35 results

Informing the structural reform of South Australia's Marine Scalefish Fishery

Project number: 2017-014
Project Status:
Completed
Budget expenditure: $496,836.00
Principal Investigator: Jonathan Smart
Organisation: SARDI Food Safety and Innovation
Project start/end date: 30 Jun 2017 - 29 Jun 2020
Contact:
FRDC
TAGS
Wild Catch
Sustainability
Resource Access And Allocation
Recreational Fishing
Rac Sa

Need

South Australia’s Marine Scalefish Fishery (MSF) is currently undergoing a strategic review with the principal aim of restructuring the fishery in order to ensure its long-term sustainability and economic viability. The heterogeneous mixture of participants, fishing devices, licence conditions and regulations associated with this fishery makes the tasks of administering and managing it extremely challenging. These complexities intertwined within a highly dynamic fleet that is capable of shifting fishing effort amongst species and regions often alters the emphasis of its overarching management. Industry and Government are working collaboratively to address the inherent complexities of the fishery through firstly developing a mechanism to rationalise the fleet, then reforming its overall structure, and ultimately refining its future management. In order to optimise this structural reform, it is necessary to disentangle and understand the fleet dynamics of this extremely complex fishery. This project aims to explore the implications of strategic management options (e.g. regionalisation, licensing, ITQ’s and ITE’s) on the future structure and viability of the MSF, from resource sustainability, economic and social perspectives.

Objectives

1. To review the structure and function of multi-species, multi-gear fisheries around the world.
2. To disentangle the complexities of the South Australian commercial Marine Scalefish Fishery to describe long-term spatio-temporal trends in the composition, dynamics and socio-economic performance of the fishing fleet
3. To evaluate the possible strategic management options such as regionalisation, licensing, ITQs and ITEs on the future structure and viability of South Australia’s MSF
4. To determine the biological, economic and social 'carrying capacity' of the MSF across key regions of the fishery.

Final report

ISBN: 978-1-876007-43-0
Authors: Jonathan Smart Mike Steer Fred Bailleul David Hall Ian Knuckey Anders Magnusson Julian Morison Jon Presser and Jacki Schirmer
Final Report • 2022-09-27 • 29.96 MB
2017-014-DLD.pdf

Summary

This study was undertaken by the South Australia Research and Development Institute (SARDI) in collaboration with PIRSA Fisheries and Aquaculture, BDO EconSearch, the Marine Fishers Association (MFA), Fishwell Consulting and University of Canberra. This project guided the reform of South Australia’s commercial Marine Scalefish Fishery (MSF) by providing scientific advice and analyses to underpin its implementation. The MSF is a multi-sector, multi-gear and multi-species fishery, making any management reform a complex and difficult process. Both the sustainability of key stocks and commercial fishery’s economic performance have been deteriorating over a 20-year period; significantly influenced by fishery overcapitalisation. Simply put, there were too many fishers and not enough fish to support a vibrant and sustainable commercial fishery. This was addressed through the three ‘pillars’ of the reform: regionalisation, unitisation and rationalisation. These pillars were reflected in the reform with: 1) the creation of four new zones of management; 2) implementation of individual transferable quotas (ITQs) for appropriate ‘Tier 1’ stocks; and 3) rationalisation of the commercial MSF fleet by removing one third of licences through a voluntary licence surrender program (VLSP). These pillars were supported by research on the biological, economic and social carrying capacity of the fishery. The reform was implemented on 1 July 2021 resulting in a fishery that has regional management with appropriate output controls and a reduced fleet size.

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

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.
 
