5 results

Documenting the decline in fisheries productivity due to habitat loss - tropical, eastern and southern Australia

Project number: 2012-061
Project Status:
Completed
Budget expenditure: $24,000.00
Principal Investigator: Colin Creighton AM
Organisation: Colin Creighton
Project start/end date: 19 Jan 2013 - 29 Jun 2013
Contact:
FRDC
TAGS
Habitat

Need

1 - Recreatiopnal Fishing - As identified at the 2012 Recreational Fishing Conference, the vast majority of recreational fishing is inshore. The Conference agreed that habitat protection and repair was one of its four priorities.
RESPONSE- This project spports this priority with the objective of collecting and disseminating in clear and unambiguous terms the loss of inshore productivity due to habitat decline and thence the opportunity for productivity improvement with habitat repair.

2 - Aquaculture - A recent FRDC project developing an Oyster Portal for the oyster industry has clearly identified the decline in Sydney Rock production, much of which can be directly attributed to habitat loss/ net primary productivity decline.
RESPONSE - SRO will be included as one of the indicator fisheries. Growing technology has improved, demand for product is high but production continues to decline.

3 - Commercial Fishing - The Coorong fishery, the prawn fisheries and the barramundi fishery have all been interacting with the PI seeking repair of inshore productivity. All have specific areas of habitat repair and legitimate proposals - eg Burdekin floodplain - over 1500 bunds prohibiting barramundi accessing previous estuarine to freshwater systems; eg Coorong- proposals to maximise the benefits of the increased fresh water in the Murray.
RESPONSE - barramundi, school prawns and coorong fishery will all be case studies

4 - Investor Interest - the Australian Government is keen to invest its Biodiversity Fund in major repair works to theAustralian landscape.
RESPONSE - The companion FRDC funded Business case for habitat repair will suggest a major program of about $300M, including about $10M for further research. This small investment will collate and promate summary facts and figures on the productivity declinne in Australia's estuary fisheries and therefore the benefits of inshore habitat repair.

Objectives

1. To quantify the decline in productivity within tropical estuarine to freshwater systems due to habitat loss and estimate the productivity opportunities of repair
2. To quantify the decline in productivity within Australia's subtropical and temperate east coast major floodplain dominated estuaries due to habitat loss and estimate the productivity opportunities of repair
3. To quantify the decline in productivity within the lower lakes and Coorong, including hypothesising on flow ons to recruitment within Victorian southern estuary systems due to the barrages and overall loss of connectivity and estimate the productivity opportunities of repair in connectivity and freshwater - marine mixing in the Coorong

Revitalising estuaries and wetlands for carbon sequestration, biodiversity, fisheries and the community

Project number: 2012-036
Project Status:
Completed
Budget expenditure: $400,000.00
Principal Investigator: Colin Creighton AM
Organisation: Colin Creighton
Project start/end date: 29 Jun 2012 - 29 Jun 2013
Contact:
FRDC
TAGS
Wild Catch
Resource Access And Allocation
Habitat
Fisheries Management
Estuarine
SPECIES
Black Bream
Prawns
Mullets
Garfishes
Oysters

Need

Business as usual has caused the problem we seek to address. Australian estuaries and wetlands have been under-valued and much of their ecological function has been lost due to a multitude of small, past decisions coupled with a lack of understanding of their importance and community benefits.

Connectivity loss is an issue across Australia - eg road bridges, causeways, tidal barrages, culverts, ponded pastures, bund walls. As an example, GBRMPA has mapped in excess of 1500 barriers to fish passage just in the Burdekin catchment.

These various barriers have been constructed in times past when knowledge was lacking. We now as a community appreciate the many values of coastal ecosystems and generally the community supports their repair as a means of addressing the legacy of past decisions.

At the same time, a note of caution is necessary. in many cases there has been irrevocable loss. The art form in this Australia-wide Plan will be to identify the "easy wins" - where other public or private assets are not substantially at risk, the benefits well outweigh the costs and the overwhelming community asttitude supports repair works.

Objectives

1. Use case studies in NSW and Qld that build on previous activities and that demonstrate the multiple benefits and opportunities for further investment in connectivity & wetland repair
2. Develop an Australia-wide business plan suitable for 5 year investment that focuses on the remedial works, activities, planning, institutional arrangements and legislation to retain and repair ecological function in estuarine and wetland ecosystems
3. Present within 12 months the business case to a wide range of government, industry and community stakeholders so that understanding and support is fostered for the proposed investment initiative
4. Capitalise on a whole host of prior research and wetland mapping activities so that the Australia-wide business case is well foundered and demonstrates the return on investment from repair activities

Final report

ISBN: 978–0–992366–2-2
Author: Colin Creighton
Final Report • 2013-11-10 • 1.91 MB
2012-036-DLD.pdf

Summary

This project puts forward the proposal that stakeholders and government should concentrate on repair of the more developed coastal catchments around Australia where major investment and Australian Government leadership is required to re‐establish estuary productivity.

It seeks to deliver multiple benefits to the Australian community – to increase fisheries productivity, improve coastal water quality, enhance catchment hydrology, repair coastal biodiversity, finetune flood control, re‐establish carbon sequestration and reinforce foreshore buffering against extreme events.

The business case sets out the rationale and the priority opportunities for investment, to repair and restore, under a 'no regrets' policy, estuary and inshore wetland and floodplain areas. It seeks to maximise community benefits from these important parts of our landscape while minimising costs and impacts upon adjacent land users of the coastal zone.

