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Industry

Capability and Capacity: Nuffield Australia Scholarships

Project number: 2016-407
Project Status:
Current
Budget expenditure: $504,500.00
Principal Investigator: Jodie Redcliffe
Organisation: Nuffield Australia
Project start/end date: 2 May 2016 - 30 Mar 2029
:

Need

The Nuffield Scholarship program relates to the 'People' section of FRDC's RD&E program, needed to attract and advance people who will lead fishing and aquaculture towards a sustainable and profitable future. The FRDC has taken a strong role in this area, facilitating access to leadership development for all sectors of fishing and aquaculture.

Unlike many capacity building programs that place focus on working within communities in their own environments, Nuffield Australia seeks to break the cycle of everyday life in primary production. The approach is to organise and facilitate international study tours that allow participants to break away from their normal routine and gain a global perspective on how other producers around the world operate their businesses and apply leadership in their industry.

A Nuffield Scholarship targets young primary producers who are already on the leading edge of production practices and technology uptake in their respective communities in Australia. The program is necessary to further enhance those individuals’ skills, elevate their status as role models and innovative leaders amongst their own broader community, thus having a ripple effect that goes far beyond their immediate participation.

Objectives

1. To build the capacity of the fisheries industry to overcome the challenges of a global and internationally competitive environment through the provision of FRDC support for five Nuffield Farming Scholarships over the next five years.

Report

Author: Steven Davies
Report • 2.41 MB
2016-407-DLD Steven Davies Nuffield Report.pdf

Summary

The Australian seafood industry has a long and proud history of employment of very sound environmental and economic management principles which have made it the envy of much of the world. 

An altogether robust Australian seafood industry is hyper critical to the social and economic fabric of the coastal communities it supports, and it is vital this industry is maintained and – wherever possible – continually developed in a way which brings the best possible outcomes for all vested parties.

In an age of social media and 24-hour news cycles, it may be argued the Australian seafood industry and its general social licence to operate finds itself under increasing levels of attack. It is at times easy to consider there is more fearmongering than fishmongering occurring in this new age, and it is vital that the industry takes effective and collaborative steps to ensure that public perceptions pertaining to the industry are in line with the reality of the generally responsible way in which it operates. 

The author visited nine countries as part of this research, including commercial fishing operations, aquaculture ventures, general agribusinesses, peak representative bodies, wholesalers, retailers, third-party certifiers and financial institutions in both developing and developed nations. The aim of the study was to understand the importance of maintenance of an industry’s social licence to operate, whilst considering consumer confidence, modern markets, investor confidence, key motivators, brand development, politically motivated policy settings and general public perception.

It is very clear that maintenance of an intangible, but critical, social licence to operate must be a key and ongoing consideration for any business, industry peak body, regulatory body, or other organisation. For an industry such as the Australian seafood industry - which relies absolutely on its right to access public resources - maintenance and development of public perceptions around the socially responsible nature of its operations is fundamental.

This report is in part an anthropological study generated from countless meetings, interviews, observations and individual and collective viewpoints. It aims to explore the concept of the social licence to operate (SLO), why it is important, how it can impact on a business or brand and steps which can be taken to ensure a business maintains it.

Project products

Report • 1.70 MB
2016-407 Glen Wormald report.pdf

Summary

Nursery systems are additional phases in the culture of prawns between larval production at the hatchery and final grow out in the pond. 

Introducing nursery phases to Australian prawn production offers greater control over the crop for longer periods of time. Greater control affords the farmer the ability to manipulate growing environments and to more effectively assess production by way of efficiencies.

Post larval care in nursery tanks or raceways can improve the quality of the stock that is put into the ponds by benefiting from:

  • Access to the post larvae (PL) for assessment of health and development
  • High quality commercial nursery diets
  • Reducing water management costs
  • Maintaining optimal water conditions
  • Improving biosecurity
  • Protecting stock from predation

Growing PL to be bigger and stronger in nursery environments means that the animal gets a head start in the pond. Bigger, stronger PL are more tolerant of the stresses of the pond environment and stocking these improved PL can result in improved pond production.

Report • 2019-04-30 • 1.87 MB
2016-407 Jonas Woolford report.pdf

Summary

This report gives an overview of the world’s wild harvest abalone fisheries, how they are managed, and the findings of what stock enhancement has been occurring. The countries explored are Australia, New Zealand, Japan, USA and the Republic of South Africa. Hong Kong and The Peoples Republic of China was also visited to explore the market for abalone and customers’ perceptions of hatchery spawned but wild raised abalone.   

