6 results
Environment
PROJECT NUMBER • 2003-056
PROJECT STATUS:
COMPLETED

ESD Reporting and Assessment Subprogram: a social assessment handbook for use by Australian fisheries managers in ESD assessment and monitoring

In recent years, understanding the social side of fisheries and fishing industries has become increasingly important, particularly as part of processes reporting on ecologically sustainable development. This project was developed to provide a more structured approach to the way social assessments...
ORGANISATION:
Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry (DAFF) ABARES
TAGS
Sustainability
Stakeholder
Social Science
Social Science
Health And Safety
People

National atlas of fishing activities and coastal communities

Project number: 2002-223
Project Status:
Completed
Budget expenditure: $629,047.50
Principal Investigator: James Larcombe
Organisation: Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry (DAFF) ABARES
Project start/end date: 30 Jan 2003 - 1 Jul 2007
Contact:
FRDC
TAGS
Stock Assessment
Social Science
Social Science
Resource Sharing
Resource Sharing

Need

The proposal addresses a number of specific needs, as expressed in the FRDC research and development plan:

- Effects of fishing activities on fish and their ecosystems (Program 1, Strategy 3) - information on the spatial distribution and intensity of catch of species and effort is fundamental to assessing the effects of fishing on the environment. It is also very useful in assessment of individual stocks.
- Access to fisheries resources (Program 1, Strategy 8) - the distribution and value of fishing, as well as the potential social and economic impacts, is a vital consideration in multiple use planning (eg. Marine Protected Area planning).
- Fisheries and ecosystems management (Program 1, Strategy 10) - the proposal would make a significant contribution to ecosystem based and multiple use planning under the Regional Marine Planning process.
- Economic and social values of the industry and its impacts (Program 2, Strategy 2) - the proposal specifically aims to investigate socio-economic aspects of fisheries and connect these to marine resources. This will also assist in fulfilling ESD requirements.
- Community education (Program 3, Strategy 4) - the two major outputs (paper and web) will be widely available and comprise a valuable information resource for all Australians.

A tight schedule has been set for the development of Regional Marine Plans across Australia. Planning will require detailed information on the nature and extent of marine fishing activities. Nowhere has this information been drawn together to provide a body of data for use in regional marine planning. To ensure that the interests of the fishing industry are appropriately represented in the planning process it is important that accurate information is presented in a form that will be useful.

Similarly, the socio-economic nature of coastal communities and their degree of dependence on marine fisheries resources is poorly understood. The proposed research will provide a basis for identifying the social impacts of proposed changes to fisheries management arrangement and developing strategies for appropriate government interventions to reduce adverse impacts.

Objectives

1. To develop a strategy for the management of national fisheries data. The strategy will focus on partnership arrangements and agreements with custodian agencies, scheduled data maintenance and updating and systems of data distribution. The strategy will refer to marine and estuarine commercial fishing and aquaculture specifically but will also consider recreational and indigenous fishing.
2. To develop a strategy for collection and collation of social data on an ongoing basis for future resource management use.
3. To undertake a one off fisheries national fisheries data collection, within the context of the National Fisheries Data Strategy development. These data will focus on catch, effort, method, location and port of landing collected from logbooks and fishery returns.
4. To derive social, demographic and economic profiles of coastal communities from existing data (1991, 1996 and 2001 ABS census data
BRS, AFMA and ABARE data
state and local government and other data sources such as consultants reports etc.)
5. To relate mapped fisheries resource usage to coastal communities.

Final report

ISBN: 1-921192-01-1
Author: James Larcombe
Final Report • 2007-11-15 • 37.97 MB
2002-223-DLD.pdf

Project products

Publication • 2006-01-01 • 37.04 MB
2002-223-Marine Matters- Atlas of Australian Marine Fishing and Costal Communities.pdf

Summary

The Atlas of Australian Marine Fishing and Coastal Communities is the first Australia-wide, comprehensive and authoritative mapping initiative presenting an overview of Australian fishing activities and coastal communities.

The Atlas shows where fish are caught in Australia’s oceans, the value of those catches, where different fishing gears are used and the species that are taken. It also provides information on the socio-economic characteristics of coastal communities in eight Marine Regions around Australia.

This information has not previously been readily available at regional and national levels and therefore difficult to take into consideration when planning. The Atlas is comprised of two products, this document, Marine Matters National and a companion website featuring an interactive online mapping system (www.brs.gov.au/fishcoast).

Marine Matters National has been produced to inform decision makers responsible for the management of activities in Australia’s marine waters, and to aid the Australian and State/Territory Governments in developing and implementing policy initiatives. It is also a flexible and readily accessible information source for anyone with an interest in the management of Australia’s marine estate.

Publication • 2002-01-01 • 170.39 MB
Marine Matters- Atlas of marine activities and costal communities in Australia's South-East Marine Region.pdf

Summary

Marine Matters provides decision makers with a credible scientific resource for informing current and future marine and coastal planning initiatives.

It is the first comprehensive and authoritative description of the range and extent of human activities in the South-East Marine Region and their relationship to coastal communities. For the first time readers can see where fish are caught in Australia's oceans, the value of those catches, and find information on a wide range of industrial, recreational and other uses.

This Atlas also describes coastal communities in the Region, identifies those that depend on commercial fishing and gauges the potential social impacts of changing access to resources. It is a powerful platform to inform debate and decision making.

