26 results

Community Sentiment Survey

Project number: 2023-200
Project Status:
Completed
Budget expenditure: $15,000.00
Principal Investigator: Michael Sparks
Organisation: Intuitive Solutions
Project start/end date: 28 Jul 2024 - 13 Oct 2024
Contact:
FRDC
TAGS
Survey

Need

There is currently no available data which provides insight into community expectations and sentiment. Canvassing and reporting on the perceptions, views and likely behaviors of seafood consumers in particular will provide a fuller understanding of the impact of any change to the current fishery and marine park areas.

Objectives

1. To collect and report on community perceptions, sentiment and likely purchasing and consumption behaviors relevant to the issues identified in this application.

Survey

Author: Michael Sparks
Survey • 2024-05-01 • 741.01 KB
2023-200-DLD.pdf

Summary

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 and around Australia. These management processes implement controls, such as limits on catch or effort levels, and regulation of fishing methods to manage Australia’s fisheries in a sustainable way. It also includes the definition and description of different fishing zones and areas. Nominated Australian fisheries and marine park areas are two critical foundations for the description of some of the areas in and around Australia.

A need to understand the Australian community’s awareness and understanding of these zones has been identified. A measure of the support for commercial fishers to operate in these areas was also seen as an important measures to collect 
and describe. These measures will provide Governments and industry the opportunity to plan for their communications and engagement with the Australian community on these two key zones. This research was designed to provide a snapshot of the community’s awareness, knowledge and perceptions of Australian fisheries, marine parks and commercial fishers who may operate in these designated areas. A representative sample of n = 1,000 adult Australians was captured in this community sentiment survey. A more detailed 
explanation of the research design is provided in the attachments to this report. 

 
Adoption
Communities
PROJECT NUMBER • 2018-161
PROJECT STATUS:
CURRENT

National Social and Economic Survey of Recreational Fishers 2019

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...
ORGANISATION:
University of Canberra
TAGS
Survey
Stakeholder
Recreational Fishing
Market Opportunities
Economic
Adoption
PROJECT NUMBER • 2020-056
PROJECT STATUS:
CURRENT

Evaluation of a smart-phone application to collect recreational fishing catch estimates, including an assessment against an independent probability based survey, using South Australia as a case study

Information on recreational catch and effort is becoming increasingly important to inform fishery stock assessment and the sustainable management of fisheries resources. As smartphone applications ('apps') become more sophisticated and widely available, they are increasingly being used to record...
ORGANISATION:
University of Adelaide
TAGS
Sustainability
Survey
Recreational Fishing
Rac Sa
Modelling
Communities
PROJECT NUMBER • 2019-042
PROJECT STATUS:
COMPLETED

Community Trust in Rural Industries - A framework for advancing social acceptance of the agriculture sector in Australia - A joint RDC initiative

Rural industries (fishers, farmers and foresters) have collaborated to develop a pathway to proactive, transparent, long term engagement with the community via a three-year research program into the drivers of community trust.
ORGANISATION:
AgriFutures Australia
TAGS
Sustainability
Survey
Stakeholder
Social Science
Social Science
Industry
Communities
Blank
PROJECT NUMBER • 2016-409
PROJECT STATUS:
COMPLETED

WINSC - Providing pathways for the involvement of women in seafood industry development

The Women’s Industry Network (WIN) was formed in 1996 by a group of women fishing in South Australia and that later evolved into the Women’s Industry Network Seafood Community (WINSC). WINSC is a not for profit organisation to support the operation of the network. WINSC builds the...
ORGANISATION:
Women in Seafood Australasia (WISA)
TAGS
Workforce
Survey
Stakeholder
Leadership
Community

Sustainable Fishing Families: Developing industry human capital through health, wellbeing, safety and resilience

Project number: 2016-400
Project Status:
Completed
Budget expenditure: $122,840.52
Principal Investigator: Tanya King
Organisation: Deakin University Geelong Waterfront Campus
Project start/end date: 30 Jun 2016 - 29 Sep 2017
Contact:
FRDC
TAGS
Wellbeing
Sustainability
Survey
Rac Wa
Rac Vic

Need

By developing an evidence-based health and safety training program for Australian fishing communities, this project meets the needs of the commercial wild-catch and aquaculture industry identified in FRDC’s RD&E Program 3, ‘Communities’ and particularly theme 10, which promotes resilient and supportive communities who are able to adapt to the social impacts of change in industry business environments.

The project will address a national need, identified by VicFRAB, to better understand the social and economic contribution of commercial fisheries, by identifying and addressing potential losses incurred through the poor health and wellbeing of the industry’s human capital.

Fishers tend to work in rural and remote communities, which means they have higher rates of mortality, disease and health risk factors than urban dwellers, further impacted by reduced access to primary health care services. Fishers are at particular risk of certain kinds of illnesses (eg. skin and diet-related), as well as injury (fatality rates are more than double those in the agricultural sector). Mental health concerns are higher than average in the fishing industry, exacerbated by uncertainties within the industry including often high debt and insecurity of tenure and licencing. While both women and men are at risk, 86.9% of fishers are male, a factor placing them at greater risk of suicide.

Fisher ‘attitudes’ also impact health, such as the culture of self-reliance, particularly among males. This may make fishers resilient, but also makes them less likely to adopt preventative health practices or to use health services, and they will usually wait longer before seeking medical assistance, particularly for issues of chronic poor mental health.

The Sustainable Fishing Families project will benefit fishing families’ health, safety and resilience by promoting a self-awareness of the value of the industry’s human capital, and building their health capacity.