The world’s wild abalone fisheries production is declining while abalone aquaculture production has been increasing. Australia’s wild harvest abalone production remained relatively stable since the commercial dive fishery started in the 1950’s until about 2010. Total allowable commercial catch (TACC), commonly called quotas, were implemented in all harvesting regions by the mid to late 1980’s. Successful abalone recruitment is the key issue for a sustainable fishery. There was a low biomass post the implementation of quotas but now fishing pressure was controlled and reduced. A slow recovery occurred from a low spawning biomass until very good recruitments in the late 1990’s, from 2002 to 2006 there was a large spawning biomass on the reefs, the largest it had been for 15 years; recovery was occurring.

Unfortunately, since 2010, despite the large spawning biomass and controlled fishing pressure, production has decreased at an alarming rate. What is happening to recruitment? Why are the abalone larvae not surviving? How can it be overcome? Something is happening when the abalone are in their early larval and settlement stage, at their most vulnerable stage. Can they be nursed through this stage in a hatchery, reseed them when they are stronger and enhance the reefs and commercial production? These questions were the motivation to visit the world’s wild harvest abalone countries. 

Abalone stock enhancement is in its infancy, except for Japan where 30 plus years of stock enhancement sees 30% of their total annual harvest consisting of seeded abalone that achieves a survival rate of 10-15% of what is released. All other countries have undertaken experiments, some for decades with varying results. Further research particularly around the ecology of release areas and large scale projects are needed to determine and improve success. This will be long-term investment requiring substantial money and resources. It is therefore crucial that there is confidence in government to provide protection to the reseeded abalone from any external factors which may interfere with the abalones’ survival. 

Not all locations will be conducive to successful stock enhancement and keeping the handling of the juvenile abalone to a minimum is important for survival. No release method stands out as the most successful. The ideal release size appears to be about 30 millimetres shell length. This size is the best because of genetic fitness. The juvenile abalone is strong enough to not succumb to the environmental factors inhibiting recruitment in the first place and is small enough not to be too domesticated from being raised in a hatchery. 

Genetic diversity contributes to the genetic fitness and the brood stock parents consisting of tens of males and tens of females should be sourced from the area the juveniles are intended to be released to achieve the greatest survival. The parents should be replaced after each spawning season.  

Stock enhancement, combined with resting areas, will be the best way to rebuild the biomass of abalone on the reefs and therefore commercial production.  Utilising technology in a fully transparent commercial fishery will be the way to monitor and manage harvesting pressure to find optimum efficiency, quality and reef production.

A recommendation from the market is to tell the story of successful stock enhancement whereby the sustainability of abalone stocks is being ensured.

Report • 1.10 MB
Tom Robinson Nuffield Report_FINAL.pdf

Summary

In a world where the general population relies so heavily on smartphones and tablets to perform day to day tasks such as banking or checking the weather, the commercial fishing industry has been stubbornly slow to adopt electronic reporting in their businesses. 

As a consequence, fishing regulators around the world are forcing industry to move toward electronic reporting, often against their will. In many cases, regulators are reverting to tactics such as charging for paper-based submissions in an attempt to force this change. Even this rather blunt approach has failed to meet its objective, with many operators hanging on to paper for as long as they possibly can.

This report explores the reasons behind this reluctance to embrace the move to electronic reporting, noting that the very fishers who are hanging onto their paper, moved as members of the general public to electronic banking and online bookings years ago.

The reasons behind their decision to avoid reporting electronically are many and varied. Ironically, none are linked to the fishers’ belief that there are technical challenges stopping them from making the move, with all those interviewed feeling comfortable that if their banking is secure, their fishing data should be secure at a technical level.

The real insight of this report relates to a perceived risk by the fishers that recording their fine scale data, which is really their intellectual property (IP), is putting their businesses at risk. They are fearful that once data is collected it can be accessed by other stakeholders (principally government agencies) and potentially used against them for things like marine parks or quota reductions.   

This report demonstrates that if industry started collecting its own data, it would be in a stronger position to have meaningful dialogue with those stakeholders who ultimately manage their fisheries. All stakeholders would benefit from the greater transparency that well managed, secure data could provide, starting from the decision to open the fishery by the regulator, through to the person who ultimately consumes the catch. 

Can the fishing industry continue to hide its data because of a perceived risk of the government using it against them? Or, does industry and the fisheries regulator, need to get smarter about how they use data to sustainably manage fisheries into the future.

