69 results
Industry
PROJECT NUMBER • 2019-084
PROJECT STATUS:
COMPLETED

Seafood Marketing Symposium 2020

The Queensland Seafood Marketing Association (QMSA) produced a series of 8 Webinars with the focus on seafood marketing information. This was to coincide with the launch of Great Australian Seafood television campaign in late 2020, empowering industry to to take advantage of this campaign and apply...
ORGANISATION:
Queensland Seafood Marketers Association Inc (QSMA)

Development of resources and equipment to enable best practice in the humane dispatch of sharks caught by commercial fishers in the NT

Project number: 2022-028
Project Status:
Current
Budget expenditure: $148,400.00
Principal Investigator: Ben Diggles
Organisation: DigsFish Services Pty Ltd
Project start/end date: 31 Dec 2022 - 29 Dec 2023
Contact:
FRDC

Need

The so called pragmatic approach to the welfare of aquatic animals (Arlinghaus et al. 2007) measures welfare status using a variety of well-established, un-controversial physiological and functional parameters (Rose et al. 2014, Browman et al. 2019). For example, all finfish, crustaceans and cephalopods can experience stress, which can lead to poor welfare outcomes (Rose et al. 2014). From an animal welfare perspective, the overall aim to maximise fish welfare during capture is to minimise stress within the constraint of practices inherent to the relevant fishing sector (Mazur and Bodsworth 2022).
Using this pragmatic approach, the Aquatic Animal Welfare Working Group (AAWWG) which was formed under the Australian Animal Welfare Strategy (AAWS, 2005-2014), developed a range of Overarching Welfare Principles which related to finfish harvested from the wild in commercial fishing industries.
Out of the eight Overarching Principles developed by the AAWWG, as pointed out by Mazur and Bodsworth (2022) the three that are most relevant to the commercial wild harvest industry are:
1. Timely handling from capture to death is essential to minimise stress;
2. Capture methods should be designed to minimise the capture of unwanted species
3. Any fish selected for harvest should be killed as rapidly as possible, by humane means suitable for the species.
To address the legislative issues under the new Act, meet current and future fish welfare challenges, and maintain their social license to fish, commercial fishers targeting sharks in the NT need to develop workable and effective standards for handling and dispatching sharks which can be recognised and prescribed under the new Regulations.
Since shark fisheries are specialist fisheries which were not covered by the AAWWG during the AAWS, there is a need to develop specific resources to assist the industry with humane dispatch of sharks.
Science shows that brain destruction by pithing or “iki-jime” is the fastest way to dispatch finfish, resulting in the lowest levels of stress and maximising the quality and shelf life of the resulting fish product (Poli et al. 2005, Diggles 2015). However, the brains of sharks are small and vary in location between species, which is why this project is being proposed and is necessary to determine the brain location of the sharks most commonly captured in the NT shark fishery, and then examine various methods of rapidly destroying the brain, in order to develop guidelines and best practice protocols for their humane dispatch. Importantly, it should be noted that this is an industry driven project.

References

Arlinghaus R, Cooke SJ, Schwab A, Cowx IG (2007). Fish welfare: A challenge to the feelings based approach, with implications for recreational fishing. Fish and Fisheries 8: 57-71.

Browman HI, Cooke SJ, Cowx IG, Derbyshire SWG, Kasumyan A, Key B, Rose JD, Schwab A, Skiftesvik AB, Stevens ED, Watson CA, Arlinghaus R (2019). Welfare of aquatic animals: where things are, where they are going, and what it means for research, aquaculture, recreational angling, and commercial fishing. ICES Journal of Marine Science 76: 82–92. doi:10.1093/icesjms/fsy067

Diggles BK (2015). Development of resources to promote best practice in the humane dispatch of finfish caught by recreational fishers. Fisheries Management and Ecology DOI: 10.1111/fme.12127

Mazur N, Bodsworth A (2022). Practicing aquatic animal welfare: Identifying and mitigating obstacles to uptake and adoption by the Australian Seafood Industry. Final Report for FRDC Project No 2019-023, March 2022. 60 pgs.

Poli BM, Parisi G, Scappini F, Zampacavallo G (2005). Fish welfare and quality as affected by presaughter and slaughter management. Aquaculture International 13: 29-49.

