90 results
Industry
PROJECT NUMBER • 2011-750
PROJECT STATUS:
COMPLETED

Seafood CRC: bio-economic model for SA prawn trawl fisheries

In recent years Australian wild catch prawn fisheries have had to compete with increasing volumes of cheaper, aquacultured imports. This has resulted in reductions in prawn prices and reduced profitability for prawn fisheries. Historically, the primary focus of management for these fisheries has...
ORGANISATION:
SARDI Food Safety and Innovation
TAGS
Wild Catch
Nutrition
Aquaculture
SPECIES
King Prawns
Blank
PROJECT NUMBER • 2016-003
PROJECT STATUS:
COMPLETED

King George Whiting spawning dynamics in South Australia’s southern Gulfs: to inform improved assessment and management of the resource

This study investigated the spawning dynamics of King George Whiting (Sillaginodes punctatus) in South Australia’s southern gulfs and Investigator Strait. King George Whiting is one of the most valuable and iconic coastal finfish species of southern Australia. In South...
ORGANISATION:
SARDI Food Safety and Innovation
TAGS
Stock Assessment
Reproduction
Rac Sa
Modelling
Genomics
SPECIES
King George Whiting
Industry
PROJECT NUMBER • 2013-713
PROJECT STATUS:
COMPLETED

Seafood CRC: Understanding and reducing the risk of paralytic shellfish toxins in Southern Rock Lobster

This report details the results of a multifaceted a research program led by the South Australian Research and Development Institute (SARDI). The work was undertaken to assist the rock lobster industry to understand food safety risks from a toxin naturally accumulated in the lobster hepatopancreas....
ORGANISATION:
SARDI Food Safety and Innovation
TAGS
Toxin
Food Safety
Disease
Biotoxin
SPECIES
Southern Rock Lobster
Environment
Environment
PROJECT NUMBER • 2016-055
PROJECT STATUS:
COMPLETED

Field trials to experimentally test if alternative sea lion excluder devices (SLEDs) adequately prevent Australian sea lions from entering rock lobster pots

This project tested the efficacy of two new sea lion excluder devices (SLEDs) in preventing entry of seals into southern rock lobster (Jasus edwardsii) pots designed by fishers from the South Australian Northern Zone Rock Lobster Fishery (NZRLF). Since 1 November 2013, the use of a spike SLED has...
ORGANISATION:
SARDI Food Safety and Innovation
TAGS
Physiology
Fishing Technology
Fishing Gear
Bycatch
SPECIES
Southern Rock Lobster
Industry
PROJECT NUMBER • 2013-746
PROJECT STATUS:
COMPLETED

Seafood CRC: optimising the size and quality of sardines through real-time harvest monitoring

In order to improve the commercial profitability and sustainability of the South Australian Sardine Fishery (SASF) there was a need to establish improved monitoring and harvest management practices based on an understanding of Sardine habitat preferences. In this project, the South Australian...
ORGANISATION:
SARDI Food Safety and Innovation
TAGS
Rac Sa
Harvest Strategy
Habitat
Fisheries Management
Disease
SPECIES
Sardines
Environment
PROJECT NUMBER • 1998-208
PROJECT STATUS:
COMPLETED

Habitat modification and its influence on prawn and crab fisheries

Experimental trawling in Gulf St Vincent indicated that epifaunal assemblages experienced substantial trawling mortality, which varied depending on sediment characteristics. Locations with strong currents and coarse sediments experienced minimal effects, whereas those with weak currents and...
ORGANISATION:
SARDI Food Safety and Innovation
TAGS
Population Dynamics
Harvest Strategy
Habitat
Fishing Gear
SPECIES
Blue Swimmer Crab
Sand Crabs
King Prawns
Environment
PROJECT NUMBER • 2011-072
PROJECT STATUS:
COMPLETED

SRL IPA: assessing the feasibility of spatial management in the South Australian Northern Zone Rock Lobster (Jasus edwardsii) fishery

The Northern Zone rock lobster fishery of South Australia is extensive covering an area of approximately 207,000 km2. As a result, number of spatial management options are currently being considered which focus on the far-west and deep-water regions of the fishery. Currently, levels of commercial...
ORGANISATION:
SARDI Food Safety and Innovation
TAGS
Stakeholder
Mortality
Fisheries Management
Education
Biomass

Tactical Research Fund: a reporting framework for ecosystem based assessment of Australian prawn trawl fisheries

Project number: 2011-062
Project Status:
Completed
Budget expenditure: $68,000.00
Principal Investigator: Stephen Mayfield
Organisation: SARDI Food Safety and Innovation
Project start/end date: 31 May 2012 - 31 Mar 2013
Contact:
FRDC
TAGS
Fishing Gear
Fisheries Management
Ecosystem
Awareness

Need

There is a growing need to establish fishing industries as environmentally sustainable within Australia and internationally. The needs stems from both an economic marketing aspect and a growing community expectation. It is also important for fishing industries to understand that they contribute to marine impacts on a broader ecological scale. Whilst the principles of Ecosystem Based Fishery Management (EBFM) have been established for over a decade, it is only in recent years that EBFM frameworks have begun to be developed and applied by Government agencies (e.g. Fletcher et al 2010, West Coast Bioregion of Western Australia).

The environmental impacts of benthic trawl fisheries require greater attention than most other fishing methodologies, primarily due to their impact on the benthic environment, by-catch species and associated communities. As a critical impactor on marine bioregions, it is important that future ecological research for benthic trawl fisheries is prioritised and conducted in a manner that fits within a broader EBFM framework.