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. 
Environment
PROJECT NUMBER • 2017-023
PROJECT STATUS:
COMPLETED

ESD risk assessment for under-utilised species to facilitate structural reform of South Australia's commercial Marine Scalefish Fishery

South Australia’s Marine Scalefish Fishery (MSF) is facing a number of complex issues that are affecting business profitability and stock sustainability. One particular issue relates to the long-term reliance of the fishery on the three primary finfish species of King George Whiting, Snapper...
ORGANISATION:
SARDI Food Safety and Innovation
TAGS
Underutilised
Sustainability
Stock Assessment
Rac Sa
Profitability
SPECIES
Snapper
King George Whiting
Southern Garfish
Southern Calamari
Whitings
Adoption
PROJECT NUMBER • 2017-106
PROJECT STATUS:
COMPLETED

Communicating the research, management and performance of Tasmanian marine resource industries by video

This project involved the production of videos that summarised the research and industry activities for fisheries and aquaculture in Tasmania. The six sector fisheries and aquaculture groups represented in the videos are rock lobster fisheries, abalone fisheries, recreational fisheries, small scale...
ORGANISATION:
University of Tasmania
TAGS
Stakeholder
Rac Tas
Education
Community
Communications
Industry
Environment
Blank

Futures of Seafood. Wild. Aquaculture. Recreational. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders

Project number: 2023-092
Project Status:
Current
Budget expenditure: $2,750,000.00
Principal Investigator: Angela Williamson
Organisation: Blue Economy Cooperative Research Centre Co-Ltd
Project start/end date: 30 Nov 2023 - 27 Nov 2025
Contact:
FRDC
TAGS
Resource Access And Allocation
Renewable Energy
Marine Park
Energy
Energy

Need

“Futures of Seafood” is an 18th month multi-disciplinary study co-designed with industry and government. It will draw from existing data, complementary work underway or concluded, and importantly will involve a suite our outputs that can be used by a variety of stakeholders in formats that are fit for purpose.

The study will provide a contemporary description on the state of play of Australia’s seafood system, the supply chain, markets and its reach into communities. It will identify and report on trends, insights, forecasts and cumulative impacts that are impacting (positive and negative) the industry. It will include the first in-depth spatial and descriptive profile of the seafood industry by sector and jurisdiction through spatial mapping and productivity reporting since Marine Matters in 2003. Beyond seafood, it will also identify, describe and map other ocean uses (new, emerging and transitioning), including assumptions about current growth plans / policies / rights completed / taken up, looking towards 2040.

Drawing from information collated, the study will include scenario modelling to model and scrutinise the cumulative impacts of these trends and produce associated impact reporting against productivity and sustainability (social, economic, environmental and governance) metrics for a series of ten scenarios.

It will synthesise the study findings, as well as curate across other studies underway or completed, to develop a series of industry-specific assets (reports, tools, frameworks and systems) that aim to improve knowledge and support ongoing participation in the ocean estate policy conversation. This includes supporting priority contemporary frameworks to support transitions to future states and de-risking industry/sectors.

‘Futures of Seafood’ will support a shared understanding of the potential pathways and opportunities that lie ahead for Australia’s seafood stakeholders during this time of rapid change and transformation. It will furthermore provide a foundation for industry, Government and policy makers to make better decisions, navigate changes, and ensure industry and stakeholders are well-equipped to adapt and hopefully flourish in a dynamic environment.

This study and its intended outputs are consistent with and seeks to promote action against local, national, and global strategic initiatives, including those of the High-Level Panel for a Sustainable Ocean Economy, the Biodiversity Framework within the Convention on Biological Diversity, the Paris Declaration, the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and associated Forward Faster Initiative.

WORK PACKAGE SUMMARY

In short, this is a novel study that describes, maps and models the spatial, economic and social impacts of Government targets and decisions, provides evidence-based insights and charts a course for Australia’s futures of seafood alongside other ocean uses for the coming 10-15 years.

It will be delivered through a series of four work packages. These are founded on an enduring data collation platform, undertaken by a series of expert commissions and overseen and supported by a strong and inclusive governance framework.

