Given the growing importance of social science research in the seafood industry – or recognition of its relevance – there’s a need to consolidate what we have done in the past, and to look to the future. The workshop will do both. In the past, there has been a tendency for social science to be reactive – to ‘autopsy’ – a crisis in the industry after it has happened (or to be invited to autopsy the crisis by the industry). One of the key gaps in the design of social science research is the capacity to anticipate issues and design responses that can enhance the adaptability of the industry, both socially and economically. In order to do so the discipline needs to be communicating effectively with each other in regards to best-practice methodologies for working effectively with industry. We also need to situate our research within a global context that anticipates and speaks to international imperatives, challenges and frameworks (e.g. FAO Voluntary Guidelines for Securing Sustainable Small-Scale Fisheries in the Context of Food Security and Poverty Eradication. In the Australian context the potential issues to be engaged with at the workshop may include; sharing the fish (resource sharing, property rights, global food security); adaptability (fishing as livelihood, practice, culture, in a climate of rapid change and need for adaptation and innovation); research practice, data and decision support (how can social dimensions be monitored and incorporated more formally into decision making?; what innovations in social science practise are needed?).

This study will provide a better understanding of the importance of scale relationships between benthic habitat, oceanography, and biology and their independent and interactive impact on larval dispersal, settlement and productivity in the Victorian blacklip abalone Haliotis rubra, and southern rock lobster Jasus edwardsii fisheries. Understanding the scale of these relationships is critical for spatial management in determining the sharing of responsibility between Government as the regulator and Industry as the lead for the implementation of voluntary and appropriately scaled management strategies.

Population dynamics, habitat availability, complexity, and physiography determining dispersal, settlement, survivorship and growth need to be considered in order to understand the primary drivers of productivity on local geographical scales, and the resilience of fishing stocks to fishing pressure and threats associated with environmental change, including pests and disease. Importantly, and pertinent to species such as southern rock lobster with prolonged planktonic larval phases, understanding these dynamics on broad spatial and temporal scales will assist in determining the dependency of Victorian fisheries on interstate recruitment sources.

These factors will be explored using a multidisciplinary approach involving geospatial, oceanographic and biophysical modelling, and genomic technologies providing industry with a framework for guiding future management decisions. Outputs from this study will provide industry with data and guidelines for assessing the resilience or vulnerabilities of specific fishing stocks to overharvesting or environmental disturbance, and the potential for natural replenishment in the event of stock depletion. Ultimately this will help guide where stock restoration and enhancement activities are needed to catalyse recovery, or where reef closures may be beneficial for recovery.

Populations dynamics, habitat availability and physical environmental features influencing stock structure need to be considered in order to devise spatially effective management strategies. The need for demographic information at the genetic level is accentuated by the advent of Abalone Viral Ganglioneuritis (AVG) and associated stock depletions in the region in recent years. The genetic component of this project will determine the current genetic condition of abalone stocks and provide a framework for post-AVG stock recovery planning.

For the first time, detailed seafloor structure information to depths of ~25 metres for the entire western abalone zone of Victoria is available. Whilst this information has primarily been collected by DSE Future Coasts Program for the assessment of coastal vulnerability, there is an opportunity to apply the data to determine the spatial extent of individual reef systems, connectivity between reef patches, and the relationships between seafloor structure information and genetic connectivity of abalone populations. The availability of these data also provides a unique opportunity to collate spatially-explicit fishery dependent data available for the western zone into a geographical information system (GIS) and integrate with LiDAR-derived seafloor information using a range of spatial analysis techniques. These data will facilitate investigations of abalone habitat suitability, identification of productivity hotspots (providing indications of productivity in relation to reef extent), and reef characteristics and environmental variables most influencing abalone habitat suitability.

Further, the integration of geospatial and genetic data will provide longer term benefits by feeding into the WADA reef-scale assessment and management system

Strategic research theme: Ecologically Sustainable Development; Victorian Abalone Fishery Management Plan (2002)- Need for better understanding of temporal and spatial aspects which will allow for management on a more refined spatial scale than is currently the case; ACA Strategic Research Plan (2007–2017) Platform 3: Harvest Optimisation, Objective 2f, 3h.

The development of this proposal is strongly supported by the Australian Southern Rock Lobster Council who want sustainable development. The council realises the need for research, monitoring and extension, so that future management issues inherited with the OCS transition can be addressed. Issues such as limitation of access, pot numbers, sustainable yield, compliance with regulations and optimisation of product value, will all require a firm knowledge base for consideration.

The major problem is to establish the intermoult period so that growth rates can be established.

In terms of population structure we have a reasonable picture so far, however the price differential for the crabs indicates product value could be optimised by selective harvest of a range of smaller sizes. This option could not be initiated without real time data on population structure. Given the current history of depletion in some areas of the fishery, the consideration of this option in the absence of such information, would lead to overfishing and mismanagement.

The crabs wide geographic distribution (straddling 11 management areas), the changeover in jurisdictional responsiblity, its status as a developing fishery and its $11 million per annum value are justification for a continued effort on the species. It would be foolish to squander an Australia-wide effort involving industry, scientists and government, at the time when states are working to formalise managment of the fishery; to discontinue research when information is most needed. Managers will not have the advice they need if the resource is handled peicemeal by the new array of jurisdictions, however this project offers an existing cost effective network and an overview that will provide most of the information needed to deal with the fundamental issues.

The future of the Giant Crab fishery is a national resource development issue.