Concomitantly, there is an increasing interest from fishing industries to seek third-party certification of environmental sustainability for eco-labelling of their products and subsequent market advantage. These Program's require fisheries to meet standards that are often higher than the levels required by the Commonwealth Government to meet conditions of the EPBC Act. Although such accreditations are accompanied by substantial documentation of management practices, it is difficult for non-accrediated fisheries to benchmark themselves against accredited "best practice" industries.

This project aims to develop a reporting framework for environmental assessment of prawn trawl fisheries in Australia. By using the Marine Stewardship Certification accredited Spencer Gulf Prawn Trawl Fishery as a case study, the report will provide other Australian prawn trawl fisheries 1) a benchmark of third party accredited environmental management, and 2) a tool for prioritising and conducting their own ecological research within an EBFM framework.

Objectives

1. Develop a reporting framework for environmental assessment of Australian prawn trawl fisheries following the principles of Ecosystem Based Fisheries Management
2. Using the Spencer Gulf Prawn Trawl Fishery as a case study, collate and analyse existing data/information to address the environmental impacts of prawn trawling on: bycatch/byproduct, TEPs, benthic habitats, and trophodynamics
3. Using the Spencer Gulf Prawn Trawl Fishery as a case study, identify priorties for future research to underpin Ecosystem Based Fisheries Management

Final report

ISBN: 978-1-921563-70-6
Author: Stephen Mayfield and Simon Clark
Final Report • 2014-12-12 • 3.63 MB
2011-062-DLD.pdf

Summary

This Tactical Research Fund Project has been undertaken by SARDI Aquatic Sciences in response to the Spencer Gulf Prawn Fishery’s (SGPF) need for an ecosystem-based reporting framework to support ongoing Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) certification. We reviewed the relevant literature to identify an appropriate reporting framework, assessed the data available for the SGPF, and its suitability for use in ecological assessment, developed a conceptual ecosystem-based assessment framework for the fishery and highlighted the research required (i.e. knowledge gaps) for full implementation. The approach developed would be of use to other prawn trawl fisheries that were seeking a transition from target-species to ecosystem-based assessments to underpin ecosystem-based fisheries management (EBFM) and ecologically sustainable development (ESD).
 
There is worldwide recognition of the need to move beyond single-species fisheries management to a more comprehensive understanding of the impacts on the ecosystem in which fisheries operate. ESD concepts were expanded into a global action plan at the UN Conference on Environment and Development in Rio de Janeiro in 1992 and ratified by countries including Australia, leading to the National Strategy for ESD and the Commonwealth Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (EPBC Act 1999). EBFM facilitates ESD and has been recognised worldwide as having the potential to provide a mechanism for integration of ecosystem attributes into fisheries management. For EBFM to be effective, development of appropriate frameworks to integrate ecological and target species data are required.
 
Prawn fisheries are an important contributor to Australian fisheries production (17,000 t valued at $266 million in 2011/12; Skirtun et al. 2013). Given the evolving need to manage fisheries in a more ecologically sensitive manner, there has been increased environmental awareness of the biological impacts of trawling. Whilst these impacts are difficult to assess because of the complexity of the biological communities and frequent limited understanding of their variability, there is an opportunity to establish a framework for ecosystem-based assessment of the SGPF that could be broadly adopted across benthic prawn trawl fisheries in Australia.
 
The SGPF operates in Spencer Gulf in South Australia (SA), produces approximately 1,800 t of Western King prawns annually, and is the third most valuable prawn fishery in Australia ($30.3M in 2010/11) behind the Queensland East Coast Otter Trawl Fishery ($90M) and Commonwealth Northern Prawn Fishery ($62.2M).
 
The overall aim of this project was to develop an environmental reporting framework for Australian prawn trawl fisheries using the SGPF in SA as a case study. Our approach included (i) a review of relevant literature to identify an appropriate reporting framework; (ii) a review of data available for the SGPF, and its suitability for use in ecological assessment; (iii) development of an ecosystem-based assessment framework for the SGPF including identification and development of potential performance indicators; and (iv) the research required (i.e. knowledge gaps) to fully develop the necessary ecological performance indicators for full implementation.
 
Despite the substantial, diverse, often long-term data sets available for the SGPF, most of the data have been collected for stock assessment of the target species. This resulted in development of a conceptual, rather than a complete ecological assessment framework. Implementing ecological assessment in the SGPF requires further development of relevant performance indicators and reference points across each of the five key ecological components identified as important for fishery management – (i) habitats; (ii) ecosystems (ecological communities/trophodynamics); (iii) target species; (iv) non-target species including by-product and by-catch; and (v) threatened, endangered or protected species (TEPS) – and the development of a framework linking ecological and target species assessments (with decision rules to drive management decision making through the formal management plan for the fishery). While some potential performance indicators, reference points and decision rules have been developed through this project, successful implementation necessitates that these should be developed collaboratively. This process should include at least Primary Industries and Regions SA (PIRSA) Fisheries and Aquaculture, Spencer Gulf and West Coast Prawn Fishermen’s Association (SGWCPFA), SARDI and the Conservation Council of SA (CCSA) and needs to recognise the considerable spatial and temporal (both inter-annual and seasonal) variation evident in the five key components across Spencer Gulf and the numerous potential impacts on the Spencer Gulf environment (e.g. other fisheries, aquaculture, shipping, harbours and wharfs, pollutants, climate change).
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