Work Package 1: State of Play
• Identify data system to support mapping and describing the current state of the industries/sectors – i.e. locations, GVP, employment, production, jurisdiction input/output.
• Identify social and economic values i.e. contribution to regional communities, nutrition + value of supply chain.
• Deliver a contemporary description on the building blocks and state of play of Australia's ocean food system, its supply chain and markets alongside the other uses of the ocean estate.
• Investigate and report the trends, forecasts and cumulative impacts (positive and negative) on Australia's seafood industry. i.e. Nutritional security; spatial squeeze; working in a changing climate i.e. resilience, adaptation, emergency response; Industry transitions i.e. decarbonisation; Jurisdiction i.e. policy/strategy, production v consumption; Workforce + training; Nature based solutions & investment, sustainable food systems i.e. ESG and sustainability

Work Package 2: Future Estate
• Map and overlay impacts of new and emerging transitioning industries in the ocean estate.
• Identify and describe the trends, forecasts and cumulative impacts affecting the seafood industry.
• Map/measure/describe the implications of trends, forecasts and cumulative impacts of these industries and impacts (positive and negative) on Australia's seafood industry.
• Describe other uses of the ocean estate.

Work Package 3: Scenario Modelling
• Design and develop tool to test future state scenarios for commercial, recreational and indigenous fishing.
• Undertake a series of impact scenario examples: i.e. spatial squeeze/crowded ocean, a changing climate, a regulatory reset, sector case studies and cumulative pressures.
• Use the scenarios to deliver impact reporting on productivity, nutrition and sustainability metrics to include: spatial mapping, heat maps, regulatory options, socio-economic attributes, community sentiment, nutrition, consumer and market impacts and opportunities.

Work Package 4: Synthesis
• Synthesis of research from WPs into a complete report and communications assets.
• Develop a Futures of Seafood Roadmap to navigate the likely impacts of the futures scenarios.

Governance Framework
• This collaboration will bring together leaders from industry sectors and government portfolios of agriculture, energy and environment.
• A strong and inclusive governance model is proposed to capture the breadth of stakeholders and ensure oversight of the study, strategic relevance and timely input from data and information contributors.
• Oversight Committee
• Industry + Community Advisory Committee
• Government Advisory Committee
• WP Technical Teams + Data Management & Communications Teams
• Terms of Reference for each committee with be established.

Project Management
• This will be supported by a mature project administration system, drawing from the Blue Economy project management system, a governance model and also an independent project evaluator to undertake assurance and integrity of program logic and models.

Objectives

1. Provide a contemporary description on the state of play of Australia’s seafood system, the supply chain, markets and its reach into communities.
2. Identify the trends, insights, forecasts and cumulative impacts that are impacting (positive and negative) Australia's seafood industry.
3. Provide an in-depth spatial and descriptive profile of the seafood industry by sector and jurisdiction through spatial mapping and productivity reporting.
4. Identify, describe and map other ocean uses (new, emerging and transitioning), including assumptions about current growth plans / policies / rights completed / taken up, looking towards 2040.
5. Develop scenario modelling tools to model these trends and produce associated impact reporting against productivity and sustainability (social, economic, environmental and governance) metrics.
6. Synthesise the research and available to develop industry-specific assets (tools, frameworks and systems) that improve knowledge and support ongoing participation in the ocean estate policy conversation.
7. Progress priority contemporary frameworks to support transitions to future states and de-risking industry/sectors.

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. 

 

Bursary to attend the 2022 Microplastics and Seafood: Human Health Symposium in the United Kingdom - Bronwyn Gillanders

Project number: 2022-054
Project Status:
Completed
Budget expenditure: $8,885.00
Principal Investigator: Bronwyn M. Gillanders
Organisation: University of Adelaide
Project start/end date: 30 Aug 2022 - 29 Nov 2022
Contact:
FRDC
TAGS
Symposium
Marine Plastics
Capacity Building

Need

Commercial in confidence. To know more about this project please contact FRDC.

Objectives

Commercial in confidence
View Filter

Research

Category

Species

Organisation