2005 Australian Society for Fish Biology Workshop & 2005 International Barramundi Workshop
Taking stock: defining and managing shared resources - a joint ASFB-FARMAA workshop
Unlike rules in the worlds in which fish live, those in the world of fishery resource management are shaped by government jurisdiction and maritime boundaries, and influenced by political whim. Human conflicts often arise when fish cross ‘invisible’ lines. Our understanding of resource dynamics and management needs, and our ability to perceive and resolve conflict, may become clouded by fish-related activities in distant parts of a fish stock. What are fish stocks? Can stocks be contained within meaningful boundaries? And what are the implications of assessing resources and implementing management strategies if stocks are shared by many users, or if stock boundaries are not clearly known? Quantifying fish stocks, fishery resources and related activities is central to formulating strategies for ecologically sustainable development and management. Taking Stock: Defining and Managing Shared Resources is a pivotal issue for many Australian fishery scientists and managers.
There are numerous examples of fisheries where management strategies are compromised by poorly understood and poorly quantified fish-related activities within the ecological range of the stocks. Conflicts may arise at three scales: macro scale between nations, meso scale between states or provinces, and micro scale between stakeholders within a jurisdiction. Examples where conflicts may arise include recreational fishing, taking of by-catch, traditional fishing, fishing on grounds adjacent to Australian waters, and habitat modifications. Each of these activities can, under certain circumstances, have detrimental effects on the well-being and sustainability of fish stocks.
The ASFB-FARMAA workshop will bring together fishery scientists, managers and stakeholders to discuss methods for defining and managing stocks shared at macro, meso and micro scales. Discussions at all three scales will ensure that the workshop has wide appeal and relevance to participants. This workshop will advance our understanding of key issues, and provide benchmark information for future directions in fisheries research and management.
Final report
National fisheries technical workshop series - Larval Biology and Recruitment processes
Final report
The two workshops were hosted by CSIRO Division of Fisheries and enjoyed the professional backup of its excellent Hobart facilities. The workshop on "Larval Biology" which was held on August 20, 1991 was aimed at resolving concerns that fisheries scientists working on the same commercial species in different laboratories were having difficulty in agreeing on adequately staging and identifying larvae. This had implications from temperate to tropical regions and marine to freshwater habitats. It included groups as diverse as penaeid prawns, scallops, demersal finfish such as gemfish or orange roughy and pelagic finfish such as tunas.
Funding for the workshop and administrative resources was provided by the then Fishing Industry Research and Development Council, the workshop coordinated by Dr Don Hancock (formerly Research Director with W .A. Fisheries) and publication of the Proceedings provided by the Bureau of Rural Resources.
National fisheries research technical workshop series
National Fisheries Technical Workshop series - Sustainable fisheries through sustaining fish habitat
Final report
This workshop, entitled "Sustainable Fisheries through Sustaining Fish Habitat", continues the Australian Society for Fish Biology's workshop series and its established tradition of bringing together the country's leading experts to freely discuss specific fish and fishery themes of national importance. Past workshops have preceded the Society's Annual Conferences, and began with a meeting on "Australian Threatened Fishes" in Melbourne in 1985. Themes since then have covered diverse topics: "Advances in Aquaculture", "The Use of By-catch Resources in Australia", "Scientific Advice for Managers: Getting the Message Across", "Tagging - Solution or Problem?", "Introduced and Translocated Fishes and their Ecological Effects", "Legal Sizes and their use in Fisheries Management", "The Measurement of Age and Growth in Fish and Shellfish", "Larval Biology", and "Recruitment Processes".
Since 1988, the workshops have been generously supported by the Fishing Industry Research and Development Council (now the Fisheries Research and Development Corporation, FRDC). This support has ensured the attendance of overseas experts at the workshops, and has allowed professional editorial treatment of the published Proceedings. The Bureau of Rural Resources (now, Bureau of Resource Sciences, BRS) has also been most generous in contributing substantially to the costs of publication of Proceedings.
These workshops, and their published Proceedings, are now recognised as benchmarks in the development of fish and fisheries science in Australia.