9 results

Professionalising Industry - NSW Pilot

Project number: 2013-024
Project Status:
Completed
Budget expenditure: $200,000.00
Principal Investigator: Lowri Pryce
Organisation: OceanWatch Australia Ltd
Project start/end date: 9 Jun 2013 - 31 Jul 2014
Contact:
FRDC

Need

This application is in response to the priorities identified in the NSW FRAB's recent stakeholder priorities workshop (developing the professional credentials of the NSW Fishermen).

This pilot will assist the NSW SFM Pilot (CRC Project MB079) and SSA EOI (AS015), by ground-truthing the industry on-ground components of the Responsible Fishing Scheme within the NSW context, but will be designed and implemented to keep the national context as a future capability.

In addition, the application is in response to, and addresses the need of, the FRDC R&DE Priorities areas as follows; Program 1: Environment (Theme 4 - Ecologically sustainable development),Program 3: communities (Theme 10 - Resilient and supportive communities) Program 4: People development (Theme 12 - Workforce development) (Theme 13 - Innovation skills) and Program 5: Extension and adoption.

The project will also embrace previous industry development research outputs not extended to stakeholders including the ASIC Code of Conduct for a Responsible Seafood Industry and the Sydney Fish Market Seafood Handling Guidelines, as well as lifting the profile of the existence, contents and benefits of industry adopted codes of practice amongst NSW fishers.

Extension of the project outcomes will also have the potential to provide a mechanism for expressing industry’s values (both individual and as collectives) to communities and other stakeholders, by highlighting the environmental credentials of participating fishermen .

Objectives

1. Gain industry support for uptake of CoPs in NSW and industry training and accreditation
2. After feedback from industry, review and align current NSW Estuary fishery Code of Practice to FAO (international)and ASIC (national) codes -
3. Develop training materials for fishers focussing on fishing practices fishery regulations and environmental best practice aligned with the Seafood Training Package
4. Train NSW SeaNet Officer in Cert 4 Workplace Training and Assessment
5. Deliver training workshops to fishers as a pilot, assess and accredit against training package competencies
6. Acknowledge successful participants as "Master Fishermen"
7. Create interactive database of supporting information
8. extend results of the project to stakeholders and consumers

Tactical Research Fund: Effectiveness of larger mesh size in reducing the capture of juvenile target species in select NSW ocean beach seine operations

Project number: 2008-036
Project Status:
Completed
Budget expenditure: $32,805.00
Principal Investigator: Dave Cranston
Organisation: OceanWatch Australia Ltd
Project start/end date: 30 Mar 2008 - 1 Dec 2008
Contact:
FRDC

Need

This application is an industry initiative aimed at reducing the incidental bycatch of juvenile target species encountered in ocean deployed beach seines. This project will not only empower industry members with instilled confidence in their gear, but also assist in addressing the potential conflict between the two user groups.

There is genuine concern regarding the capture of significant proportions of juveniles whilst targeting migratory schools of bream, tarwhine and luderick predominantly; when using currently legislated beach seine net specifications.

A beach seine net can be divided into three 3 main sections: anterior wings, posterior wings and the bunt/codend. Current legislation prescribes a maximum mesh size of 86, 65 and 65mm respectively for these sections.

Recently, (Wooden, unpublished) investigated the use of alternate net configurations and the use of morphological data in ocean and estuary deployed beach seines. In brief the study indicated:
(i) Current configurations of NSW beach seines are inappropriate for maximizing size selectivity for nearly
all retained species,
(ii) Morphological data can be used to predict and trial appropriate mesh sizes to reduce
bycatch and
(iii) No significant physical or physiological damages resulted from juvenile bream escaping from a
modified beach seine with a mesh size of 102mm (in simulated laboratory experiments).

Anecdotal information from numerous sources on landings of juveniles in conventional beach seine gears, identifies the need for further research on certain gear components of the ocean beach seine fishery. Proposed investigations (beach seine net constructed entirely of 102mm mesh) aim to further improve size selectivity and eliminate the unwanted capture of juvenile target species.

The research proposed in this application clearly relates to the vision of the fishery and directly addresses many objectives listed under Goal 1 & Goal 2 of the FMS and addresses FRDC’s high priorities responding to strategic challenge 1.

Objectives

1. 1. To examine and quantify the effectiveness of larger than prescribed mesh size in reducing the capture of juveniles in ocean beach seine operations targeting ground-fish species.
2. 2. Provision of information that support management decisions for the long term benefit of the resource and users.

Final report

ISBN: 978-0-9750797-4-4
Author: Dave Cranston
Adoption
PROJECT NUMBER • 2003-012
PROJECT STATUS:
COMPLETED

Hoppers in action: a handbook for fishers on the use of hoppers in Australian prawn trawl fisheries

This project has provided an opportunity to consolidate all literature currently available on existing knowledge and technology relevant to the use/research of hoppers. It has demonstrated that there are clear gaps in the research and that it is imperative that further work be undertaken to...
ORGANISATION:
OceanWatch Australia Ltd

Workshop to develop a national strategy for hopper R&D in Australian prawn trawl fisheries

Project number: 2002-100
Project Status:
Completed
Budget expenditure: $10,000.00
Principal Investigator: Christine Soul
Organisation: OceanWatch Australia Ltd
Project start/end date: 3 Sep 2002 - 1 Jul 2003
Contact:
FRDC

Need

It has been suggested that the use of hoppers in prawn trawl fisheries can minimise the effects on bycatch species. Preliminary results from both the Queensland pilot study and research in SA’s Spencer Gulf Prawn trawl fishery support these suggestions. The uptake of hoppers in Australian prawn trawl fisheries is increasing, however, a coordinated and cooperative research approach to quantitatively determine the effects of hoppers has not been attempted.NORMAC’s Bycatch Action Plan has identified research into the effects of hoppers on bycatch survival as a ‘high priority’. The East Coast Trawl Plan also includes the need to reduce bycatch by 40% by 2005 and flags that hoppers could assist achieve this target. SARDI have proposed that hoppers, used as part of a suite of bycatch mitigation devices, could improve bycatch survival.

Objectives

1. Coordinate and run a facilitated workshop to identify and document a national approach for research on hoppers in Australian trawl fisheries
2. Develop a framework to deliver a coordinated and cooperative national hopper research project
3. Identify and bring together key project stakeholders from research and industry to develop this framework
Environment
PROJECT NUMBER • 2003-063
PROJECT STATUS:
COMPLETED

Adoption of an environmental management systems by NSW commercial estuary fishers and oyster farmers

This project has provided estuary fishers and oyster farmers across NSW with an opportunity to develop an Environmental Management System (EMS), based on ISO 14001 Environmental Management Systems for their businesses. The main driver for each group to develop an EMS was primarily improving...
ORGANISATION:
OceanWatch Australia Ltd
Communities
Industry
PROJECT NUMBER • 2000-146
PROJECT STATUS:
COMPLETED

Developing environmental management standards for the Australian seafood industry

The purpose of this report is to illustrate the value of EMS as a management tool for seafood businesses to achieve their environmental, economic and social goals and in achieving broader natural resources management goals associated with fishing and aquaculture as well as demonstrating to the...
ORGANISATION:
OceanWatch Australia Ltd
Environment
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