8 results

Tactical Research Fund: Developing a management framework and harvest strategies for small scale multi-species, multi-method community based fisheries, using the South Australian Lakes and Coorong Fishery as a case study

Project number: 2013-225
Project Status:
Completed
Budget expenditure: $60,000.00
Principal Investigator: Ian Knuckey
Organisation: Fishwell Consulting Pty Ltd
Project start/end date: 10 Oct 2013 - 10 Feb 2014
Contact:
FRDC

Need

There are inherent challenges in managing small scale multi-species, multi method fisheries, particularly in a community based fishery context, which require careful consideration in the development of appropriate harvest strategies. While there is a significant degree of targeting involved in multi-species fisheries, the majority of target species will not always be caught during individual gear sets, and the species composition of the catch may be spatially or temporally specific. It can be difficult to ensure that all species caught are fished sustainably (and not only the target species) because species have various life-history characteristics and productivities, and different degrees of susceptibility to the gear. Many species are caught by a variety of gears and it is often difficult to account for all sources of mortality in assessments and the different life stages targeted by particular gear types. The development of harvest strategies for data-poor fisheries presents additional challenges in attempting to reconcile available information and capacity with formal, defensible strategies that achieve the desired objectives for the fishery and fisheries legislation. There is a need for harvest strategies, particularly for community-based fisheries, to be easily understood and accepted by key stakeholders, pragmatic and cost effective.

The LCF is a small scale multi-species, multi-method community based fishery located at the end of the Murray-Darling system and is subject to varying environmental conditions (drought and flooding). The primary target species include Pipi, Yellow-eye Mullet, Golden Perch, Mulloway, Greenback Flounder and Black Bream. A number of other marine, estuarine and freshwater species (native and exotic) are also taken. The fishery contributes to the socio-economic well-being of regional coastal communities in the Lakes and Coorong region through commercial and recreational activity and harbors significant cultural and spiritual significance for the Ngarrindjeri people.

Objectives

1. Identify the attributes required in an environmentally limited fishery that can be used to determine optimal management frameworks.
2. Develop a set of performance indicators that can be used to support management of an environmentally diverse suite of species in a highly variable ecosystem.
3. Develop a framework that supports more flexible and adaptive management processes to provide for business adaptability and structural adjustment in the Fishery while limiting effort to the appropriate sustainable level.
4. Create a management framework that can be adapted for use across a range of small scale multi-species, multi-method community based fisheries.

Final report

ISBN: 978-0-9873286-9-4
Author: Ian Knuckey
Final Report • 2015-02-25 • 3.42 MB
2013-225-DLD.pdf

Summary

The commercial Lakes and Coorong Fishery (LCF) operates at the end of the Murray-Darling Basin where the river system meets the Southern Ocean, encompassing a diverse range of freshwater, estuarine and marine habitats and communities.  This multi-gear fishery targets a range of species including Pipi (Goolwa cockle - Donax deltoides), Mulloway (Argyrosomus japonicus), Yelloweye Mullet (Aldrichetta forsteri), Black Bream (Acanthopagrus butcheri), Greenback Flounder (Rhombosolea tapirina), Golden Perch (Macquaria ambigua), and Bony Bream (Nematalosa erebi) as well as the introduced fish species European Carp (Cyprinus carpio) and Redfin (Perca fluviatilis).  

The outputs of this project will be used to improve the performance of the LCF and will be directly incorporated into the development of harvest strategies developed for finfish species under the new fishery management plan due in 2015. The longer term outcome from this project is that the approach used to develop this management framework can be adapted to other similar fisheries around Australia. Using the capacity of the Australian Fisheries Management Forum, the development of fishery management frameworks and performance indicators will be provided to other jurisdictions to support fishery management improvement in other small-scale, multi-species, multi-method, community-based fisheries.

Keywords: Harvest Strategy, small-scale fisheries, Lakes and Coorong Fishery, data-poor fishery

Indigenous Capacity Building Program

Project number: 2017-069
Project Status:
Completed
Budget expenditure: $194,892.00
Principal Investigator: Ian Knuckey
Organisation: Fishwell Consulting Pty Ltd
Project start/end date: 31 Aug 2017 - 29 Nov 2019
Contact:
FRDC

Need

Presently, there appears to be no existing program that is suitable for Indigenous participants to gain a basic understanding of fisheries management processes and governance structures, and an introduction to leadership skills. There is also no program that provides fisheries managers and researchers with experience in understanding indigenous fishing and culture. This two-way gap is considered to be a barrier to increasing participation of Indigenous Australians in participating in a range of fisheries management, policy and research and development processes. Recognising this, the FRDC issues a call for expressions of interest to address this gap on 3 May 2007.

Objectives

1. Develop a national, culturally appropriate capacity building program for involvement of Indigenous Australians in fisheries management.
2. Build capacity of 20 Indigenous Australians to participate in a range of fisheries management, policy and research and development processes by increasing their knowledge, skills and experience of fisheries research concepts and practices, current approaches to fisheries management and policy, fishery governance structures, understanding of, and capacity to participate in relevant committees and workshops and providing an introduction to leadership and building leadership knowledge.
3. Increase the understanding of managers, researchers and MAC and RAG members of potential contributions of Indigenous Australians and cultural aspects of their own engagement processes.
4. Foster an ongoing legacy of the project to enable capacity building to be undertaken regularly as required.

