Seafood CRC: innovation in traceability for the Australian seafood industry” Austral Fisheries/Northern Prawn fishery case study
Seafood CRC: A community intervention approach to increasing seafood consumption.
Seafood CRC: Centre of Excellence Science Seafood & Health (CESSH): Post Harvest Research Program
Enhancing the understanding of the value provided to fisheries by man-made aquatic structures
The north west of Western Australia has productive commercial and recreational fisheries and extensive offshore oil and gas (O&G) infrastructure. These man-made structures support a range of demersal and pelagic fishes which are targeted by recreational and commercial fishers. As this O&G infrastructure reaches the end of its productive life, decisions on the best practice option for decommissioning must be made. The current policy for decommissioning requires complete removal. Regulators may support alternative strategies, such as leaving infrastructure in place, if risks and impacts are minimised and there are clear environmental, social and economic benefits to do so. It is thought that removal of infrastructure will decrease catch rates and have negative ecological, economic (direct and downstream) and social consequences.
At the same time as the discussion is occurring about removing O&G infrastructure, there have been large investments in constructing and installing purpose built man-made aquatic structures on the seafloor for the express purpose of enhancing the experience of recreational fishers and SCUBA divers.
There is a need to deliver critical information on: 1) the ecological, economic and social value of these man-made structures to recreational and commercial fishers and other stakeholders; 2) the attitudes of stakeholders to man-made structures; and 3) the opportunities and risks of decommissioning strategies to fishers and other groups (e.g. tourism).
Policy regarding the removal of decommissioned structures will benefit from the increased clarity that this project will provide in regards to data requirements for socio-economic models and stakeholder consultation methods. Comparative assessments of decommissioning options rely on the existence of appropriate socio-economic data, a knowledge gap this project aims to fill. An understanding of the impact of man-made aquatic structures on recreational and commercial fisheries is a global priority, and as such this project has strong international importance and relevance.
Final report
Passive acoustic techniques to monitor aggregations of sound producing fish species
Seafood CRC: new opportunities for underutilised species
Approximately 25,000 tonnes of finfish is not harvested in Australia each year, even though operators are licensed to do so. This is because the fish have a low market value (leatherjacket), are difficult to process (Boarfish), are very fragile and require an exacting supply chain to reach the market in satisfactory condition (sardines, Australian Salmon) or are harvested from remote areas with inadequate support infrastructure. Additional tonnage is harvested but directed to low value products such as pet food, bait and aquaculture feed (sardines, mackerel, silver warehou, bonito tuna). There are also areas (e.g. Western Deep Trawl) where little is know about the fishery resource and potential
for commercialization. And there are also fish discarded after being caught due to low market value or insufficient space for storage. Each of these under-utilised species can be used to produce high quality, fresh and processed products that could help meet the increasing demand for seafood.