It builds upon the Australian love of coastal landscapes and the resources they provide and the Australian community’s and political commitment to implement major natural resources initiatives such as the Natural Heritage Trust, Caring for our Country and the Biodiversity Fund. Like Reef Rescue and the National Action Plan for Salinity and Water Quality, the business case proposes a major focus, in this case on estuaries and their wetland ecosystems.

Most importantly, through ongoing fisheries productivity, the proposed once‐off five‐year Australian Government investment will return economic benefits year in and year out that will far outweigh the $350M costs of repairing these key estuary assets. Our estimates suggest a break‐even for investment is well less than five years and from then on benefits exceed costs forever.

Further repair and management investment will be required following the proposed once‐off five‐year agenda‐setting Australian Government investment. This business plan recognises this ongoing investment need. Similar to already successful schemes in USA and UK and building on schemes already underway in NSW and Victoria, this plan proposes various instruments and systems to ensure overall benefits can be incentivised into the future. This includes empowering industry groups, private landholders, Local Governments and communities to continue the repair of coastal assets and their management.

Keywords: climate change, estuaries, business case, coastal catchments, coastal zones, fisheries productivity

Project products

Report • 23.61 MB
2012-036-revitalising Great Barrier Reef estuaries and coastal wetlands.pdf

Summary

This proposal aims to increase fisheries productivity, improve coastal water quality, enhance catchment hydrology, repair coastal biodiversity and flood control, and re-establish carbon sequestration and foreshore buffering.
 
The business case sets out the rationale and the priority opportunities for investment, to repair and restore, under a 'no regrets' policy, estuary and inshore wetland areas. It seeks to maximise community benefits from these important parts of our landscape while minimizing costs and impacts upon adjacent land users of the coastal zone.
 
It builds upon the excellent cooperation and commitment across the Great Barrier Reef community in implementing major initiatives such as Reef Rescue. It proposes a five-year government investment that will repair key assets for maximum public benefit. Equally importantly, this investment will identify how best to ensure overall benefits can be incentivised into the future, empowering industry groups, private landholders, local governments and regional natural resource management groups to continue the repair of coastal assets and their management.
Report • 26.77 MB
2012-036 Revitalising Australia's Estuaries.pdf

Fostering strategic fisheries management responses to Australia's changing climate

Project number: 2009-074.40
Project Status:
Completed
Budget expenditure: $81,800.00
Principal Investigator: Colin Creighton AM
Organisation: Colin Creighton
Project start/end date: 15 Jan 2014 - 31 Oct 2014
Contact:
FRDC
TAGS
Stock Assessment
Indigenous
Habitat
Fisheries Management
Community

Objectives

1. Provide the information to foster an improved understanding of the implications of climate change on fisheries stocks, fishing effort and marine biodiversity, thereby providing input into Australian and state based fisheries management and policy.
2. Building on the climate adaptation imperatives and carbon sequestration opportunities of inshore habitat and the opportunities of “Direct Action”, foster works and activities that will ensure increased inshore productivity for professional, recreational and indigenous fishers.
3. Articulate the benefits of resourcing R&D for the key knowledge gaps across climate adaptation, carbon sequestration and inshore fisheries habitat and seek for FRDC co-investment partnership arrangements with key Australian Government agencies.
4. Review and evaluate to ensure a high standard of all draft milestone and draft final reports, remaining projects.

Final report

ISBN: 978-0-9923366-2-2
Author: Colin Creighton
Final Report • 2015-03-12 • 966.40 KB
2009-074.40-DLD.pdf

El Nemo National Fishing and Aquaculture Climate Change RD&E Coordination Program - Aquatic Biodiversity and Resources

Project number: 2009-074
Project Status:
Completed
Budget expenditure: $453,165.00
Principal Investigator: Colin Creighton AM
Organisation: Colin Creighton
Project start/end date: 24 Jan 2010 - 30 Dec 2013
Contact:
FRDC
TAGS
Stock Assessment
Indigenous
Habitat
Fisheries Management
Community

Need

The 4 key needs are:

1 - the need to ensure multiple investors - FRDC, DCC and States plus possibly DAFF all achieve the outputs and outcomes they seek from pooled investment while where possible also value adding on their core investment such as through inkind research contributions or other partnership opportunities. Importantly to ensure that the investment activity is collaborative in nature and focuses on the needs of end-users of the research outputs.

2 - the need to translate Climate Adaptation and Mitigation, somewhat long term and challenging policy concepts into meaningful and useful research outputs that Australia's fishing industry can adopt as part of their industry development and management planning [industry here is taken in its broadest sense to include commercial, recreational, indigenous and conservation outcomes]

3 - the need to select and then project manage to successful completion a key and agenda setting combination of research, communication and knowledge exchange activities

4 - the need to conceptually develop an integrated package of activities that while meaningful and useful as outputs in themselves also combine and synergise to produce higher level Program outcomes far greater in benefit to Australia's fishing industry than the component parts

Objectives

1. Program - to ensure the combined investment delivers outcomes for climate adaptation responses far greater than the individual projects
2. Investment - to facilitate wise and if possible additional investment additional to the initial investors of FRDC, DCC and DPI Vic with an outcome of increased scope and coverage in the research program.
3. Technical - to foster astute investment, selecting the projects of greatest potential benefit for Program outcomes while simultaneously ensuring a cohort of leading science practioners as motivated advocates.
4. Program Oversight - to provide a formal vehicle for Investor participation and direction in Program design, delivery and findings.
5. Communication - to foster planned and strategic communication activities about the program and its findings.
6. Adoption - to foster and share knowledge on the climate change imperatives.
7. Coordination - to ensure accountability and competent logistical support in the conduct of all program activities.

Final report

ISBN: 978-0-9923366-3-9
Final Report • 2014-09-15 • 7.01 MB
2009-074-DLD.pdf
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