Final report

ISBN: 978-0-6480172-6-4
Authors: Ian Knuckey Jill Briggs Matt Koopman and Matt Woods
Final Report • 2020-03-01 • 4.61 MB
2017-069-DLD.pdf

Summary

This project aimed to address the need to increase the number of Indigenous Australians with capacity to engage in management and governance of fisheries and aquatic resources, by developing a capacity building program with supporting materials and conducting capacity building activities with several groups of Indigenous people. In consultation with the Indigenous Reference Group, educational materials were developed covering technical components of fisheries management and science, formal meeting processes and leadership skills. A three-day interactive workshop was held in Brisbane and in Adelaide, each featuring a series of videos and PowerPoints.  Printed summary sheets were provided. At the request of the Torres Strait Regional Authority, an additional workshop for 14 Protected Zone Joint Authority members was held. A total of 40 Indigenous people from around Australia took part in the workshops. The videos feature Indigenous presenters and case studies aligned to Indigenous fishing practices and they promote Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, their cultures and connection to fisheries to other stakeholders. The materials produced can be used across Australia to empower Indigenous participation in sustainable fisheries management.  They are now being utilised in a subsequent four-year project by the Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment to foster more effective engagement of representatives of Indigenous, recreational and commercial fisheries with Commonwealth fisheries management processes.

More information: ian@fishwell.com.au

Project products

Film/Video

Summary

This YouTube series features six videos produced by Fishwell Consulting as part of FRDC Project 2017-069 and covers the following topics:

  1. introduction to the Indigenous Traditional Owners involved in the project
  2. factors that impact on fish populations
  3. explanation on how the changing status of fish stocks are assessed
  4. different ways that fisheries are monitored and managed
  5. meeting formalities to ensure important messages from the Indigenous people get heard
  6. the importance of why Indigenous people are involved contemporary fisheries managemen

More information

https://www.fishwell.com.au/project/project-4

Assessing the feasibility of an industry-based fishery-independent survey of the SEF

Project number: 2002-072
Project Status:
Completed
Budget expenditure: $87,033.00
Principal Investigator: Ian Knuckey
Organisation: Fishwell Consulting Pty Ltd
Project start/end date: 1 Dec 2002 - 30 Aug 2006
Contact:
FRDC

Need

This proposal is part of a strategy co-ordinated by SEFAG and SEF Research Committee aimed at addressing the need for fishery independent survey data.

In order to address this broader need, SEFAG and SEFMAC Research Committee have identified two more immediate needs.

1. The need to build industry support for this initiative is paramount. As identified by SEF Research Committee, SEF industry members have little faith in the use of commercial catch rates as an index of abundance because they are substantially influenced by quota availability, market demands and environmental conditions. The concern that they express is that short term variability due to these factors will be interpreted and acted upon by managers as a change in actual abundance. In other countries where long-term industry-based surveys have been conducted, however, the fishery independent indices have made it possible to remove the influences of quota and market demand and quantify the impact of environmental variability on catch rates. This has made it possible, over time, to standardise survey catch rates for the impact of environmental effects. Exposing members of the SEF community to this international experience should go some way to addressing these concerns and building support.

2. If it is to succeed, there is a need to develop a cost-effective and statistically robust design for a long-term program of industry-based surveys. To build support and move towards implementation it is necessary to develop a survey design. Obviously any survey design needs to be cost-effective and capable of providing statistically robust indices of abundance. With an a agreed survey design members of the SEF community can start considering a concrete proposal for implementation and assessing the costs and benefits of proceeding with implementation.

Objectives

1. Conduct a power analysis of the shot-by-shot data collected by the ISMP project so that an initial assessment can be made of the sampling intensity that will be required to develop robust indices of relative abundance on the basis of trawl surveys.
2. Design and hold a workshop involving industry, scientists, managers and invited experts with experience with industry-based surveys in multi-species, shelf edge and slope fisheries like the SEF.
3. Develop industry support for implementing industry-based surveys.

Final report

ISBN: 978-0-9756006-2-7
Author: Ian Knuckey
People
Industry
PROJECT NUMBER • 2015-204
PROJECT STATUS:
COMPLETED

Realising economic returns of reducing waste through utilisation of bycatch in the GAB Trawl Sector of the SESSF

Fisheries bycatch reduction and utilisation is an important topic in the western world in both policy and research developments. At an international level, the FAO Code of Conduct for Responsible Fisheries directs management agencies and fisheries to reduce discards through development and...
ORGANISATION:
Fishwell Consulting Pty Ltd
Environment

The social drivers and implications of conducting an ecological risk assessment of both recreational and commercial fishing - a case study from Port Phillip Bay

Project number: 2014-207
Project Status:
Completed
Budget expenditure: $184,765.00
Principal Investigator: Ian Knuckey
Organisation: Fishwell Consulting Pty Ltd
Project start/end date: 17 Jul 2014 - 29 Jun 2016
Contact:
FRDC

Need

Port Phillip Bay is an important and complex fishery that is utilised by both commercial and recreational sectors. Snapper and King George Whiting are key species taken by both the commercial and recreational sectors within the Bay, but there are many other shared stocks as well. As a result, there has been conflict between these fishers in Port Phillip Bay for a number of decades, but this has recently culminated in campaigns to ban all commercial net fishing in the region. Although loosely based on claims about the environmental impact of commercial fishing, there are also complex social drivers that underpin these campaigns.

