139 results
Environment
PROJECT NUMBER • 2014-024
PROJECT STATUS:
COMPLETED

Estimating the abundance of School Shark in Australia using close kin genetic methods

Close kin mark recapture (CKMR) provides an estimate of absolute abundance that is independent of fishing behaviour. We present a first CKMR estimate of abundance for School Shark and discuss the management implications of our findings. We found 65 half sibling pairs (HSPs), 3...
ORGANISATION:
CSIRO Oceans and Atmosphere Hobart
Industry
Environment
PROJECT NUMBER • 2003-075
PROJECT STATUS:
COMPLETED

Designing, implementing and assessing an integrated monitoring program for the NPF: developing an application to stock assessment

For more than a decade the Northern Prawn Fishery assessments have indicated that the tiger prawn resource is overexploited. Deriso’s1 (2001) review of the tiger prawn assessment supported this conclusion and also drew attention to the high level of uncertainty in the assessment. Deriso...
ORGANISATION:
CSIRO Oceans and Atmosphere Hobart
Environment
PROJECT NUMBER • 2016-039
PROJECT STATUS:
COMPLETED

Putting potential environmental risk of Australia's trawl fisheries in landscape perspective: exposure of seabed assemblages to trawling, and inclusion in closures and reserves

This project implemented the first national spatial approach to quantifying the exposure of mapped seabed assemblages to the footprints of all demersal trawl fisheries that operate on the mainland continental shelf and slope of Australia, as well as their spatial protection in areas permanently...
ORGANISATION:
CSIRO Oceans and Atmosphere Hobart
Environment
PROJECT NUMBER • 2012-046
PROJECT STATUS:
COMPLETED

Informing the review of the Commonwealth Policy on Fisheries Bycatch through assessing trends in bycatch of key Commonwealth fisheries

The purpose of this report is to inform the review of the Commonwealth Policy on Fisheries Bycatch. In March 2012, the Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry, announced the review of the Commonwealth Policy on Fisheries Bycatch, with the aim of improving the management of bycatch in...
ORGANISATION:
CSIRO Oceans and Atmosphere Hobart
Environment
PROJECT NUMBER • 1992-042
PROJECT STATUS:
COMPLETED

The direct estimation of age and growth of SBT

This project was developed in response to calls from the SBT Trilateral (now the CCSBT) Scientific Committee for the development and validation of techniques for the direct estimation of age and growth in the species. Since the early 1980’s, the stock assessment methods used by...
ORGANISATION:
CSIRO Oceans and Atmosphere Hobart

Effects of Trawling Subprogram: design, trial and implementation of an integrated long-term bycatch monitoring program, road tested in the NPF

Project number: 2002-035
Project Status:
Completed
Budget expenditure: $1,571,449.00
Principal Investigator: David T. Brewer
Organisation: CSIRO Oceans and Atmosphere Hobart
Project start/end date: 19 Oct 2002 - 21 Oct 2007
Contact:
FRDC

Need

The design and implementation of an integrated, long-term bycatch monitoring program has not been undertaken in any Australian prawn trawl fishery. The diversity and complexity of bycatch issues in most of these fisheries means that designing such a program is a significant challenge. The Northern Prawn Fishery (NPF) has been proactive in its support of research aimed at ensuring ecological sustainability, particularly regarding bycatch. This has shown significant benefit during the 'road tests' of EA's strategic assessment guidelines, with the NPF one of the few fisheries with a risk assessment of bycatch (FRDC 1996/257). The risk assessment highlighted species that were at highest risk from trawling, and there is now a need to take the next step and collect information on these species to determine the actual extent of this risk. There has also been a substantial amount of research evaluating the most suitable monitoring methods for this fishery. There is now a clear need to draw this information together in the design, trial and implementation of a monitoring program. This will be done in consultation with management, industry and other stakeholders. The program will then be handed over to NORMAC and AFMA for the long-term.
The NPF Bycatch Act ion Plan has committed to bycatch monitoring and a trial of a trained crew-member observer scheme for bycatch. Monitoring is needed in order for NORMAC to report against the commitments made in the BAP. This research also addresses NORMAC's high priori ty research area of the Effects of Fishing. It specifically addresses the priorities of assessing bycatch, ensuring the sustainability of bycatch and the development of monitoring programs for BRDs under commercial conditions. This research forms part o f an overall ecosystem management plan for the NPF and is critical to fulfilling NORMAC’s commitments in the NPF BAP and addressing the guidelines of EA's strategic assessment. The project also addresses FRDC Effects of Trawling subprogram priorities reg arding bycatch: “Methods for measuring and monitoring bycatch and the quantification of the direct impacts on associated populations and communities of bycatch species”.
The proposed project will address a range of issues currently faced by Australian f isheries, including
(i) how to establish a long term monitoring program for non-target species;
(ii) how the industry can best measure its impact on bycatch species;
(iii) how to increase industry’s ability to provide validated and high quality data on non-target species, that are acceptable to all stakeholders.
This project will provide the NPF with a cost effective process to demonstrate to the Australian and international community its willingness and ability to monitor its impacts on the species gr oups of most concern. This is an important step that will also have to be made by other Australian fisheries. We anticipate that the experiences gained and processes implemented during this project may be transferred to other fisheries. Consequently, it is hoped that there will be far-reaching benefits to the wider community arising from the projects completion.

Objectives

1. To design, trial and implement an integrated long-term bycatch monitoring program
that addresses (i) total amount of bycatch, (ii) protected species and (iii) high risk species in the most cost-effective manner possible using the NPF as an example.
2. To transfer ownership, momentum and responsibility of ongoing monitoring to NORMAC and AFMA.
3. Develop a new, innovative, quantitative method for defining the risk to the sustainability of bycatch species from prawn trawling, and apply the model to the bycatch of the NPF
4. Provide the first description of the bycatch from the Joseph Bonaparte Gulf.

Final report

ISBN: 1-921232-33-1
Author: David Brewer
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