10 results
Adoption
Environment
Industry
PROJECT NUMBER • 2016-116
PROJECT STATUS:
COMPLETED

Development of a 5-year sector and NT Strategic Research, Development and Extension (RD&E) Plan for Northern Territory fisheries and aquaculture based on priority needs of major stakeholder sectors

The Fisheries Research and Development Corporation’s (FRDC) Northern Territory Research Advisory Committee (NT RAC) recognised that a 5-year Research Development and Extension (RD&E) Plan was a major strategic need of the NT but acknowledged that there was limited capacity among sectors to...
ORGANISATION:
Fishwell Consulting Pty Ltd
Industry
People
PROJECT NUMBER • 2012-512
PROJECT STATUS:
COMPLETED

Review of structural and funding options for a peak body for the Queensland seafood industry

Queensland’s commercial fisheries produce about $250 million of seafood annually, and contribute more than 10% of Australia’s seafood production in both quantity and value. The fishing industry is diverse in species targeted, methods used and areas fished. There are around 1,500...
ORGANISATION:
Fishwell Consulting Pty Ltd
Industry
PROJECT NUMBER • 2014-207
PROJECT STATUS:
COMPLETED

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

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...
ORGANISATION:
Fishwell Consulting Pty Ltd
Environment
PROJECT NUMBER • 2019-072
PROJECT STATUS:
CURRENT

Multiple - Before After Control Impact analysis of the effect of a 3D marine seismic survey on Danish Seine catch rates

The project is a four phase research program being conducted in the Danish seine commercial fishery off Lakes Entrance that looks to: 1. Examine effect of seismic testing on Danish seine catch rates of Tiger Flathead 2. Examine effect of seismic testing on Danish seine catch rates...
ORGANISATION:
Fishwell Consulting Pty Ltd

Understanding factors influencing undercaught TACs, declining catch rates and failure to recover for many quota species in the Southern and Eastern Scalefish and Shark Fishery

Project number: 2016-146
Project Status:
Completed
Budget expenditure: $179,000.00
Principal Investigator: Ian Knuckey
Organisation: Fishwell Consulting Pty Ltd
Project start/end date: 31 May 2017 - 30 Jun 2018
Contact:
FRDC

Need

Despite the indicators of improvements in fish stock status for SESSF species, the fishery as a whole is failing to catch the TACs of many quota species. Moreover, catch rates for many quota species are continuing to decline despite the historically low levels of fishing effort. The fishery is not in an economic position where it can afford to operate below potential - this under catch equates to a considerable lost opportunity in both the financial value and the volume of fish available for the consumer. Net economic returns for the CTS have recently fallen to $1.4 million in 2013–14, the lowest level since the buyback. NER in the GHaT has been negative since 2008–09. Recent economc analyses (Pascoe pers comm) have revealed that if all vessels could catch the full recommended quota, revenues of the CTS would more than double, while the GHaT revenues would increase by around 24%. For the CTS, average vessel profits are likely to increase by between $200k and $500k, with an average increase of around $380k.

So, what is the cause of the current situation in the SESSF?

There are a variety of different reasons given for the SESSF's TAC undercatch, depending on who you talk to. Anecdotally, it has variously been attributed to reduction in fleet fishing capacity, effort reduction, legislative barriers, spatial closures, changed behaviour of operators, market factors, quota ownership and trading, cost of production, changes in catch per unit of effort, climate change and its impact on oceanographic conditions and potential range shifts of species. It is also quite likely that it is a combination of a number of the above factors.

What can be done?

With such a wide range of potential reasons, it is difficult to determine what further work is required to potentially address these issues in the SESSF. This project centres on development of background papers on each of the issues that will be presented at a workshop designed as the first step in clarifying stakeholder views on the underlying reasons and how they might be resolved in the future.

Objectives

1. Provide a range of papers with information on potential causes of undercaught TACs, declining catch rates and non-recovering species
2. Hold a workshop to discuss plausible reasons for undercaught TACs, declining catch rates and non-recovering species
3. Develop strategies to address the undercaught TACs, declingin catch rates and non-recovering species based outputs from Objective 1 and 2.
4. Develop a process for assessing non-rebuilding species.

Final report

ISBN: 978-0-9954122-9-3
Author: Peter O'Brien and Ian Knuckey
Final Report • 2017-06-06 • 8.29 MB
2016-146-DLD.pdf

Summary

Concerns about the ecological and economic sustainability of Australia’s Southern and Eastern Scalefish and Shark Fishery (SESSF) prompted major structural readjustment of the fishery in 2006 that significantly reduced the number of operators in demersal trawl, Danish seine and gill net sectors of the fishery.  A decade later, many of the ecological sustainability issues have been addressed and despite declining Gross Value of Production (GVP), there has been variable but overall improvement in net economic returns (NER) of the fishery.  There remains, however, a number of indicators in the fishery that may point to significant sub-optimal performance in terms of stock sustainability and fishery profitability as outlined below. 

At the end of the 2015/16 year, 23 of the 34 species groups under TACs were less than 50% caught. Of the major quota species, only four had catches above 80% of the TACs (Flathead, Gummy Shark, Pink Ling and School Whiting).

There has been a continual decline in catch rates for many quota species with a range of life histories.  Similar trends in decline over the last two decades have been observed for Jackass Morwong, Redfish, Blue Eye Trevalla, Silver Warehou, Blue Warehou, John Dory and Ribaldo, despite the lowest historical effort and catch levels in the fishery. Unstandardised CPUE across the fishery has declined for several years hitting an all-time low in 2015 and has remained at this level in 2016. Moreover, optimised CPUE standardizations for 23 species (including grouped species) and 43 different stocks, methods, or fisheries revealed 29 of the 43 SESSF stocks were found to have declining standardised catch rates.  

Historically overfished species (Eastern Gemfish, School Shark, Blue Warehou and most recently Redfish) have shown little sign of recovery despite over a decade of the lowest catches on record resulting from significant management changes under relevant rebuilding strategies
(including bans on targeting, implementation of industry driven avoidance measures, and implementation of spatial closures).  The overfishing and subsequent recent recovery of the eastern Orange Roughy stock over the last two decades is well documented – but it is an exception.  

There are many and varied reasons to explain these issues in the SESSF, but there has been no attempt at a coordinated approach to identify which factor/s may be the cause, much less how these may be addressed.  This project was designed to start this process.

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
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