Simply understanding the catch of these species by the two sectors does not portray the potential issues that need to be addressed for shared access to the fishery. Fisheries management has transitioned from a species-based to an ecosystem-based framework that requires the implementation of ecological risk assessments (ERAs) to fully understand the impact of the fishing activities on the target species as well as the broader environment. To date there has been no ERA of commercial and recreational fishing in the Bay, but the results of an ERA alone do not address the important social issues underpinning the conflict. Overall, there is a need to provide scientifically defensible information on all these issues, if fisheries management of Port Philip Bay is going to encompass shared access to its resources by the commercial and recreational sectors and other stakeholders.

Objectives

1. Understand the full range of issues underpinning resource sharing by commercial, recreational and other stakeholders in Port Phillip Bay fisheries
2. Develop a framework for assessing the social and ecological issues in Port Phillip Bay fisheries
3. To undertake a qualitative ecological risk assessment of the Port Phillip Bay fishery, including both the commercial and recreational sectors
4. To identify the most significant ecological risks to the ecologically sustainable development of fisheries in Port Phillip Bay
5. Make recommendations for improved cross-sectoral management of Port Phillip Bay fishery resources

Final report

ISBN: 978-0-9954122-0-0
Authors: Knuckey I. Brooks K. Koopman M. and Jenkins G.
Final Report • 2017-11-17 • 5.38 MB
2014-207-DLD.pdf

Summary

This project assessed the social and ecological issues associated with fishing (commercial and recreational) in Port Phillip Bay, Victoria. Port Phillip Bay (including Corio Bay) is a large (1,950 km2), semi-enclosed, tidal marine embayment with a narrow entrance (Anon, 1973). Much of the Bay’s 264 km catchment is inhabited, incorporating Victoria’s two largest cities: Melbourne (population ~4.2 million) and Geelong (population ~225,000). Victoria’s major commercial shipping ports — Melbourne and Geelong — also operate in Port Phillip Bay, requiring dredged shipping channels. The Bay is one of Victoria's most popular tourist destinations for people simply wanting to enjoy the beach or undertake activities such as fishing, boating, yachting, swimming, snorkelling and SCUBA diving.

Empowering industry through improved understanding of stock assessments and harvest strategies

Project number: 2010-306
Project Status:
Completed
Budget expenditure: $237,385.00
Principal Investigator: Ian Knuckey
Organisation: Fishwell Consulting Pty Ltd
Project start/end date: 31 Aug 2010 - 29 Jul 2012
Contact:
FRDC

Need

Participation of Industry and recreational members in the stock assessment process is vital and there is a real need for succession planning in MACs and RAGs. Their input provides important observations and anecdotal information that can help to interpret trends in the data, improving the quality and completeness of stock assessments and recommendations made. Furthermore, it can foster a better understanding of the science behind stock assessments, and create more support for buy-in of subsequent management policies. Without Industry and recreational sector participation, catch and effort data would be used with only a limited understanding of the factors that influence these data, beyond what is collected in logbooks and by observer programs. Participation, however, is more effective if they have a working knowledge of the data collected and processes and models used to assess fish stocks. This will lead to more efficient, beneficial, informative participation in the stock assessment process, and overall, better stock assessment and management of the fishery. Industry and recreational understanding of harvest strategies and stock assessment processes will also improve the level of co-management that can be achieved in a fishery.

Despite improvements in the assessment and harvest strategy process over the last decade, their remains a great deal of industry frustration / misunderstanding about how this translates into management decisions. Having spoken to many industry members during this time, we know that much (but not all) of this frustration is a direct result of lack of knowledge about assessment techniques and assumptions and how these interplay with the harvest strategy. Once they ahve acquired this knowledge, Industry members, with their extensive experience on the water, become extremely valuable members of RAGs / MACs and can help improve the assessment and management process and the understanding of other members.

Objectives

1. Identify a possible suite of capacity building approaches that would suit commercial and recreational fishers and assist them to actively participate in resource assessment groups through improved understanding of stock assessments and harvest strategies.
2. Determine the most suitable suite of capacity building approaches for commercial and recreational fishers through testing with selected fishers.
3. Use the results of objective 2 to deliver capacity building to a broad group of fishers in 3 case-study Commonwealth fisheries.
4. Review the efficacy of the capacity building undertaken in the 3 case studies.

Final report

ISBN: 978-0-9873286-4-9
Author: Ian Knuckey
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