Designing the integration of extension into research projects: tangible pathways to enhance adoption and impact
Storm Bay Biogeochemical Modelling & Information System Supporting sustainable aquaculture expansion in Tasmania
Valuing Victoria's Wild-catch fisheries and aquaculture industries
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’.
Final report
Developing a value proposition and future track for the National Aquaculture Council (NAC)
R&D includes the activities companies and groups undertake to innovate and introduce new products and services or to improve their existing offerings. The FRDC invests in RD&E to generate knowledge that can be used to create change which will benefit the fishing and aquaculture sectors and this, in turn, benefits Australia more broadly. This research is needed now to provide knowledge to clarify directions and roles in the context of national seafood leadership. Importantly, there is a need for Seafood Industry Australia and NAC to confirm their respective focus to the satisfaction of members, noting that SIA also has an aquaculture remit.
NAC has been representing the sector with severely limiting resources and at the end of last year, the Tasmanian Salmon Growers Association (TSGA), the largest aquaculture sector determined not to renew its membership on a wait and see basis. It is critical and timely for NAC to consult with its current and past members, and sectors not previously represented - including smaller and emerging sectors - and with other key stakeholders, to understand what their needs are for national representation. This includes understanding the RD&E for the sectors, and where these intersect with the objective to confirm what direction should be taken.
In addition, the research and priority setting would provide guidance to FRDC's RD&E planning to align with industry priorities and building on the work completed to date to inform the 2020-2025 vision.
Should it be determined that the NAC is needed and supported, a second phase of work (outside the scope of this application) would be identified to identify the structural, human, and financial resources needed to deliver the value for members. (The implementation of any operating models discerned, will be beyond the scope of FRDC-funded research).