66 results
Industry
PROJECT NUMBER • 2018-121
PROJECT STATUS:
COMPLETED

Sex reversal and sex differentiation in Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar)

The Tasmanian Atlantic Salmon (Salmo salar) aquaculture industry strives to produce all-female fish, as male Atlantic Salmon are subject to precocious maturation and consequently reduced flesh quality and increased disease susceptibility when reared in high water temperatures. Several fish species,...
ORGANISATION:
Deakin University Warrnambool Campus
TAGS
Reproduction
SPECIES
Atlantic Salmon
Environment
PROJECT NUMBER • 2014-028
PROJECT STATUS:
COMPLETED

Mud cockle (Katelysia spp.) stock enhancement/restoration: practical implementation and policy evaluation

This study was conducted to restore the Mud Cockle population in the Section Bank of Port River, South Australia, which had drastically decreased due to commercial fishing. Mud Cockles are important not only for commercial purposes but also for stabilizing sediment and reducing turbidity in the...
ORGANISATION:
SARDI Food Safety and Innovation
TAGS
Stock Assessment
SPECIES
Cockles

Fishing and Aquaculture Workforce Capability Framework

Project number: 2022-153
Project Status:
Completed
Budget expenditure: $127,997.50
Principal Investigator: Deborah C. Prentice
Organisation: RM Consulting Group (RMCG)
Project start/end date: 2 May 2023 - 7 Mar 2024
:
TAGS
Workforce
Leadership
Capacity Building

Need

The objective of this foundational work is to collaborate with industry to produce a Fishing and Aquaculture Workforce Capability Framework. The Framework will be used by fishing and aquaculture sectors / communities for workforce planning and career mapping. It will support a more strategic and consistent approach to workforce planning. This in turn, will enable industry to build its capacity through better understanding of capability needs.

In addition to the universal challenges associated with a tight labour market (e.g. attracting people, barriers to entry, addressing skills needs), the industry is operating in a changing environment. Other challenges and opportunities for the fishing and aquaculture sectors include:
• Adapting to climate change
• Biosecurity
• Managing resources efficiently
• Meeting sustainability standards / social license to operate
• Moving to a circular economy
• Managing global supply chains (developing traceability, addressing counterfeit)
• Competing with other proteins
• New markets through free trade agreements
• Adopting digital technology, and;
• Attracting and retaining people to drive responses to changes that impact on the F&A community.

The AgriFood Supply Chain Resilience report (KPMG, 2022) identified ‘labour supply, wellbeing and succession’ as one of the significant stresses for seafood supply chains. Other significant stresses were weather and climate change, cold chain and freight space availability, sustainability and social licence, pests and disease and market access.

Fish Forever (2030 vision for Australia’s fishing and aquaculture community) highlights opportunities for the F&A community and contains outcomes under each of the following missions:
1. Growth for enduring prosperity
2. Best practices and production systems
3. A culture that is inclusive and forward thinking
4. Equitable and secure resource access
5. Society and consumers trust, respect and value.

This project will identify the capability needs (current and future) to address these challenges and opportunities. Further, it will support industry, to attract and retain people and to provide pathways to build capability. Sectors will be better informed as to how to address capability needs.

Addressing these needs will ensure industry is better equipped to respond to changes, challenges and opportunities that impact the fishing and aquaculture communities. The fishing and aquaculture map (FRDC website) highlights the “complex systems behind Indigenous, commercial and recreational fishing and aquaculture in Australia and how the elements are connected”. It also highlights how issues or events in one part of the system can have impacts on other sectors. Therefore, industry needs to be prepared for changes.

This project will engage with all key F&A sectors to ensure the capability framework is industry-driven and collectively owned. In addition, the project approach is designed to utilise existing sector/industry plans and not replace existing frameworks. RMCG will work collaboratively with industry.

