There is an urgent need to reflect on the current state of fisheries resource sharing in Australia and how it can meet future demands. Over the past 20 years individual Australian jurisdictions have developed and implemented resource sharing arrangements. These generally apply to commercial and recreational fisheries, and in some cases indigenous cultural fishers. The resource sharing arrangements stem from the objectives of fisheries legislation in Australia which is based on the principles of ESD that include consideration of all fishery resource users in the management of fisheries. Understandably when management resources are limited the focus is on those having the greatest impact on fish stock which for most species is the commercial sector, and sometimes the recreational sector. The use of OCS provisions in fisheries legislation was both an effort to simplify commercial fisheries management and reduce the need to have resource sharing arrangements. While this was largely successful it has run its course due to the value of commercial rights ($billions) that have now accrued under current OCS agreements making it almost impossible to make further significant changes. Alongside these developments a component of the recreational fishing sector has been increasing its range and capacity to catch fish using larger boats and technology similar to that employed by some commercial fishers. This has led to traditionally commercial species being accessed by recreational fishers with growing concerns from the former sector about their fishing future. Various policies and statutes have been implemented by the states/NT in an effort to allocate the shares of a fish stock. This has become easier as a growing number of fish stocks are subject to TACs with the commercial fishers subject to ITQs and recreational fishers to increasingly stock-specific possession limits. Despite this those states/NT who have implemented resource sharing have experienced its contentious, costly and drawn out nature, and are only starting to confront stocks which cross both jurisdictions and fishing sectors. It is time to reflect on experience to date and find the best way to manage fisheries resource sharing in the future.

Yellowtail Kingfish is a high priority species for recreational fishers and the basis of an important commercial fishery in NSW. The biological stock structure is reasonably well understood, with genetic analyses showing that the population in Western Australia is genetically distinct from the population along the eastern and southern Australian coasts (Commonwealth, Queensland, New South Wales, Victorian, Tasmanian and South Australian waters) and New Zealand. Tagging studies have confirmed movements between Australia and New Zealand and South Australia to NSW. Therefore Yellowtail Kingfish are assessed through the Status of Australian Fish Stocks (SAFS) initiative at the biological stock level, being two stocks - Eastern Australia and Western Australia.

The most recent (2018) SAFS assessment for the Eastern Australian biological stock of Yellowtail Kingfish was ‘Undefined’, due mainly to knowledge gaps around the degree of mixing throughout this stock which spans more than 3,000 km of coastline. Reasonable data for assessment exists only within NSW, and uncertainty around whether an assessment of that component of the stock reflected the entire stock resulted in an ‘Undefined’ status, with a recommendation that this uncertainty be resolved.

Yellowtail Kingfish within NSW has been assessed as ‘Growth Overfished’ (2003/04 to 2013/14), and current evidence indicates a Depleted stock. There are ongoing discussions within NSW about appropriate management changes that may assist recovery; however these are hampered by the ‘Undefined’ status in SAFS.

The FRDC National Priority 1 aims to reduce the percentage of ‘Undefined’ stocks within SAFS, which also has an objective of providing a roadmap to recovery for ‘Depleted’ stocks. To address both of these and to promote better and more collaborative monitoring, assessment and management across all relevant jurisdictions, there is a clear need to review existing knowledge across the entire stock and to identify areas of uncertainty that require addressing.

Victorian recreational lobster catches are increasing in many areas due to a range of issues including population growth in coastal communities and efforts to promote fishing through initiatives such as "Target 1 million". Understanding these catches which in some areas is on par with commercial catches is critical for sustainable management of the fishery (for both sectors) and informing resource allocation discussions. The Victorian Fisheries Authority (VFA) has been conducting a recreational tagging program to estimate recreational southern rock lobster catches for the last two seasons. Uptake and compliance with tagging has been high, however reporting of tag usage has been more problematic with the fate of 30,419 of the 92,326 tags issued in the first (2017/18) season remaining unknown. This project will run a recreational diary/phone survey (as used in Tasmania) in parallel with the upcoming 2019/20 tagging season to calibrate the tagging program and provide a comparison of the methods. This will enable a calibration of the tagging based catch estimate and guide management as to the future applicability of both methods.

Incorporating recreational catch estimates in stock assessment models remains challenging due to i) a lack of catch estimates prior to the commencement of surveys and ii) potential reporting biases in survey results. This project will develop a protocol for incorporating recreational catch estimates in a robust manner that specifically addresses these concerns and is aimed at increasing model accuracy and robustness to future changes in recreational catch whilst promoting stakeholder confidence in the utilised approach.

A disadvantage of conventional tagging systems is the requirement of issuing plastic tags and the consequent costs and environmental impacts. In consultation with VFA and stakeholders this project will investigate alternative smart-phone based 'tagging' systems that avoid this issue and develop a guide for future implementation of such a system.

Understanding the demographic characteristics, connectivity and stock structure of a fish species is crucial for identifying the appropriate scale and strategy for management.

Black bream is a slow growing and long-lived finfish species with reproduction confined to estuarine habitats. It is distributed in the estuaries and inshore marine waters of southern Australia, from central NSW to central west coast WA, including Tasmania. Throughout its broad distribution, black bream is thought to be composed of a number of isolated spawning stocks, with limited evidence of movements between estuaries.

In SA, black bream supports important commercial fisheries, and is highly sought-after by recreational anglers. Most of the State-wide commercial catch is taken by the Lakes and Coorong Fishery (LCF) in the Coorong estuary, with smaller contributions taken by the Marine Scalefish Fishery. In 2016, the LCF for black bream, which was historically one of Australia’s most productive black bream fisheries, was classified as ‘overfished’. It is unknown whether this status is reflective of the broader population in SA waters, or if current management arrangements for the Coorong population, which are aimed to promote stock recovery, are adequate in terms of the spatial scale that they apply.

There is a need to understand the demography, connectivity and stock structure of black bream populations across southern Australia (SA, VIC and WA). This information will assist in identifying appropriate scales and strategies for management.

‘People development’ is one of several priorities identified in the FRDC’s RD&E Plan 2015-20. The proposed project will be undertaken by a high-performing student as a PhD project. The student will undertake applied research relevant to FRDC stakeholders (scientists, fishery managers, commercial, recreational and indigenous fishers) in SA, and gain industry experience by being co-supervised by scientists from SARDI. The project will increase fisheries science capacity in SA through training of the next generation of researchers.