There is growing need across fisheries management agencies and the fishing industry for improved cost-effectiveness and greater efficiency. This need stems from unprecedented economic pressures facing the fishing industry at a time when the Government is implementing a harvest strategy policy and ecosystem based fisheries management. These policy directions increase the emphasis on data collection and verification, fishery and stock assessments, compliance and investment in risk management. The cost recovery policy of the Government places added responsibility on AFMA to manage fisheries efficiently and cost-effectively. This project provides an opportunity to examine new business practices and management arrangements that will benefit both AFMA and industry, leading to a more collaborative and/or delegated approach to the management of Commonwealth fisheries. Greater stewardship of fisheries resources is likely to result where management responsibilities are effectively transferred to industry. Furthermore, there is a strong alignment between a cooperating industry, the strengthening of fishing rights, resources stewardship and satisfying key fisheries management objectives. In order to pursue co-management in Commonwealth fisheries, the theoretical bases already established need to be taken further through trialing, testing and evaluation in existing fisheries to determine whether greater efficiency, cost-effectiveness and other benefits can be achieved, compared to current management arrangements (from National Working Group on Co-management Initiative, draft interim report 2007).

The existing research predicts that climate change will have both positive and negative impacts on reproduction, recruitment and distribution of biomass of Australia’s commercially important marine species. Many fishery stakeholders acknowledge that the issue of climate change should be a high priority issue for fisheries management. Current research highlights the potentially significant impacts of climate change on fisheries and fisheries management, but to date strategies for fisheries management to address climate change have been lacking. The current ability of fisheries management to cope with these changes is unknown and therefore must be assessed to test its resilience, ability to adapt and the changes that may be required. AFMA is a prime candidate for leading this assessment since it has substantive responsibility for those areas of the Australian fishing zone that are expected to be hot-spots for climate change effects, such as SE Australia, one of the fastest warming areas in the ocean. In addition, the issues of climate change are canvassed in draft government policies for fisheries and this project could form part of the response to those policy needs.

To-date no jurisdiction in Australia has assessed the resilience of its management system to these anticipated impacts and it is likely to break some new ground in what may need to be done for management systems to effectively adapt to climate change and the options that may be available. Engagement with and participation from key fishery stakeholders is essential for this project to be a success and to assist in any subsequent fisheries management change processes. Overall, this project has the potential to benefit the marine ecosystem and fisheries stakeholders with a vested interest in climate change adaptation, to increase the benefits and reduce the risks. While the production end of the supply chain is often the focus, this project will also consider the supply chain risks, following approaches developed in recent FRDC projects (Hobday et al. 2015; Fleming et al. 2014; Lim-Camacho et al. 2015; Plaganyi et al. 2014; van Putten et al. 2015)