Objectives

1. Development of a fit-for-purpose capability framework for the fisheries and aquaculture industries and individual organisations
2. Engagement and collaboration with key industry stakeholders to enable adoption and use of the framework
3. Establishment of a shared process and terminology for talking about capabilities throughout the fishing and aquaculture industry
4. Mapped critical capabilities highlighting gaps and opportunities for collaborative action

Final report

Authors: Deborah Prentice Sasha Brightman Natasha Frazer and Anne-Maree Boland
Final Report • 2024-06-01 • 14.11 MB
2022-153-DLD.pdf

Summary

In 2023 RM Consulting Group (RMCG) was contracted by FRDC to develop a Fisheries and Aquaculture (F&A) Workforce Capability Framework (hereafter referred to as the Framework) that would be used as a high-level, standardised tool across all F&A sectors. The FRDC and other groups in leadership roles for Australia’s F&A sectors have highlighted workforce development as a key opportunity and priority.
We have created a comprehensive Framework that captures the enablers (the internal and external systems and culture that either help or hinder employees and businesses to thrive and support growth in people’s capability) and the people capabilities (knowledge, skills, abilities and behaviours) that should be considered as a starting point in F&A workforce planning.
The intention of this project was to collaborate with industry to produce a F&A Workforce Capability Framework. This has been achieved, as demonstrated through the many and diverse stakeholders engaged and the attached Framework. The stakeholders interviewed and engaged had some interest and/or experience in workforce issues so were able to add value to the development of the Framework. They will also be able to champion the subsequent  implementation of projects that emerge from the Framework.
The Framework is a step towards addressing the above challenges and opportunities. It provides a broad, high-level approach to thinking about how to  meet the needs and aspirations of businesses and organisations.
The case studies included in this document offer real-world examples of where innovative thinking has been used to solve issues around workforce  planning, attraction and retention of staff, and broader geographical and social challenges.
The research and the development of this Framework emphasises the need to think differently, innovate and enable collaboration.

Project products

Report • 2024-06-01 • 7.34 MB
2022-153-Capability_Framework.pdf

Summary

FRDC Workforce Capability Framework
Industry
PROJECT NUMBER • 2017-117
PROJECT STATUS:
COMPLETED

Identification of differentially expressed innate immune genes in the New Zealand paua (Haliotis iris) and the Australian hybrid abalone (H. laevigata X H. rubra) upon immersion challenge with the abalone herpesvirus-1 (HaHV)

This project was carried out by scientists from AAHL CSIRO (Dr Serge Corbeil) and from LaTrobe University (Drs Karla Helbig and Subir Sarker). After discovering the existence of an abalone species (Päua - Haliotis iris) resistant to AVG our research team based in Geelong and Melbourne...
ORGANISATION:
CSIRO Australian Animal Health Laboratory
TAGS
Rac Vic
SPECIES
Paua

Sustainable Fishing Families: Developing industry human capital through health, wellbeing, safety and resilience

Project number: 2016-400
Project Status:
Completed
Budget expenditure: $122,840.52
Principal Investigator: Tanya King
Organisation: Deakin University Geelong Waterfront Campus
Project start/end date: 30 Jun 2016 - 29 Sep 2017
:
TAGS
Wellbeing
Sustainability
Survey
Rac Wa
Rac Vic

Need

By developing an evidence-based health and safety training program for Australian fishing communities, this project meets the needs of the commercial wild-catch and aquaculture industry identified in FRDC’s RD&E Program 3, ‘Communities’ and particularly theme 10, which promotes resilient and supportive communities who are able to adapt to the social impacts of change in industry business environments.

The project will address a national need, identified by VicFRAB, to better understand the social and economic contribution of commercial fisheries, by identifying and addressing potential losses incurred through the poor health and wellbeing of the industry’s human capital.

Fishers tend to work in rural and remote communities, which means they have higher rates of mortality, disease and health risk factors than urban dwellers, further impacted by reduced access to primary health care services. Fishers are at particular risk of certain kinds of illnesses (eg. skin and diet-related), as well as injury (fatality rates are more than double those in the agricultural sector). Mental health concerns are higher than average in the fishing industry, exacerbated by uncertainties within the industry including often high debt and insecurity of tenure and licencing. While both women and men are at risk, 86.9% of fishers are male, a factor placing them at greater risk of suicide.

Fisher ‘attitudes’ also impact health, such as the culture of self-reliance, particularly among males. This may make fishers resilient, but also makes them less likely to adopt preventative health practices or to use health services, and they will usually wait longer before seeking medical assistance, particularly for issues of chronic poor mental health.

