In order to secure the future of Australian wild-catch and aquaculture fisheries, it is increasingly clear that, alongside effective and responsible management and production, building and maintaining societal support is vital.

There are a number of recent examples in Australia where wild-catch and aquaculture fisheries have been threatened, even shut down, as a result of not having a ‘social license to operate’. This is despite having good ecological, economic and management credentials. Examples include: the 2016 closure of the Victorian small scale Port Phillip Bay net fishery as a result of pressure from the recreational fishing sector; the environmental controversy over mid-water trawling (‘super trawlers’) for small pelagic species despite scientifically-determined healthy stock status; and environmental non-governmental organisations (eNGOs) campaigns against Tassal’s proposed fish farm operations in Okehampton Bay on Tasmania’s east coast.

The wild-catch and aquaculture industries are increasingly and acutely aware of the need to garner societal support. But, they are unsure of how to address poor societal support at its root, who needs to be involved to address the problem, and effective pathways to improving societal support. From an industry perspective, there are gaps in knowledge in terms of 1) identifying the determinants of poor/high societal support; 2) identifying stakeholder groups to target who determine societal support and outcomes for wild-catch and aquaculture fisheries (e.g. other resource user groups, eNGOs, decision-makers and government, consumers, other publics); and 3) appropriate, effective and innovative pathways to improve societal support through engagement strategies and interventions.

However, there is a wealth of information available that is not directly or easily transferable currently. It requires collation and synthesis to address the knowledge gaps, including learnings from other industries, international wild-catch and aquaculture fisheries, as well as historical case studies of successes and failures within Australia. This project will draw together knowledge from existing literature and documentation and also use key informant interviews to address the above gaps.

Documenting and assessing the impact of fishing on bycatch is required for all rock lobster fisheries to enable the appropriate management of ecosystem interactions. This includes the requirements for EPBC Act reporting and jurisdictional reporting obligations. Bycatch information is currently collected in all Southern Rock Lobster Fisheries (SRLF), but improvements are required if the fisheries are to meet the standards required for rigorous certification such as by MSC. Aside from certification, performing below best practice represents a risk for these fisheries in community acceptance. Problem are not severe but there is nonetheless need for improvement, especially in valuable fisheries of this size.
Problems include poor quality of byproduct reporting in logbooks, a lack of combined assessments of bycatch risks across jurisdictions (in addition to cumulative impacts), reporting systems not consistent with standard and/or best practice (e.g. numbers vs weights), different risk-based assessment methods being used across jurisdictions, and no agreed / implemented approach for monitoring the status of species that are at moderate risk. Bycatch management ideally requires integration into the harvest strategy and this will be pursued through this project including by the development of reference points for relevant species. Additionally, there is a need for transparent reporting of bycatch and threatened, endangered and protected species (TEPS) to wider community stakeholders to communicate sustainable management of Southern Rock Lobster Fisheries.