8 results
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)
Industry
PROJECT NUMBER • 2019-126
PROJECT STATUS:
COMPLETED

Assessing the biosecurity risk of uncooked whole and eviscerated barramundi and grouper in relation to exotic viruses

Presently, the Australian Barramundi farming industry enjoys freedom from numerous internationally significant diseases including all from the Megalocytivirus genus of iridoviruses. These diseases are known to be causing severe impacts on farmed Barramundi and other species in southeast Asia and...
ORGANISATION:
Future Fisheries Veterinary Service Pty Ltd (FFVS)
Industry
PROJECT NUMBER • 2016-261
PROJECT STATUS:
COMPLETED

Investigating the use of trace element profiles to substantiate provenance for the Australian prawn industry

In 2015 industry stakeholders from the Australian Council of Prawn Fishers (ACPF) and the Australian Prawn Farmers Association (APFA) identified the potential for the "Love Australian Prawns" (LAP) campaign to be undermined by the practice of unscrupulous operators substituting Australian prawns...
ORGANISATION:
Curtin University

Practicing aquatic animal welfare: Identifying and mitigating obstacles to uptake and adoption by the Australian Fishing Industry

Project number: 2019-023
Project Status:
Completed
Budget expenditure: $100,100.00
Principal Investigator: Nicki Mazur
Organisation: ENVision Environmental Consulting
Project start/end date: 1 Dec 2019 - 14 Dec 2020
:

Need

Recent research shows general public support for Australia’s fishing industry (Sparks 2017; Voyer et al 2016) that depends on people’s assessments of industry’s commitment to implement best practice and demonstration of being effective environmental stewards (Mazur et al 2014). The FRDC has recognised external pressure for the fishing industry to move beyond compliance with environmental and other regulations and improve its performance in key areas, including animal welfare. As noted above, the FRDC has provided support for a range of research and industry initiatives to achieve positive aquatic animal welfare outcomes. The FRDC also recognises that further improvement to the seafood industry’s aquatic animal welfare practices are required.

Recent FRDC project investments has produced valuable knowledge about how when change is called for it is very important to recognise that multiple factors influence – positively and/or negatively - people’s decisions to take up those new, innovative, and/or different practices (i.e. 2017-133, 2017-046, 2017-221). These factors typically include personal values and belief systems, access to different kinds of resources required to make changes, particular features of the recommended practices, as well as a range of macro-levels factors that while they may be outside of people’s direct control still affect their choices. FRDC Project 2017-133 generated important insights about how and to what extent these kinds of factors have been keeping the seafood industry from making more substantive progress towards building greater stakeholder and community trust (Mazur & Brooks 2018).

Further work of this nature is now needed to shed greater light on aquatic animal welfare in the seafood industry (FRDC 2017-221). In particular the research should be focused on identifying the particular features of ‘best care’ for aquatic animals, the range of factors that may be obstructing industry members’ use of those practices, and examples of recent (extension) initiatives used to encourage better aquatic animal welfare.

Objectives

1. Identifying best practice in (aquatic) animal welfare.
2. Identify the extent to which fishers and finfish aquaculture farms are applying best practice in Australia
3. Identify factors impeding the uptake and adoption of a selection of recommended aquatic animal welfare practices in wild-catch commercial fishing and finfish aquaculture
4. Identify appropriate strategies to mitigate obstacles to improved uptake and adoption of those recommended practices
5. Help build the Australian fishing industry's capacity to design and implement extension programs, especially those targeting increased uptake and adoption of recommended aquatic animal welfare practices
6. Contribute to increased likelihood of more widespread and enduring practice-change in the seafood industry's aquatic animal welfare practices in wild-catch commercial fishing and finfish aquaculture

Final report

Author: Dr. Nicole (Nicki) Mazur and Mr Andy Bodsworth
Final Report • 2022-03-31 • 1.78 MB
2019-023-DLD.pdf

Summary

This FRDC funded research  focuses on the obstacles to, and drivers of, positive practice change relating to aquatic animal welfare (AAW) in Australia’s wild-catch commercial fishing and finfish aquaculture sectors. It was conducted between December 2019 and March 2022 in response to growing societal expectations that production animals, including fish and crustaceans, be treated humanely ; and the need to understand how the Australian seafood industry can, and should, respond. 

A mixed-method approach was used to collect data and information for this research. These included a desk-top review, stakeholder consultation, and a set of interviews. 

This Project identified a range of AAW practices used by some seafood producers that they believed to be ‘humane’. The Project also identified some factors enabling and impeding seafood producers’ approaches. Key factors supporting AAW uptake and adoption included a seafood producers’ openness to change and interest in learning, the relative advantages of using recommended practices, well designed and resourced extension, and positive relationships across industry, government and interest group networks. 

This Project provides highly useful insights about AAW practices used by a small sample of Australian seafood industry members, which were primarily representatives of the wild-catch commercial fishing sector with two from the finfish aquaculture sector. This project’s findings support results from other recent Australian seafood industry research and policy initiatives, which have found that more appropriately designed and consistently-funded extension programs can help improve AAW uptake and adoption. However, AAW is a complex issue, and requires more than just extension.  A range of carefully conceived and integrated policy instruments (e.g., market instruments, regulations) are needed to achieve substantive and lasting AAW practice change. Five recommendations have been formulated to help amplify enablers of and mitigate obstacles to AAW uptake and adoption. Suggested next steps include a workshop to draw out policy and industry-led options to enhance adoption, including feasibility of a risk assessment; and a case studies to test risk assessment and options to improve adoption.
Industry
PROJECT NUMBER • 2018-176
PROJECT STATUS:
COMPLETED

Refine the Southern Rock Lobster Cold Chain

What the report is about? The report aims to assist the Southern Rock Lobster (SRL) industry with refining the live export supply chain to China. Research has identified issues relating to the cold chain, particularly at the domestic air freight stage, and practical solutions have then been...
ORGANISATION:
KPMG Australia Melbourne
TAGS
Industry
PROJECT NUMBER • 2017-203
PROJECT STATUS:
COMPLETED

Risk from Diarrhetic Shellfish Toxins and Dinophysis to the Australian Shellfish Industry

This study first examined DSTs in spiked and naturally contaminated shellfish - Sydney Rock Oysters (Saccostrea glomerata), Pacific Oysters (Magallana gigas/Crassostrea gigas), Blue Mussels (Mytilus galloprovincialis) and Pipis (Plebidonax deltoides/Donax deltoides), using LC-MS/MS ...
ORGANISATION:
University of Technology Sydney (UTS)
TAGS
Industry
PROJECT NUMBER • 2017-091
PROJECT STATUS:
COMPLETED

Assessment of Frozen Uncooked Imported Prawns for Antimicrobial-Resistant Micro-organisms of Aquaculture and Public Health Significance and residues of Ag-vet chemicals

As part of the response to the outbreak of White Spot Disease (WSD) in prawn farms along the Logan River, Southern Queensland in late November 2016, uncooked prawns were purchased by Dr Matt Landos (Future Fisheries Veterinary Service Pty Ltd) from various retail outlets in northern NSW...
ORGANISATION:
Future Fisheries Veterinary Service Pty Ltd (FFVS)
TAGS