Commercial fishers believe that immediate action is required to improve the economic viability of the Moreton Bay Trawl Fishery (MBTF). Challenges relate to inefficiencies and resource utilisation, specifically (i) gear efficiency; (ii) harvest rules; (iii) fuel consumption; (iv) over-capitalisation; (v) seasonal closure effects on deployment of capital; (vi) harvesting for market demand; and (vii) environmental impacts of the fishery. In addition, the fishery is operating in a global environment of falling prawn prices and increasing fuel prices.

Exacerbating these challenges is the recent implementation of the Moreton Bay Marine Park Zoning Plan. In addition to loss of fishing grounds for conservation, the State Government’s Marine Park Structural Adjustment Package, which sought to remove active fishing licences from the Bay, failed to address effort displacement. This has led to reduced economic yield from fished areas and increased ecological impacts. The impacts to fishers include increased competition in open areas, higher steaming, social and labour costs, and market impact through targeting sub-optimal product. In summary, the ecological, social and economic costs to fishers have increased.

The rising costs of production have motivated fishers to address profitability. Harvest strategies aimed at optimising economic performance would help address these issues and potentially offer the MBTF greater resource security.

Implementation of harvest strategies may be improved by changing the regulatory framework of the fishery. This would provide benefits from a compliance, monitoring and reporting perspective. Currently, the 10 year review of the Queensland East Coast Trawl Fishery Management Plan is underway. Whilst the primary objective of the review is to update the Plan with respect to delivering the best long term economic benefits for society through effective and sustainable management of Queensland’s fisheries resources, it also provides an opportunity for regulatory change for improved harvest strategies in the MBTF

Training is needed, for fish farmers, technicians & veterinarians in all Australian States, for increased vigilance with respect to early disease detection, diagnosis, control and eradication of newly emerging endemic and exotic fish diseases. Northern States of Australia (NT, Qld) are at greatest risk for disease incursions, via the vast expanse of the States & Territories, remoteness of farms, illegal trade of fish, fish products, shipping movements (over 13 ports in Qld), people movement and the proximity of northern Australia to Indonesia, PNG and Asia. Early fish disease detection and eradication is necessary to protect the Biosecurity of the Australian Fish Farming industry, and prevent disease spread within and between States.

The continued annual growth of the barramundi & freshwater fish industries in all Australian States precipitates the need for farmer training for disease detection at the grass-roots level for farm workers to detect, control and treat fish disease, and thereby reducing disease risk to aquaculture enterprises and fisheries resources.

A specific training workshop is needed to train fish farmers, technicians, fisheries officers, vets, with hands-on, practical, technical skills & knowledge by Aquatic Animal health Professionals, so skills can be practically applied on farms during disease epizootics, investigations, and disease emergencies. This is needed to support continued growth, productivity, & sustainability of the Australian Fish farming Industry, disease being a limiting factor. This Workshop is needed to support on-going disease reporting activities by all States to DAFF, OIE and NACA, allowing continuation of Australian trade in fish and disease-free status.

Recreational fish stocking is widely practiced throughout Australia and has delivered considerable benefits to anglers and substantial economic flow-on effects have been previously documented in some fisheries (Rutledge et al. 1991). The long-term “success” of freshwater fish stocking in Queensland and other States is, however, contingent on demonstrating that it is an ecologically sustainable practice having no detrimental effects on wild populations and ecosystems. Some environmental groups and government agencies (e.g. Wet Tropics Management Authority) are now questioning if freshwater fish stocking is a sustainable activity and the Threatened Species Scientific Committee considered a nomination to list the introduction of live native or non-native fish into Australian watercourses that are outside their natural geographic distribution as a key threatening process. One of the criteria that fisheries managers now use for assessing freshwater fish stocking applications is the risk that they pose to local aquatic communities, although there is very little real information on the likely ecological and genetic impacts of native freshwater fish stocking activities to support this decision making process. This type of information is therefore urgently needed if our stocking industry is to adopt “world’s best practice” to ensure future sustainability.
These same concerns were expressed at a recent FRDC national expert workshop “Towards responsible native freshwater fish stocking” where the potential ecological and genetic impacts of fish stocking, particularly for barramundi and Murray cod, were nominated as the most pressing research and management issues. This proposed project and another being developed on Murray cod, are part of a coordinated national response to these critical issues.

Over two decades ago Dr Burke Hill (in the FIRTA report on Queensland's Mud Crab Fishery) recommended a trial period allowing the take of females provided there was a monitoring programme in place to evaluate the result. Such a trial has not yet been implemented, and while much excellent work on mud crabs has been done in recent years, it is not sufficient to answer the 'big-picture' question of sustainability.

Information based on empirical data is needed to inform the Mud Crab Fishery Management Plan development process. At present there are many points of view about the relevance and need for the SSHP, but there is little hard evidence.

For some years industry has argued for a relaxation of the legislation, bringing it into line with that in NSW and NT. However without scientific evidence management is reluctant to change the status quo, and in turn FRDC has been unwilling to fund the necessary work because of a perception that the recommendations may not implemented. DPI&F is now actively seeking ways to improve the profitability of the State’s fishing industry, and a relaxation of the SSHP has been endorsed by all parties as one way to achieve this aim.

There are two primary issues that need addressing in relation to changing the SSHP – sustainability and profitability. The risks associated with both need to be determined objectively before a decision can be made to progress any investigation into the effects of the policy.

The project aligns closely with the DPI&F joint priorities of industry profitability and sustainability, and directly addresses QFIRAC Key R&D Topic #3 - A critical evaluation of management strategies to optimise the soci-economic value of portunid crab fisheries, particularly in terms of the potential value and/or ecological impact of altering the current single-sex harvest policy in Queensland.

The indigenous development scholarship is part of the suite of professional development opportunities developed and managed through the FRDC people development program. This particular scholarship addresses the following objectives of the people development program 2008-2013:

Objective 1 Enhance industry leadership within all sectors
and; Objective 3 Provide opportunities for knowledge transfer and R&D adoption

The significant drivers identified in the FRDC people development program, addressed by this project
are:
- There is a shortage of industry leaders in all sectors of the fishing industry.
- There is an urgent need to develop people within all sectors who have the skills to effectively contribute to debate and policy development for significant challenges, including access to fish resources.
-Early career researchers and emerging industry leaders lack opportunities for formal mentoring and
professional development.
-There is a shortage of opportunities for people in industry to develop skills that are going to directly
improve business profitability and sustainability.
-The industry is geographically dispersed and fragmented, and needs opportunities to learn within and
across sectors.