Rose JD, Arlinghaus R, Cooke SJ, Diggles BK, Sawynok W, Stevens ED, Wynne CD (2014). Can fish really feel pain? Fish and Fisheries 15: 97–133.

Objectives

1. Obtain all relevant permits. Review of literature (primary and grey) and current NT industry practice to inform Objective 2.
2. Collect at least 3 representative specimens (small, medium large) of each of the main shark species (up to 12) encountered by the commercial fishing industry in the Northern Territory (NT), and precisely identify their anatomical brain location.
3. Assess the effectiveness of various different tools and techniques for dispatch of small and large sharks (percussive stunning (blunt trauma inflicted using a baseball bat) vs spinal section vs shooting vs pneumatic captive bolt gun vs cartridge powered captive bolt gun vs spring loaded captive bolt gun vs (depending on OH&S requirements) electrical stunning.
4. Update the existing code(s) of practice adopted by the commercial fishing industry in the NT to include the best practice information on dispatch of sharks as prescribed under the new Regulations (Animal Protection Act 2018 (‘the new Act’) and the Animal Protection Regulations 2020 ‘the new Regulations’ in the NT.
5. Update existing electronic extension resources (www.ikijime.com, Ikijime Tool phone applications) to include the new information on location of shark brains.
6. Extend this information to the commercial fishing industries in the NT.
Industry
PROJECT NUMBER • 2018-102
PROJECT STATUS:
COMPLETED

Understanding Ostreid herpesvirus type 1 risk: alternative hosts and in situ hybridisation

South Australia (SA) has a large edible oyster industry primarily growing Pacific oysters (Crassostrea gigas). The industry is regionally-based, an important employer and a substantial contributor to regional economies. Pacific oyster mortality syndrome (POMS) is a serious infectious disease of C....
ORGANISATION:
Flinders University
Blank
PROJECT NUMBER • 2018-197
PROJECT STATUS:
COMPLETED

Developing FRDC’s 2020-2025 RD&E Plan

This report covers the second of two CSIRO contributions to the project FRDC 2018-197. This project was reviewing FRDC research objectives through a process that developed alternative scenarios of possible futures relevant to Australian fisheries. Discussed here is the development of a...
ORGANISATION:
Fisheries Research and Development Corporation (FRDC)
Industry
People

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).

Capability and Capacity: Understanding diverse learning approaches and knowledge transfer opportunities to inform and enable change

Project number: 2023-131
Project Status:
Current
Budget expenditure: $130,000.00
Principal Investigator: Nicole McDonald
Organisation: CQUniversity (CQU) Rockhampton
Project start/end date: 1 Jul 2024 - 10 Jul 2025
Contact:
FRDC

Need

FRDC recently co-funded a cross-commodity project on Designing the integration of extension into research project (James, 2022), which sought to improve adoption of outcomes from RD&E project. At the conclusion of this report, recommendations for Phase 2 were made, and these included several focused on developing and trailing different learning approaches for knowledge transfer. Understanding learning approaches required for different topics and cohorts is an essential next step to improve practical outcomes associated with development, change, and adoption processes. This project represents an opportunity for FRDC to build on this initial investment and generate new knowledge on the connection between learning approaches and knowledge transfer to enhance the fisheries and aquaculture sector’s capability and capacity for adaptability and change.

A systematic review of the literature on the topics of adult learning, knowledge transfer, and transformational change will identify and evaluate relevant findings for the fisheries and aquaculture sector. These will be further ground-truthed through extensive stakeholder consultation within (a) wild catch organisations, (b) aquaculture organisations, and (c) through the wider industry knowledge network (e.g. extension officers and research teams). A compilation of informal and formal learning and development opportunities in fishing and aquaculture within organisations and in the wider industry will be analysed, and case studies of best practice identified, analysed and showcased as examples of successful change, adoption, skill development and shift in mindset.

