11 results
Industry
PROJECT NUMBER • 2023-005
PROJECT STATUS:
CURRENT

Research to support the development of a Tasmanian Sardine Fishery

This study documents the first comprehensive evaluation of the spawning biomass of the South Eastern Stock of Australian Sardine (Sardinops sagax). This stock occupies continental shelf waters from the Victorian-South Australian border, east through Bass Strait and along the north-western and...
ORGANISATION:
University of Tasmania (UTAS)
SPECIES

Post graduate support for novel governance for a changing ocean

Project number: 2023-031
Project Status:
Current
Budget expenditure: $89,532.00
Principal Investigator: Andrew Sullivan
Organisation: University of Tasmania (UTAS)
Project start/end date: 31 Aug 2023 - 30 Dec 2026
Contact:
FRDC

Need

Project funding will provide the PI with additional resources that enable him to focus on achieving the requirements and objectives of his research and PhD completion to a high standard and on-time.

The project funding application covers four key areas:

1. Additional stipend: to provide an adequate living allowance.
2. Travel: attendance of international conferences is a key vehicle to build skills an experience in the international policy and diplomacy fields as well as providing the opportunity to collect valuable research data. These skills and networks will ultimately benefit the Australian fishing and aquaculture community through the sharing of knowledge and networks.
3. Training: Facilitation training has been identified as an opportunity for development
4. Communication and content creation: developing content to assist with promoting and communicating the results of the research.

Having members and advocates of the Australian fishing and aquaculture community informed and skilled in the way international governance agreements are developed and then translated into domestic policy is extremely important, and a current gap in our capability and capacity.

Objectives

1. Research and describe the genesis of the High Level Panel for a Sustainable Ocean Economy as novel multilateral governance intervention.
2. Research and describe the operation, function and objectives of the High level Panel for a Sustainable Ocean Economy.
3. Critically analyse Australia's progress in meeting its commitments as a founding member of High Level Panel for a Sustainable Ocean Economy.
4. Successful completion and fulfilment of the requirements of the PhD.

Determinates of socially-supported wild-catch and aquaculture fisheries in Australia

Project number: 2017-158
Project Status:
Completed
Budget expenditure: $66,868.94
Principal Investigator: Karen A. Alexander
Organisation: University of Tasmania (UTAS)
Project start/end date: 14 Feb 2018 - 30 Jul 2018
Contact:
FRDC

Need

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.

Objectives

1. To provide a nuanced definition of societal support for wild-catch and aquaculture fisheries in Australia
2. To identify determining factors (social, economic, environmental and political) affecting societal support for wild-catch and aquaculture fisheries in Australia
3. To identify means by which to detect, assess and monitor societal support for wild-catch and aquaculture fisheries in Australia using a risk-based approach

Final report

ISBN: 978-1-925646-82-5
Author: Karen A. Alexander & Kirsten E. Abernethy
Final Report • 2019-08-31 • 1.21 MB
2017-158-DLD-final.pdf

Summary

Australia’s wild-catch fisheries and aquaculture are increasingly attentive to the importance of having support from communities and stakeholders to ensure their future sustainability and prosperity. This project aimed to identify determinants of socially-supported wild-catch fisheries and aquaculture in Australia. This project was developed collaboratively with the Human Dimensions Research Subprogram and relevant industry stakeholders and extends previous FRDC projects by examining differential definitions and assessments of social acceptability.
Industry
PROJECT NUMBER • 2017-013
PROJECT STATUS:
COMPLETED

Rebuilding Southern Rock Lobster stocks on the east coast of Tasmania: informing options for management

Understanding relationships between fisher behaviour, their expectations/aspirations, responses to changes in stock status and to management intervention is critical when implementing effective management strategies. This project aims to inform on the practical challenges to achieving the stock...
ORGANISATION:
University of Tasmania (UTAS)
Environment
PROJECT NUMBER • 2017-082
PROJECT STATUS:
COMPLETED

