Communication and extension have been identified by the Board as a priority activity on which more work is needed. In particular the last three AOP's for FRDC identified two key priorities under Challenge 5: Community and consumer support:
• Educate the community about fisheries and aquaculture management and its contribution to Australia.
• Communicate the benefits of government and industry investment in R&D.

As outlined under ‘Consultation’, the fishing industries have identified development of improved public communication packages based on easily understood information on sustainability of fish and fisheries as a high priority. At present the fishing industries have very little information available in a format that can be used to defend the industries’ status with regard to its long term sustainability and to demonstrate the effectiveness of Australian fisheries management.

Oceanwatch Australia, after identifying the need for the development of basic information on key species in a usable format, undertook a scoping project with co-investigator Professor Bob Kearney. This project provided an excellent template for the information, analyses and outputs required for this FRDC project. Oceanwatch Australia has agreed for the information developed in its study to be used and built on in this FRDC project.

As the seafood sustainability debate in Australia moves forward, the dialog is increasingly not just between industry and government, but also with a range of marine conservation-focused NGOs. Industry needs positive dialog with these groups to build up trust and ultimately cooperation on sustainability issues.

Fishers have often been blamed for much that is wrong with the marine environment. However fishers understand that fishing and conservation are natural bedfellows as their livelihood depends on sustaining the ocean ecosystem and the resources within.

The seafood industry therefore needs to highlight the long-term benefit of balancing the need for conservation against the need for food and other services. In the UK there is a broad seafood industry perspective that fishers must be recognised as an essential part of building a sustainable future for the marine environment.

Phil, has been working in this field for the UK seafood industry for the past 20 years. Initially engaging with environmentalists when the rest of the industry thought it was 'crazy' to do so. He successfully managed to bridge the gap between conservationists, industry and government and for the last 10 years has run the UK's sustainable fishing advisory group, which brings together industry, conservationists and government membership.

It is felt that the seafood industry would greatly benefit and gain positive outcomes from the experience Phil has gained over the last 20 years. This is an opportunity to improve the communication, respect and cooperation between industry and conservationists that is so sorely needed.

The Australian Seafood Industry Council (ASIC) and other key industry bodies continue to support the holding of a biennial national seafood industry conference to review and discuss priority issues affecting the seafood sector and to use this forum as a means of providing the basis for future planning and direction.

The success of the previous Seafood Directions conferences substantiate the need for future conferences to facilitate industry involvement in the development of industry goals and objectives.

There is an urgent need in the marketplace for adoption of a well recognised, well understood, practical, rapid and scientifically based quality index for fresh seafood. This need is critical as the industry moves inexorably towards adoption of electronic marketing (such as Sydney Fish Markets SFMlive system), trading, remote selling and increased exports to discriminating markets.

This index must be in a form that is readily understood and can gain wide acceptance both domestically and internationally giving advantages to industry in meeting consumer demands through:
- Grading;
- Shelf life prediction;
- Improving buyer certainty;
- Supply chain management;
- Conflict resolution; and
- Education and training.

This project is designed to meet these highly demanding ‘whole of chain’ needs by capitalising on previous research knowledge gained in projects funded by predecessors of FRDC. This knowledge has been taken up in Europe and refined into the Quality Index Method (QIM) (see www.QIM-Eurofish.com) now widely adopted by industry. It is not only used in electronic auctions and by buyers seeking top product but is also the preferred sensory assessment reference method in all the European fish research laboratories and is on the road to becoming the approved EC official reference method. European research has shown that for QI schemes to be accurate they need to be developed / refined for each specific species.

This project is designed to be a pilot programme to undertake the necessary research and development to tailor the QI for application under commercial circumstances to a number of Australian species. It will also define a strategy for the cost effective commercial role out to other species.