The Sustainable Fishing Families project will benefit fishing families’ health, safety and resilience by promoting a self-awareness of the value of the industry’s human capital, and building their health capacity.

Objectives

1. To improve the health and wellbeing of fishing families by promoting safer and healthier work practices
2. To develop strategies to inform fisher families of appropriate physical and mental health care programs and information, including strategies to address barriers to uptake
3. To provide rigorous research that will raise the profile of the health issues and needs of Australian fishing families, and inform government, industry and health services of specific health issues and needs of, and effective support pathways for, fishing families as distinct from farming families.
4. To develop a targeted, industry-led program that will address the health issues and needs of fishing families based on the proven Sustainable Farm FamiliesTM protocol

Final report

ISBN: 978-0-646-98116-1
Authors: Tanya J. King Kirsten Abernethy Susan Brumby Tracey Hatherell Sue Kilpatrick Katarina Munksgaard & Rachel Turner
Final Report • 2019-01-21 • 4.30 MB
2016-400-DLD.pdf

Summary

This project conducted the first national survey of the health, safety and wellbeing of the Australian professional fishing industry in 2017. The results of the survey provide a baseline for the state of the wild-catch industry members across a range of indicators, including reported physical and mental health, factors affecting health and safety, factors affecting levels of stress, health and safety behaviours, and access to health services and information.
 
The project also conducted and evaluated an intensive pilot program on health, safety and wellbeing tailored specifically for fishing families. The program was modelled on an existing and highly successful program with farming families, Sustainable Farm FamiliesTM developed and delivered by the National Centre for Farmer Health, at the Western District Health Service, Victoria. The materials and presentations were reviewed and modified to reflect the specific strengths and challenges of the fishing industry. For the first time, this award-winning program is now available for use by fishing communities across the country.

Project products

Brochure • 2019-10-01 • 3.65 MB
2016-400 Fishing Families-Key Survey Findings Final.pdf

Summary

In 2017, the National Health, Safety and Wellbeing survey was posted to 4,584 professional wild catch fishers across all jurisdictions of Australia through peak bodies, industry associations and large fishing companies. The survey was also made available online to capture those fishers without membership to an industry organisation. 872 surveys were returned for analysis. The survey focussed on self-reported health relating to work, and asked respondents about their physical and mental health status and perceived causes, health and safety behaviours, and access to health services and information. The survey was part of the project Sustainable Fishing Families (FRDC Project 2016-400).
Educational material • 2019-10-01 • 7.49 MB
2016-400 Managing Stress for Fishers Book Final.pdf

Summary

This resource is a way of enabling fishing families to understand stress, its impact, and learn skills to help balance stress when fishing in difficult times.

This is a resource for all people who work in the business of fishing — from deckhands to skippers to office staff.

Flyer • 2019-10-01 • 2.55 MB
2016-400 Sustainable Fishing Families Flyer Final.pdf

Summary

Sustainable Fishing Families is a health program specifically designed for fishing families to address the health, wellbeing and safety issues facing the fishing industry through an evidence-based health program run by rural health experts

Environment
PROJECT NUMBER • 2017-109
PROJECT STATUS:
COMPLETED

Development of Fish Health Indicators for the Gladstone Harbour Report Card

As the link between land and sea environments, estuaries are complex ecosystems vulnerable to human impacts, which directly and indirectly affect plants and animals, including fish. Fish are key biological indicators of environmental contamination, as they are water breathers, common in aquatic...
ORGANISATION:
CQUniversity (CQU) Gladstone
TAGS
Innovation
SPECIES
Pikey Bream
Communities
PROJECT NUMBER • 2018-161
PROJECT STATUS:
CURRENT

National Social and Economic Survey of Recreational Fishers 2019

The NRFS involved three stages of data collection. An overview of the three stages of data collection and the purpose of each, and a guide summarising which chapters draw on data from each stage of data collection, are provided in the next section. Sections 3.4, 3.5 and 3.6 provide a detailed...
ORGANISATION:
University of Canberra
TAGS
Survey
Industry
Environment
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