Ensuring monitoring and management of bycatch in Southern Rock Lobster fisheries is best practice

Bycatch is an important issue in fisheries worldwide, with the impacts of fishing activities on non-targeted species and the wider marine environment receiving increasing public attention. Issues such as the potential wastage of resources through discarding of unwanted catch, ecological impacts on...
ORGANISATION:
University of Tasmania (UTAS)

Sea Change: co-developing pathways to mitigate and adapt to a changing climate for fisheries and aquaculture in Australia

Project number: 2023-011
Project Status:
Current
Budget expenditure: $1,628,586.00
Principal Investigator: Gretta T. Pecl
Organisation: University of Tasmania (UTAS)
Project start/end date: 31 Oct 2023 - 30 Apr 2027
Contact:
FRDC

Need

There is a need to increase effective engagement between fishing and aquaculture stakeholders and climate science and scientists in an ongoing strategic way, and not ‘just’ for single-project outcomes.

Improved engagement will help increase understanding of the likely implications of a changing climate in relevant contexts, and lay foundations for a shared exploration of available options for reducing risk exposure. We have worked with stakeholders and the FRDC Extension Officer Network to design a strategy that will engage fishing and aquaculture stakeholders on existing knowledge regarding risks and opportunities associated with a changing climate, to enable resource managers and researchers to better understand the ways in which many sectors are already adapting autonomously and to identify the barriers to further adaptation, and to co-design solutions that are relevant at local- and industry-levels to help build climate-ready communities and to stimulate economic resilience.

In many cases (but not all), extensive information regarding marine climate change - including key risks to fisheries and aquaculture producers (at a high level) - is already available, along with information on how to develop adaptation plans. However, despite this, progress and uptake within most sectors in terms of planned adaptation responses has been very slow – although many individual operators are already making ‘autonomous’ changes to their day-to-day operations in response to climate change drivers. If these changes are being made without access to best available knowledge, then it is very likely that substantial portions of these responses are maladaptive in the longer term, or may be countervailing to planned government adaptations (see Pecl et al 2019, Ambio, https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s13280-019-01186-x). This is a pattern evident within many different industries around Australia and across the rest of the world. ‘What’ needs to happen has thus been outlined in general terms in many cases, but such information is not co-developed or provided in consultation with end-users in ways that resonate or are useful to them. This project will address this need for relevance and usefulness.

The project aims to develop reflexive, ongoing, and two-way knowledge exchange between industry representatives, operators and manager, and the marine climate change impacts and adaptation research sector, so that solutions are co-designed, usable, and adoptable.

Objectives

1. Work with seafood industry leaders to establish two-way climate conversations that can strengthen and underpin Australian fishing and aquaculture’s resilience to a changing climate. This approach will facilitate co-design of pathways to increase agility and build capacity for climate change adaptation with a select number of fisheries and aquaculture operations. This process will also create a model that can be applicable to other RDC’s.
2. Create a climate conversations platform to facilitate knowledge exchange (including identifying ‘gaps’ and shared issues), and thus capture, disseminate, and showcase:a. How fishing and aquaculture sectors are already adapting and responding to recent changesb. What has facilitated these changes made, and what the barriers are to further adaptationc. The story of fishing and aquaculture’s efforts towards achieving climate resilience - using a dynamic ‘story map’ approach, and other multi-media, communicate progress to target audiences.
3. Identify a) key factors influencing the agility of fisheries and aquaculture to adapt to climate change, and b) which factors (e.g. opportunities) are most important for adaptation capacity-building for different types of operations - building on work underway across multiple domestic and international projects and working groups.
4. Co-develop pathways, with a select number of fisheries and aquaculture operations, to increase their agility and build sector capacity for climate change adaptation and resilience.
5. Support the development of communities of practice for groups of fisheries and/or aquaculture operations that have similar opportunities and pathways – to support increased agility and capacity building for climate change adaptation (determined in objective 3).
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