Industry
PROJECT NUMBER • 2020-126
PROJECT STATUS:
COMPLETED

Australian Agrifood Data Exchange (OzAg Data Exchange): Deliver an interconnected data highway for Australia's AgriFood value chain - Proof of concept

Pain point: The delay in exchange and reconciliation of catch data by fishers and processors means that there is a delay in quota accounting which impacts planning due to lack of timely information. Furthermore, with no access to pre-fishing information data to the processors means they are unable...
ORGANISATION:
Meat and Livestock Australia (MLA)

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
:

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

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Adoption
Adoption
People

FRDC Fish Tank: building the research communities capability and capacity (Seafood Directions 2024/2026)

Project number: 2023-170
Project Status:
Current
Budget expenditure: $65,000.00
Principal Investigator: Sue Rana
Organisation: Fisheries Research and Development Corporation (FRDC)
Project start/end date: 23 Apr 2024 - 7 Feb 2027
:

Need

The FRDC Communications team has identified a need to engage with our research partners in more frequent and positive ways. Through discussions between FRDC's research and investment team and FRDC's stakeholder engagement team, it was decided that Seafood Directions 2024 and 2026 provided an excellent opportunity as an event platform to engage with our research partners to build capability and capacity.

EVENT
The FRDC FishTank campaign has been created to help researchers undertaking FRDC projects communicate their research outputs in creative and engaging ways. The FishTank campaign will encourage our research partners to think more deeply about the way they communicate their research and provide training for them to develop engaging and creative research presentations that will be delivered at Seafood Directions 2024. The costs of the FishTank campaign will be covered by FRDC and include professional presentation training by Scientell to advance the finalists’ research communications skills in unique and innovative ways. The aim of this project is to help researchers develop innovative presentations that will boost audience engagement and help extend the research to other relevant audiences, after Seafood Directions. In discussion and agreement with the FRDC Research Portfolio Managers, FRDC FishTank finalists may be able to use their Seafood Directions FishTank presentation to replace a milestone report from their FRDC Project.

The FishTank campaign will help build communication capability and capacity to enable change in the way research is presented and perceived. Participants supported by a 2024 Seafood Directions bursary or similar (including NSILP, ARLP, or Nuffield) will not be eligible to receive travel assistance via this project. Recipients of a 2024 FishTank bursary will not be eligible for 2026 FishTank bursaries.

PROCESS
Prior to the FishTank campaign being announced, an EDM (see EDM and other communication outputs in attached Strategic Plan Seafood Directions 2024 FRDC FishTank), will be sent to all FRDC current Principal Investigators, inviting them to submit a pitch video to FRDC for a chance to be part of this project. The EDM will outline the pitch video requirements, i.e. Researchers to provide a 3 to 5-minute ‘mock-up’ presentation pitch, which showcases at least three different innovative and creative communication executions (e.g. pictures, video, animations, props).

The group of individuals who can assess all applications throughout the entire process includes:
- Crispian Ashby (GM Research and Investment)
- Chris Izzo (Senior Research Portfolio Manager)
- Deepika Satchithananthan (Research Portfolio Manager)
- Ben Jones (Research Portfolio Manager)
- Kylie Dunstan (GM Stakeholder Engagement)
- Sally Roberts (C&C Portfolio Manager)
- Sue Rana (Corporate Affairs Manager)

PI’s will have four weeks from the first EDM being sent out to submit their applications. The selection panel will have two weeks to assess all applications. All applicants will be notified if they were successful or not. FRDC’s Managing Director, Patrick Hone, may also record a video snippet, that could be attached and promoted to PIs through the EDM. This could be part of two follow-up EDM’s sent prior to the public FishTank campaign announcement.

PROCESS FOR FRDC FISHTANK FINALISTS
After assessing and determining the six successful pitches, applicants will be notified followed by a an EDM outlining:
- Allocated budget $4,000 pp (up to $2,000 AUD for travel/accommodation & $2,000 AUD for materials)
- Training information (who the provider is, the dates & the format [online or in-person] - PI’s will be given 4 weeks to do this training.
- The email will also provide instructions on how to finalise their successful bursary application in fishnet. Each researcher will enter into an individual bursary agreement, so that FRDC can pay their bursary.

The bursary agreement will also stipulate that successful researchers will engage with bursary finalists for 12 months after Seafood Directions to provide guidance on future similar initiatives.

TRAINING INFORMATION
Principal Investigators will be asked to work with Scientell to complete a science presentation training program. This offer can be extended to a member of the PI’s project team. However, if they extend this offer to a project team member only this person can present as a finalist at FRDC FishTank. A PI and a research team member cannot BOTH complete the training, it can only be undertaken by one person within a project team.

BUDGET SUMMARY
Accommodation and travel up to $2,000 x 6 = $12,000
Material Cost up to $2,000 x 6 = $12,000
Training budget = $6,000
Contingency (~8-10%) = $2,500
Budget = $32,500 per event (SD 2024 and SD 2026 - 2 total)

NOTE: see a more in-depth plan and link to all communication outputs in an attached document to this application, called Strategic Plan Seafood Directions 2024 FRDC FishTank

Objectives

1. Build presentation capability and creative outlets of and for the FRDC's research community
2. increase engagement with our research partners to help bring our investment portfolio to life
3. increase stakeholder awareness of FRDC’s research portfolio and outcomes through innovative and creative ways