Project Search

35 results

PROJECT NUMBER • 2017-134

PROJECT STATUS:

COMPLETED

Progressing the National Fisheries Digital Data Framework - Industry consultation

Spreadsheet mapping fisheries logbook fields and the legislation that governs the collection of this information for all fisheries management jurisdictions

ORGANISATION:

Fisheries Research and Development Corporation (FRDC)

TAGS

PROJECT NUMBER • 2017-012

PROJECT STATUS:

COMPLETED

Investigating social acceptance for the wild catch commercial fishing industry of Southeast Queensland

This research project aimed to develop an engagement strategy that would assist the Southeast Queensland (SEQ) wild catch commercial fishing industry to gain social acceptance, or a Social Licence to Operate (SLO). SLO is needed to maintain access to the resource and market confidence. A scan of...

ORGANISATION:

University of the Sunshine Coast (USC)

TAGS

Wild Catch

Survey

Stakeholder

Resource Access And Allocation

SPECIES

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

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

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

PROJECT NUMBER • 2018-193

PROJECT STATUS:

COMPLETED

Abalone assessment and management (workshop): what have we learned, what are the gaps and where can we do better

This workshop sought to establish a commitment from all Australian Abalone stakeholders – industry, managers & researchers – to work towards the rationalisation and consolidation between jurisdictions in the areas of research, monitoring and management. A national...

ORGANISATION:

Abalone Council Australia Ltd (ACA)

TAGS

Electronic Monitoring

SPECIES

Abalone

Valuing Victoria's Wild-catch fisheries and aquaculture industries

Project number: 2017-092

Project Status:

Completed

Budget expenditure: $507,438.75

Principal Investigator: Kate Barclay

Organisation: University of Technology Sydney (UTS)

Project start/end date: 28 Feb 2018 - 31 May 2022

Contact:

FRDC

TAGS

Need

A study which measures the contribution of Victorian wild-catch and aquaculture fisheries to community wellbeing will meet multiple needs:

• Generate detailed, spatially-defined knowledge on the economic and social contributions of fisheries to community wellbeing, and elicit where contributions could be enhanced
• Inform government (local, state) of the importance of fisheries and likely impacts of policy or management decisions on regional and metropolitan communities
• Enhance community engagement and support for fisheries through demonstrating the benefits that flow from professional fishing and aquaculture sectors into communities

Audience: 1) industry representative organizations; 2) government; 3) general public. Currently, very little data exists about the economic and/or social benefits of professional fisheries to communities in Victoria. Existing data only calculate total value of production (beach/farm gate price x volume), and the number of business owners or fisheries employees identified in the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) Census. There is no reporting of the multiplier effects in communities of having businesses based there, through service industries or seafood product going into markets. The lack of sophisticated information about the contributions of professional fishing puts the industry as a group at a disadvantage compared to competing resource users which do have such reporting and have been persuasive in negotiations.

Information on social contributions dovetails with economic contributions to build a picture of the overall contributions fisheries make. This can help address the lack of community support for fisheries and consumer influence on the regulatory environment, which has grown to constitute a threat to the continued viability of fisheries. While information generated via this project will not fix the problem – relationships between industry and community must be improved via sustained, strategic engagement – credible data on the social and economic contributions commercial fisheries make to Victoria is useful for boosting the industry’s ‘social license to operate’.

Objectives

1. Evaluate the economic contribution of commercial wild-catch fisheries and aquaculture to community wellbeing for seven regions of Victoria, including the regional economic impacts such as multiplier effects and employment and contributions to related sectors within regions, building on previous Australian studies.

2. Evaluate the social contributions of commercial wild-catch fisheries and aquaculture to community wellbeing for the same regions, including the social aspects of economic contributions, food provision, health and nutrition, services and infrastructure, interactions with tourism, consumers, and recreational fishers, contributions to community identity and heritage, and knowledge networks, building on previous Australian studies.

3. Build on and refine a methodology to be used for ongoing social and economic evaluations of industry as part of FRDC national framework.

4. Disseminate findings, identifying the social and economic contributions of seafood production to community wellbeing for each study region, highlighting threats to sustainability and viability, as well as opportunities, in a form suitable for engaging: 1) local and state government agencies

and 2) the general public, to raise awareness of the role of professional wild-catch fisheries and aquaculture in Victorian communities.

