There is an urgent need to reflect on the current state of fisheries resource sharing in Australia and how it can meet future demands. Over the past 20 years individual Australian jurisdictions have developed and implemented resource sharing arrangements. These generally apply to commercial and recreational fisheries, and in some cases indigenous cultural fishers. The resource sharing arrangements stem from the objectives of fisheries legislation in Australia which is based on the principles of ESD that include consideration of all fishery resource users in the management of fisheries. Understandably when management resources are limited the focus is on those having the greatest impact on fish stock which for most species is the commercial sector, and sometimes the recreational sector. The use of OCS provisions in fisheries legislation was both an effort to simplify commercial fisheries management and reduce the need to have resource sharing arrangements. While this was largely successful it has run its course due to the value of commercial rights ($billions) that have now accrued under current OCS agreements making it almost impossible to make further significant changes. Alongside these developments a component of the recreational fishing sector has been increasing its range and capacity to catch fish using larger boats and technology similar to that employed by some commercial fishers. This has led to traditionally commercial species being accessed by recreational fishers with growing concerns from the former sector about their fishing future. Various policies and statutes have been implemented by the states/NT in an effort to allocate the shares of a fish stock. This has become easier as a growing number of fish stocks are subject to TACs with the commercial fishers subject to ITQs and recreational fishers to increasingly stock-specific possession limits. Despite this those states/NT who have implemented resource sharing have experienced its contentious, costly and drawn out nature, and are only starting to confront stocks which cross both jurisdictions and fishing sectors. It is time to reflect on experience to date and find the best way to manage fisheries resource sharing in the future.

Improved seafood industry engagement with its stakeholders/communities remains a high priority for the Fisheries Research & Development Corporation (FRDC) to address low rates of societal acceptance and/or support. The FRDC recognises that social support for the seafood industry relies heavily on members’ improving their understanding of people’s views about the industry, and on building more trusting relationships with those people - especially those with direct influence on resource access decisions. In addition to being more effective ‘engagers’, the industry also needs to be able to evaluate how effective their engagement activities are and how they can continually build community trust. Towards that end, the FRDC commissioned a range of projects focusing on building the seafood industry’s capacity for effective stakeholder/community engagement (e.g. Ogier & Brooks 2016, FRDC 2014/301, 2011/525; Ham 2010, 2001/310), long term industry leadership (e.g. FRDC 2011/410), and adaptation and well-being (e.g. 2012/402) - all of which are necessary for the industry to build social support.

However, it remains unclear how and to what extent industry members are using these and other resources to help them ‘engage’ with their stakeholders/communities. It is believed that there are obstacles that can limit industry members’ use of these resources and their general engagement practices, including:

1. Industry members not seeing the full relevance or need for engagement;
2. Industry members perceiving ‘engagement’ as marketing and/or product promotion;
3. Industry members lacking the necessary expertise, capability and capacity in engagement;
4. Lack of knowledge and information about the comparative effectiveness of various engagement activities and strategies, particularly in a fisheries context; and
5. Ineffective extension of existing information (e.g. unsuitable formats).

This Project is designed to explore how and to what extent these and other barriers keep the seafood industry from making substantive progress towards building greater stakeholder and community trust.