There is little information about the affect of ghost fishing in Australia’s fisheries and more importantly in one of Australia’s most economically important seafood resources, the rock lobsters- yet, preliminary research would suggest that ghost fishing is significant in the NSW rock lobster fishery. The environmental assessment process of the FMS for the NSW rock lobster fishery identified the need to quantify ghost fishing and find methods to alleviate this impact if necessary (Objective 1.1b of the FMS for the NSW rock lobster fishery). Information about the impact of ghost fishing is important in the FRDC Research and Development Plan (2005-2010) under strategy challenge #1 Natural Resource Sustainability

Results of the small scale pilot study in mid-shelf waters off the NSW south coast (Attachment 1) have shown that ghost fishing does occur in at least one part of the fishery. Considering the variability in water chemistry, bottom topography, oceanographic conditions and fishing operations across the fishery, there may be differences in rates of survival of lobsters and in times taken for traps to degrade among areas. Further investigations of ghost fishing and time taken for traps to break down and allow escape of contained lobsters are required across a broader spatial scale. In particular, investigations are required on the north coast of NSW, where the presence of larger lobsters and higher water temperatures likely result in greater metabolic rates, nutritional requirements and different behaviour of lobsters.

Investigation of ways to reduce losses of head-gear, traps and subsequent unaccounted fishing mortalities associated with ghost fishing and theft of lobsters is also indicated. Experiments concerning the effectiveness of scarificial panels in traps and the cost-effectiveness of acoustic releases for "at call" access to sunken head-gear will address these issues.

The SRO industry has the potential to exploit new export initiatives and increase production. Any resurgence in the industry will depend on SOCo’s ability to manage the development and supply of selectively bred oysters. FRDC has fostered this process by supporting breeding programs and hatchery research, whilst encouraging industry management of technology. The Benzie Report, Oyster Research Advisory Committee (ORAC) R&D Strategic Plan and the Action Plan developed at the FRDC-funded QX workshop in June 2005 have all indicated that effective management strategies for the SRO industry must be underpinned by; 1) the continued development of oyster husbandry techniques to secure QX resistant breeding lines, and, 2) the identification of genes associated with QX disease resistance that can be used for marker-assisted selection. These complementary research goals represent a critical step in “QX proofing” NSW estuaries against ongoing and catastrophic QX disease outbreaks. Continued research may also allow farming to be re-established in areas abandoned because of QX disease. Integration of genetic markers and single pair mating into the hatchery-based breeding program will increase the efficiency of selection, and decrease the number of generations required to establish true breeding resistant lines. Without marker assisted selection, the breeding program may not reach its full potential in time to prevent further losses.

A comprehensive presentation on the SRO industry will be given during the FRDC board’s visit to Port Stephens in July 2006.

In NSW, inherent variation among the characteristics of different estuarine fisheries has resulted in a range of physical modifications designed to improve the selectivity of conventional gears. While some of these designs have been effective in reducing the bycatches of unwanted species by up to 95%, rates of reduction more commonly range between 30 and 70%. Such reductions have obvious benefits for the stocks of bycatch species. considering the magnitudes of bycatches in many estuarine fisheries, and especially those targeting prawns (i.e. often 1000s of fish per haul), it is apparent that despite the use of modified gears, in nearly all cases there still remains some capture and mortality of unwanted individuals.

To augment the post-release survival of unwanted bycatch throughout nearly all of NSW estuarine fisheries (including those involving static gears, where no BRDs have been developed), ancillary options within the second category of input controls (listed above in B2) need to be investigated. The sorts of modifications that warrant examination include, defined soak times for gears, devices to limit predation on discarded bycatch, netting materials in codends that reduce damage to bycatch, the use of gloves to handle bycatch, and the utility of separating target and bycaught species in water after capture.

The majority of these operational and/or post-capture handling procedures have NOT been examined, but have the potential to significantly reduce the remaining impacts of commercial fishing gears on non-target species and sizes in NSW’s estuaries. This is one of the main research priorities detailed in the Fishery Management Strategy for the NSW Estuary General Fishery and comprises a key category within the 2004-2007 Strategic Research Plan for Fisheries, Aquaculture and Aquatic Conservation in NSW. Quantification of the utility of this category of input controls would also have benefit and application throughout all other coastal fisheries in Australia.

The research will form the basis of a PhD candidature. This approach is justified because (i) the work is new and there is sufficient intellectual content to support a PhD student, (ii) there is a paucity of researchers with higher degrees working in the applied fields of gear technology and bycatch mitigation in Australia and (iii) previous, similarly-structured FRDC projects (e.g. 93/180 and 2001/031) have resulted in successful PhD candidatures by project staff. Specifying a PhD candidature formalizes what would already occur if funding was sought for a Fisheries Technician, but at approx. 1/3 the cost, while attracting a substantial in-kind contribution from affiliated institutions (the National Marine Science Centre and University of New England).

By-catch from fishing methods is one of the most significant issues facing the world’s fisheries. Over the past decade or so, researchers in Australia, the US and Canada have been quite successful at reducing some of the more serious by-catch problems, particularly those concerning the huge discarding and wastage problems associated with trawling. Various projects have shown that the most effective way of reducing discards is to follow a staged scientific protocol involving: (i) identifying and quantifying by-catches to determine places and times of particularly problematic by-catches and (ii) doing experimental tests of modified fishing practices that reduce the identified by-catches. The ONLY way to achieve the first, quantification stage accurately is to have scientific observers going out on typical fishing trips to record information on catches and discards (these are termed Observer Programmes). Significant advances in identifying and quantifying by-catches have been made in several countries, including Australia, the US and Canada through Observer Programmes. As well as quantifying bycatches and discarding, Observer Programmes have proven invaluable in providing information on levels of compliance of commercial fisheries to regulations and codes of conduct. They also provide excellent material for biological work on species that would otherwise be very expensive or problematic to collect (e.g. gut contents, sizes, age information, otoliths etc.), operational information on fleet dynamics and changes in fishing effort. Such programmes are also increasingly being used as on-deck extension and educational services, teaching fishers first-hand about a range of scientific, compliance and management issues.

In 1998, Fisheries and Oceans Canada and the United States’ NOAA Fisheries sponsored the first of a series of biennial international conferences on Fisheries Observer Programmes. This series of conferences (previously held in Seattle, St. Johns and New Orleans) brings together the key stakeholder groups, scientists, technicians and managers responsible for the design, management and safe delivery of at-sea fisheries observer programs throughout the world. It provides the main international forum to address the many facets of these very important data-gathering programmes. NSW Fisheries has been successful in the bid to host the 4th International Fisheries Observer Conference in Sydney in November 2004.

The hosting of this conference in Sydney has been discussed and endorsed at the last 3 meetings of the AFMF Research Committee.