Final report

ISBN: 978-0-9953662-5-1

Authors: Abernethy K. Barclay K. McIlgorm A. Gilmour P. McClean N. Davey J.

Final Report • 2020-06-29 • 6.04 MB

2017-092-DLD.pdf

Summary

This project provides the first evaluation of the social and economic contributions of wildcatch professional fisheries and aquaculture of Victoria to the communities in which the industries are located and to the entire state. This project was developed in consultation with the Victorian seafood industry who identified the need to communicate the economic value of their industry, inclusive of the economic contribution of businesses supplying or being supplied by seafood producers. In addition, there was no evaluation of the social benefits of the industry to Victoria.

Appended Report to the FRDC project 2017-092: Victoria’s fisheries and aquaculture: economic and social contributions, University of Technology Sydney

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

Contact:

FRDC

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

Comparative evaluation of Integrated Coastal Marine Management in Australia - Workshop

Project number: 2017-214

Project Status:

Completed

Budget expenditure: $14,640.00

Principal Investigator: Alistair Hobday

Organisation: CSIRO Oceans and Atmosphere Hobart

Project start/end date: 19 Jun 2018 - 29 Nov 2018

Contact:

FRDC

TAGS

Resource Access And Allocation

Policy

Human Dimensions Research

Fisheries Management

Ecosystem

Need

There is widespread evidence, in Australia and internationally, of increased need for an improved, practical approach to integrated management (IM) of fisheries and other coastal marine activities that is able to fully embrace the social, economic and institutional aspects (the so-called ‘human dimensions), of management. Assessment and management systems traditionally neglect the human dimensions. Further, they treat sectors separately, often with different authorities managing diverse activities in different ways, resulting in inconsistencies in management across activities. The result is that there is almost no consideration of the cumulative social, economic or ecological impacts of multiple activities, and no way of informing trade-offs among activities in management decision-making.
Experience to date is that IM has been only partially successful. Management of multiple activities has been additive…squeezing one activity in among others (e.g aquaculture in light of others). While there are some examples of movement toward IM, these have resulted in partial or temporary success. There are examples where management has started toward IM, but progress has been stalled or has fallen back. In general, many preconditions exist, but it has been hypothesized that management is missing key aspects of intentional design that would allow IM to proceed.
The proposed workshop will bring together those with both the science knowledge and the operational knowledge of 8-10 Australian IM case studies and a few with international expertise, to evaluate and compare experience towards identifying key elements of success and failure of Integrated Management.

Objectives

1. Complete the creation of a lens for evaluation of Integrated Management that includes appropriate attention to social, cultural, economic, institutional as well as ecological aspects

2. Convene two workshops involving expert practitioners with sufficient scientific and operational knowledge of existing Australian Integrated Management case studies

3. Evaluate and compare experience on implementing IM in Australia using a single evaluative lens

4. Synthesize and report results of the evaluation and make recommendations for improved IM in Australia

Final report

ISBN: 978-1-4863-1276-4

Authors: Robert Stephenson Alistair Hobday Christopher Cvitanovic Maree Fudge Tim Ward Ian Butler Toni Cannard Mel Cowlishaw Ian Cresswell Jon Day Kirstin Dobbs Leo X.C. Dutra Stewart Frusher Beth Fulton Josh Gibson Bronwyn Gillanders Natalie Gollan Marcus Haward Trevor Hutton Alan Jordan Jan Macdonald Catriona Macleod Gretta Pecl Eva Plaganyi Ingrid van Putten Tony Smith Ian Poiner Joanna Vince

Final Report • 2019-08-02 • 1.16 MB

2017-214-DLD.pdf

Summary

The need for Integrated Management (IM) of diverse marine activities is increasing, but there has been no agreed IM framework. In 2017 and 2018, a team of researchers collaborated to develop a framework for implementation and a ‘lens’ for evaluation of IM.

Project products

Fact Sheet • 408.36 KB

2017-214 - Fact Sheet 1- Integrated Management.pdf

Summary

Integrated Management is an approach that links (integrates) planning, decision-making and management arrangements across sectors in a unified framework, to enable a more comprehensive view of sustainability and the consideration of cumulative effects and tradeoffs.

Nine key features and five phases of implementation provide a lens for implementation and evaluation of Integrated Management.

Fact Sheet • 285.61 KB

2017-214 - Fact Sheet 2- Integrated Management.pdf

Summary

Evaluation of nine key features and five phases important to Integrated Management has been investigated in seven Australian case studies.