These evidence-based context-specific insights will be translated into a guide, tool or micro-credential for best practice in designing and delivering knowledge transfer and practice change activities. The usefulness and ease of use of this resource will be tested in a workshop with FRDC extension professionals and other interested stakeholders, refined and then introduced to the fisheries and aquaculture community for application to learning and training in organisations and throughout the wider industry. It is expected that the findings of this project will have implications for the project Capability and capacity: Navigating leadership pathways in fishing in aquaculture, in particular insights on how learning approaches for the topic area of non-technical skills development (e.g. communication, team effectiveness, career self-management, problem-solving, strategic thinking and foresight) occur within organisations that may prove to be the start of the leadership pathway for people within fisheries and aquaculture, and if done effectively may widen and diversity the talent pipeline into mid to high leadership level development opportunities.

This project has been designed with a 12-month timeline, with options to scale down if required by FRDC.

Objectives

1. This project will establish a practicable evidence-base for understanding the interaction between learning approaches and knowledge transfer to enhance human, organisational, and industry capacity and capability for adaptive change in the fisheries and aquaculture sector
2. A guide/tool/micro-credential to apply insights regarding successful learning approaches and knowledge transfer for the design and delivery of interventions targeting change, adoption, skill development and shift in mindset for a diverse range of relevant topics and segments of the fisheries and aquaculture sector
3. Deliver 2 workshops to test the use and ease of use of the guide/tool/micro-credential for key industry stakeholders
4. Deliver a webinar to share research findings and launch the guide/tool/micro-credential to the wider fisheries and aquaculture community
5. Determine multiple pathways to delivery for use of the guide/tool/micro-credential including integration and alignment to other relevant project such as Capability and capacity: Navigating leadership pathways in fishing and aquaculture and the Fishing and Aquaculture Workforce Capability Framework

Rural Women's Award 2023-2026 bursaries

Project number: 2023-025
Project Status:
Current
Budget expenditure: $21,841.87
Principal Investigator: Sally Roberts
Organisation: Fisheries Research and Development Corporation (FRDC)
Project start/end date: 13 Aug 2023 - 27 Nov 2026
Contact:
FRDC

Need

Provide bursaries to enable and support attendance at the Rural Women's Award national announcement from 2023-2025.

Bursaries will include contributing to ticket, alumni event, travel and accommodation costs related to attending the annual announcement in Canberra.

Objectives

1. Build and develop leadership capability and capacity of women in fishing and aquaculture
2. Enable attendance and participation with the Rural Women's Award annually

Security of resource access - what is legislative best practice for the commercial seafood industry?

Project number: 2019-173
Project Status:
Current
Budget expenditure: $50,000.00
Principal Investigator: Chauncey Hammond
Organisation: Seafood Industry Australia (SIA)
Project start/end date: 29 Feb 2020 - 4 Mar 2021
Contact:
FRDC

Need

The need for improved resource security was articulated at the SIA Tipping Point meeting held in Fremantle in February 2019. This event was attended by seafood industry representatives from across Australia. The absence of secure access to resources, both aquatic and terrestrial, is a major threat and looming impediment to the growth and prosperity of the Australian seafood industry. This is not a new problem, but despite debate, discussion, lobbying and advocacy for more than 2 decades, it remains an existential threat to the Australian seafood industry.

Improving security is critical to providing an environment that encourages innovation and the confidence to invest and work in our industry.

Lack of certainty of access to biological and environmental resources has significant ramifications for the mental health of our people, and negatively impacts access to business opportunities and other critical business resources including finance and staff. Flow on effects from continued resource access restrictions also affect our post-harvest businesses, freight companies and local communities across Australia.

The threats to access and resource security are varied, including:
• sharing resources with, and impacts of, other marine and terrestrial users including recreational fishers, indigenous title claims, petroleum industry,
• changes to / lack of clarity surrounding government policy and legislation,
• use of Ministerial discretionary powers, as demonstrated by the Western Australian Government intervention in the WRL fishery quota and dramatic increases of pearling lease fees,
• water quality requirements associated with aquaculture operations,
• uncertainty results in risk in financing of commercial fishing operations,
• access limitations restrict growth of jobs in the aquaculture, wild and post-harvest sectors,
• changing community perceptions
• eNGO activism such as in the small pelagic fishery, quota purchases, alternate definition of sustainability and targeting particular fishing methods,
• restriction of access through increasing reserves including Marine Parks and threats of more restrictive management plans, and
• changing environmental conditions.

Objectives

1. To evaluate international instruments to improve the security of Australia's resource access
2. Identify best practice with respect of surety of access
View Filter

Species

Organisation