woodhams J Wright D Maloney L. Dix A.

Final Report • 2023-02-21 • 5.80 MB

2018-161-NRFS_main report_FINAL_19Feb2023.pdf

Summary

The NRFS involved three stages of data collection. An overview of the three stages of data collection and the purpose of each, and a guide summarising which chapters draw on data from each stage of data collection, are provided in the next section. Sections 3.4, 3.5 and 3.6 provide a detailed description of the methods used to collect and process data in Stages 1, 2 and 3 respectively. These sections explain, for each stage:

The purpose/objectives of data collection
Data collection methods, including design of survey instruments and survey recruitment materials, survey sample recruitment methods and sample achieved
Data processing methods, including data coding and cleaning, and weighting methods.

Project Search

Search

Need

Objectives

Need

Objectives

Final report

Summary

Project products

Summary

Research

Category

Species

Organisation

Stay up to date

Stay up to date