Article • 2.85 MB

2017-214 - Stephenson et al 2023.pdf

Summary

Integrated management (IM) has been widely proposed, but difficult to achieve in practice, and there remains the need for evaluation of examples that illustrate the practical issues that contribute to IM success or failure. This paper synthesises experiences of academics and practitioners involved in seven Australian case studies in which there have been attempts to integrate or take a broader, holistic perspective of management. The evaluative framework of Stephenson et al. (2019a) was used as a lens to explore, through workshops and a questionnaire survey, the nine key features and five anticipated stages of IM in the Gladstone Harbour Project, the Great Barrier Reef, the Northern Prawn fishery and regional development, the South-East Queensland Healthy Waterways Partnership, the Australian Oceans Policy, the New South Wales Marine Estate reforms, and progress toward Integrated Management in the Spencer Gulf. Workshops involving experts with direct experience of the case studies revealed that most of the key features (recognition of the need; a shared vision for IM; appropriate legal and policy frameworks; effective process for appropriate stakeholder participation; comprehensive suite of objectives (ecological, social, cultural, economic and institutional); consideration of trade-offs and cumulative effects of multiple activities; flexibility to adapt to changing conditions; process for ongoing review, evaluation and refinement; and effective resourcing) were seen as important in all case studies. However, there are only a few examples where key features of IM were implemented ‘fully’. A subsequent questionnaire of participants using ‘best-worst’ scaling indicated that an appropriate legal and institutional framework is considered to have most influence on IM outcomes, and therefore is the most important of the key features. This is followed in salience by effective stakeholder participation, effective resourcing, capacity and tools, and recognition of the need for IM. Key features may change in relative importance at different stages in the trajectory of IM.

Economic Impact assessment of FRDC's annual RD&E investments: a three year procurement

Project number: 2023-160

Project Status:

Current

Budget expenditure: $517,225.00

Principal Investigator: Susan Madden

Organisation: GHD Pty Ltd Sydney

Project start/end date: 14 Apr 2024 - 2 Jul 2026

Contact:

FRDC

TAGS

Economic

Need

It is becoming increasingly important for Rural RDCs to continually monitor and evaluate the returns from RD&E investment, as government and industry require greater transparency and accountability of RD&E funds.

In addition to FRDC’s Statutory Funding Agreement requirements for valuing return on investment and use in its Annual Reports, impact assessments of FRDC’s RD&E investments are needed to inform:
– Future investment decisions
– CRRDC’s overall performance review of impact generated by RDCs
– Levy payers and government of the performance of investments.

GHD understands that the project will comprise two key components:
– An economic impact assessment of up to 20 research projects for the three-year period FY23/24, 24/25, and 25/26
– An individual and aggregated report of all assessed projects at the completion of assessments.

GHD notes that within this period the first five assessments for FY23/24 are required by June 2024 with the remainder of the projects, i.e. 10, due in September 2024. These assessments are required to be consistent with the CRRDC Guidelines for Impact Assessments. FRDC RD&E projects are to be assessed annually to meet Statutory Funding Agreement (SFA) requirements for valuing return on investment for use in FRDC’s Annual Reports and performance of FRDC’s investments.
In conducting the impact assessment project it will be important to note that one of FRDC’s key responsibilities is to ensure that research to assist management of fisheries and aquaculture resources is being undertaken to maintain ongoing sustainability. While the primary focus of these benefit-cost analyses over time has been economic impact, with references to environmental and social implications where appropriate, FRDC is increasingly interested in understanding the impact of R&D investments on environmental, social, and economic aspects more holistically.

Objectives

1. To inform FRDC's delivery of R&D Plans and future investment decisions

2. To provide information on the return of FRDC’s RD&E investment that can be used in FRDC’s annual reporting to the Australian Commonwealth

3. To contribute to populating the Evaluation Framework for FRDC reporting to DAFF under the current SFA agreement

4. To provide FRDC input to the overall performance assessment of the RDCs being compiled by CRRDC

PROJECT NUMBER • 2023-210

PROJECT STATUS:

CURRENT

Abalone Council Australia Ltd management of the national wild catch abalone research, development and extension program (2024 to 2029)

ORGANISATION:

Abalone Council Australia Ltd (ACA)

TAGS

Co-Management

SPECIES

Abalone

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