Industry
Adoption

Community perceptions of fishing: implications for industry image, marketing and sustainability

Project number: 2001-309
Project Status:
Completed
Budget expenditure: $104,065.00
Principal Investigator: Heather Aslin
Organisation: Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry (DAFF) ABARES
Project start/end date: 29 Aug 2001 - 30 Apr 2003
Contact:
FRDC
TAGS
Values &Amp; Ethics
Sustainability
Stakeholder
Marketing
Consumer

Objectives

1. To conduct focus groups with selected sub-groups of the Australian public to serve as a basis for developing a structured survey instrument.
2. To develop the survey instrument in discussion with the advisory group, conduct a pilot test of the instrument, and administer it to a statistically representative sample of the Australian adult population (18+).
3. To identify implications of survey findings for industry communication, education and marketing activities (from answers to knowledge, perceptions, attitudes and behavioral questions).
4. To identify implications of survey findings for ESD monitoring and reporting frameworks (behavioral questions in particular).
5. In discussions with the advisory group, to develop options and strategies for addressing any negative perceptions of the industry, identifying appropriate actions, agencies to implement actions, and methods for evaluating success of implementing options.
6. To communicate overall survey results to stakeholders in a meaningful and useful form.

Final report

ISBN: 0-642-47539
Author: Heather Aslin
Final Report • 2004-09-09 • 660.85 KB
2001-309-DLD.pdf

Summary

A pioneering national study of Australian public perceptions, knowledge and attitudes towards the fishing industry, has been completed. It covers the commercial, recreational and traditional  fishing sectors, and also examines seafood consumption and factors likely to affect future consumption. ‘Perception’ is used to refer to held beliefs or cognitions that may or may not be correct as judged by those with specialised knowledge of the industry. The traditional fishing sector, as used here, refers to subsistence fishing activities by Indigenous people. Indigenous Australians of course also participate in the commercial fishing sector.) The study involved a literature review; seven focus group discussions with a total of 63 members of the Australian public from a range of locations, ages and occupational groups; and a telephone survey of 1,004 Australian adults, 18 years and over, randomly sampled from the electronic white pages. While the final sample was reasonably representative of the general public in age distribution, it was somewhat skewed towards people with higher incomes. It is also acknowledged that voluntary telephone surveys like this one tend to have an over-representation of people who are interested in the subject matter of the survey. In this case, both recreational and commercial fishers and their views may be over-represented. These issues and their possibly influence need to be borne in mind in interpreting survey findings.
 
Survey findings indicate considerable community knowledge about recreational fishing and high participation, with twice as many men as women participating
(survey percentages were 58% of males and 29% of females participating over the year prior to the survey). Very few members of either the focus groups or telephone sample (collectively referred to as ‘respondents’) had direct experience with the commercial wild-catch sector or traditional fishing, but many focus group members knew about or had visited local aquaculture ventures. Respondents generally viewed recreational and traditional fishing and aquaculture positively, but not commercial wild-catch fishing. The telephone sample rated the sustainability of the different sectors in the order wild-catch (25% said it was sustainable); recreational (56%); traditional (64%), and aquaculture (77%). Respondents’ most important source of information about the industry was the mass media, particularly television. Recreational fishers relied more on books, magazines and fishing clubs than non-recreational fishers. Government and industry were very minor sources of information for most respondents and were not viewed as highly credible sources. Poor perceptions of the wild-catch sector suggest that much mass media information about this sector is negative, and there could be advantages in industry taking a more proactive media stance and trying to achieve better coverage of ‘good news’ stories. 
 
Members of most of the focus groups and the majority of survey respondents rated their knowledge of the industry as relatively low but interest levels higher (only 25% of the survey respondents thought they were ‘knowledgeable’ but 53% were
‘interested’), providing encouragement to those working to improve public understanding and knowledge of the industry. However, like similar surveys, the study concludes that unless they have a special interest, members of the public are unlikely to actively seek information about the industry nor to make much use of the sources they regard as most credible. Specific options for addressing poor public perceptions of the wild-catch sector include developing media campaigns in consultation with professional communicators; enlisting the support of media personalities to deliver messages; developing and disseminating popular material giving basic facts and figures about the sector and making it available in locations the public regularly uses; supporting production of television documentaries that provide a balanced perspective on wild-catch fishing and its contributions; and developing more integrated fisheries websites, preferably managed and maintained by community-based organisations that the public regards as credible. The industry could also develop more ‘on the wharf’ links to the public, for example by establishing fishing industry information sources within commercial precincts. 
 
To address low levels of public knowledge about the traditional sector, government and industry need to work with Indigenous organisations to develop communication strategies to raise public awareness of this sector and its economic and cultural contribution to Indigenous community well-being.
 
Study findings about community judgements of the sustainability of the different sectors, and the reasons for these judgements, could potentially be used in ESD reporting frameworks. In order to do this, ESD frameworks need to be made more meaningful to the community and less dominated by expert judgements and specialised knowledge. There may be particular problems with the meaningfulness of current fisheries’ jurisdictional and management boundaries. Better understanding of public perceptions, knowledge and behaviour obtained through social surveys could be a basis for re-working boundaries and reporting frameworks so that they relate better to community and local knowledge. In particular, high levels of participation and interest in recreational fishing justify attention to ways of making fisheries management more meaningful to the public and giving local communities a greater role in near shore fisheries management than they may have had in the past. Many community members appear to be engaged and interested but lack ways of being directly involved in management or monitoring. 
 
In terms of seafood consumption, a high percentage of respondents ate seafood (95% of the telephone sample). For those who did not eat it, their main reason for not doing so was taste, with other factors less important. The amount of seafood respondents purchased was likely to be influenced by price reductions (70% indicated this would influence them); labelling and certification about contamination and health risks (65%); labelling about freshness (59%); and labelling about environmentally friendly production (57%). These findings suggest potential to further influence seafood consumption patterns by expanding labelling and certification schemes.
 
Ongoing monitoring of social aspects of the industry, based partly on surveys like the one reported here, could provide the industry with important feedback about the success of its communication and information activities, complementing existing economic information about trends in production and consumption. 
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