Objectives

1. To improve the health and wellbeing of fishing families by promoting safer and healthier work practices
2. To develop strategies to inform fisher families of appropriate physical and mental health care programs and information, including strategies to address barriers to uptake
3. To provide rigorous research that will raise the profile of the health issues and needs of Australian fishing families, and inform government, industry and health services of specific health issues and needs of, and effective support pathways for, fishing families as distinct from farming families.
4. To develop a targeted, industry-led program that will address the health issues and needs of fishing families based on the proven Sustainable Farm FamiliesTM protocol

Final report

ISBN: 978-0-646-98116-1
Authors: Tanya J. King Kirsten Abernethy Susan Brumby Tracey Hatherell Sue Kilpatrick Katarina Munksgaard & Rachel Turner
Final Report • 2019-01-21 • 4.30 MB
2016-400-DLD.pdf

Summary

This project conducted the first national survey of the health, safety and wellbeing of the Australian professional fishing industry in 2017. The results of the survey provide a baseline for the state of the wild-catch industry members across a range of indicators, including reported physical and mental health, factors affecting health and safety, factors affecting levels of stress, health and safety behaviours, and access to health services and information.
 
The project also conducted and evaluated an intensive pilot program on health, safety and wellbeing tailored specifically for fishing families. The program was modelled on an existing and highly successful program with farming families, Sustainable Farm FamiliesTM developed and delivered by the National Centre for Farmer Health, at the Western District Health Service, Victoria. The materials and presentations were reviewed and modified to reflect the specific strengths and challenges of the fishing industry. For the first time, this award-winning program is now available for use by fishing communities across the country.

Project products

Brochure • 2019-10-01 • 3.65 MB
2016-400 Fishing Families-Key Survey Findings Final.pdf

Summary

In 2017, the National Health, Safety and Wellbeing survey was posted to 4,584 professional wild catch fishers across all jurisdictions of Australia through peak bodies, industry associations and large fishing companies. The survey was also made available online to capture those fishers without membership to an industry organisation. 872 surveys were returned for analysis. The survey focussed on self-reported health relating to work, and asked respondents about their physical and mental health status and perceived causes, health and safety behaviours, and access to health services and information. The survey was part of the project Sustainable Fishing Families (FRDC Project 2016-400).
Educational material • 2019-10-01 • 7.49 MB
2016-400 Managing Stress for Fishers Book Final.pdf

Summary

This resource is a way of enabling fishing families to understand stress, its impact, and learn skills to help balance stress when fishing in difficult times.

This is a resource for all people who work in the business of fishing — from deckhands to skippers to office staff.

Flyer • 2019-10-01 • 2.55 MB
2016-400 Sustainable Fishing Families Flyer Final.pdf

Summary

Sustainable Fishing Families is a health program specifically designed for fishing families to address the health, wellbeing and safety issues facing the fishing industry through an evidence-based health program run by rural health experts

Recreational fishing and human wellbeing: insights from existing data and development of best practice approaches to future measurement

Project number: 2018-095
Project Status:
Current
Budget expenditure: $46,000.00
Principal Investigator: Jacki Schirmer
Organisation: University of Canberra
Project start/end date: 8 Nov 2018 - 28 Mar 2019
Contact:
FRDC
TAGS
Wellbeing
Survey
Recreational Fishing
Policy
Human Dimensions Research

Need

This project is needed as there are knowledge gaps about the effect of recreational fishing on the health and wellbeing of recreational fishers. Recent years have seen many claims about the health and wellbeing benefits of recreational fishing, as well as growing interest in nature connection and outdoor recreation as wellbeing interventions more generally. Measuring and valuing the wellbeing benefits of recreational fishing is not currently possible due to a lack of evidence, and limited methods for monitoring, measuring and reporting wellbeing effects. The FRDC’s RD&E Plan 2015-20 aims by 2020 to have robust community net benefit metrics that enable measurement of the benefits of fishing. This project will develop robust metrics related to health and wellbeing benefits of recreational fishing. Achieving this requires better understanding both (i) whether and under what circumstances engaging in recreational fishing has measurable impacts on health and wellbeing, and (ii) how to measure these benefits to produce readily accessible and understandable metrics. This will help achieve the FRDC’s national research strategy deliverable ‘Social contribution is supported by the fishing and aquaculture sector so it can capture the non-monetary value of activities across sectors.’ This work will also contribute to national science and research priorities in the health field, specifically the priority ‘Build healthy and resilient communities throughout Australia by developing … preventative strategies to improve physical and mental well-being’ (http://www.science.gov.au/scienceGov/ScienceAndResearchPriorities/Pages/Health.aspx). Nationally, this research priority aims to develop strategies for supporting wellbeing. This project contributes by identifying the role recreational fishing can play in building healthy and resilient communities through supporting physical and mental wellbeing. This research will also contribute to the overarching aims of Australia’s rural research, development and extension strategy, which include ‘develop a range of technologies and knowledge to contribute to healthy Australian lifestyles’ (http://www.agriculture.gov.au/SiteCollectionDocuments/ag-food/innovation2/nsrrdip-investment-plan1.pdf)

Objectives

1. Understand whether engaging in recreational fishing (or in particular types or frequency of fishing) is associated with improved health and wellbeing for individual recreational fishers using available datasets
2. Identify best practice methods for establishing a causal relationship between (i) engaging in fishing and (ii) health and wellbeing outcomes for individual recreational fishers
3. Produce proposed set of measures and associated methodology that can be used to robustly measure causal association between engaging in fishing and health & wellbeing for individual recreational fishers and that can be used to provide valuation of these benefits for the broader economy
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