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PROJECT NUMBER • 2017-047
PROJECT STATUS:
COMPLETED

Understanding environmental and fisheries factors causing fluctuations in mud crab and blue swimmer crab fisheries in northern Australia to inform harvest strategies

This project investigated relationships between environmental factors and harvests of crabs in the Gulf of Carpentaria (GoC), northern Australia. Desktop correlative analyses clearly indicated that recent fluctuations in the catches of Giant Mud Crabs in the GoC are most likely driven by...
ORGANISATION:
Department of Primary Industries (QLD)
TAGS
Reproduction
Rac Qld
Rac Nt
Population Dynamics
Oceanography
SPECIES
Blue Swimmer Crab
Mud Crabs
Environment
Industry

Informing the structural reform of South Australia's Marine Scalefish Fishery

Project number: 2017-014
Project Status:
Completed
Budget expenditure: $496,836.00
Principal Investigator: Jonathan Smart
Organisation: SARDI Food Safety and Innovation
Project start/end date: 30 Jun 2017 - 29 Jun 2020
Contact:
FRDC
TAGS
Wild Catch
Sustainability
Resource Access And Allocation
Recreational Fishing
Rac Sa

Need

South Australia’s Marine Scalefish Fishery (MSF) is currently undergoing a strategic review with the principal aim of restructuring the fishery in order to ensure its long-term sustainability and economic viability. The heterogeneous mixture of participants, fishing devices, licence conditions and regulations associated with this fishery makes the tasks of administering and managing it extremely challenging. These complexities intertwined within a highly dynamic fleet that is capable of shifting fishing effort amongst species and regions often alters the emphasis of its overarching management. Industry and Government are working collaboratively to address the inherent complexities of the fishery through firstly developing a mechanism to rationalise the fleet, then reforming its overall structure, and ultimately refining its future management. In order to optimise this structural reform, it is necessary to disentangle and understand the fleet dynamics of this extremely complex fishery. This project aims to explore the implications of strategic management options (e.g. regionalisation, licensing, ITQ’s and ITE’s) on the future structure and viability of the MSF, from resource sustainability, economic and social perspectives.

Objectives

1. To review the structure and function of multi-species, multi-gear fisheries around the world.
2. To disentangle the complexities of the South Australian commercial Marine Scalefish Fishery to describe long-term spatio-temporal trends in the composition, dynamics and socio-economic performance of the fishing fleet
3. To evaluate the possible strategic management options such as regionalisation, licensing, ITQs and ITEs on the future structure and viability of South Australia’s MSF
4. To determine the biological, economic and social 'carrying capacity' of the MSF across key regions of the fishery.

Final report

ISBN: 978-1-876007-43-0
Authors: Jonathan Smart Mike Steer Fred Bailleul David Hall Ian Knuckey Anders Magnusson Julian Morison Jon Presser and Jacki Schirmer
Final Report • 2022-09-27 • 29.96 MB
2017-014-DLD.pdf

Summary

This study was undertaken by the South Australia Research and Development Institute (SARDI) in collaboration with PIRSA Fisheries and Aquaculture, BDO EconSearch, the Marine Fishers Association (MFA), Fishwell Consulting and University of Canberra. This project guided the reform of South Australia’s commercial Marine Scalefish Fishery (MSF) by providing scientific advice and analyses to underpin its implementation. The MSF is a multi-sector, multi-gear and multi-species fishery, making any management reform a complex and difficult process. Both the sustainability of key stocks and commercial fishery’s economic performance have been deteriorating over a 20-year period; significantly influenced by fishery overcapitalisation. Simply put, there were too many fishers and not enough fish to support a vibrant and sustainable commercial fishery. This was addressed through the three ‘pillars’ of the reform: regionalisation, unitisation and rationalisation. These pillars were reflected in the reform with: 1) the creation of four new zones of management; 2) implementation of individual transferable quotas (ITQs) for appropriate ‘Tier 1’ stocks; and 3) rationalisation of the commercial MSF fleet by removing one third of licences through a voluntary licence surrender program (VLSP). These pillars were supported by research on the biological, economic and social carrying capacity of the fishery. The reform was implemented on 1 July 2021 resulting in a fishery that has regional management with appropriate output controls and a reduced fleet size.

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