3 results

Seafood CRC: addressing roadblocks to the adoption of economics in fisheries policy (2013/748.20 Communal)

Project number: 2013-748.20
Project Status:
Completed
Budget expenditure: $25,312.50
Principal Investigator: Caleb Gardner
Organisation: University of Tasmania (UTAS)
Project start/end date: 30 Sep 2014 - 29 Jun 2015
Contact:
FRDC
TAGS
Stock Assessment
Resource Enhancement
Individual Transferable Quota
Fisheries Management
Economic
SPECIES
Western Rock Lobster
Southern Rock Lobster
Royal Red Prawn
Giant Scarlet Prawn
Red Prawn

Need

Producing peer-reviewed publication on these topics is part of the suite of approaches aimed at increasing uptake of FH projects. Scientific papers enable exchange of ideas internationally. They are part of the process of changing fishery management which needs these types of outputs to defend decisions.

Objectives

1. Examination of the process of changing management in Australia resulting in the increased use of economics
2. Increase factual awareness of the potential for enhancement in Australia

Final report

ISBN: 978-1-86295-840-1
Authors: Timothy Emery Caleb Gardner Ian Cartwright and Anthony Hart
Final Report • 2015-09-04 • 652.83 KB
2013-748.20-DLD.pdf

Summary

This project has led to the development of three journal articles examining how the use of economic analyses and stock enhancement can lead to improved economic outcomes in Australian wild-capture commercial fisheries. The Seafood Cooperative Research Centre (Seafood CRC) Future Harvest (FH) projects identified some of the challenges and opportunities associated with implementing bio-economic approaches and stock enhancement within fisheries management frameworks. Much of this discourse was contained however in technical reports, newsletters and other project-linked documentation (e.g. milestone reports). Thus there was a need (and space) to document the adoption of bio-economics and stock enhancement within fisheries management frameworks, associated challenges and the process of change management in Australian fisheries within peer-reviewed journal articles.

Investigating options to improve bycatch reduction in tropical prawn trawl fisheries - a workshop for fishers

Project number: 2006-308
Project Status:
Completed
Budget expenditure: $55,548.90
Principal Investigator: Nick Rawlinson
Organisation: University of Tasmania (UTAS)
Project start/end date: 29 Sep 2006 - 15 Nov 2007
Contact:
FRDC
TAGS
Workforce
Stakeholder
Nutrition
SPECIES
King Prawns
Tiger Prawns

Need

A major leap forward in bycatch reduction can be achieved through improved knowledge of factors that affect BRD performance. This can be very effectively achieved in a workshop, focussing on discussion of BRD performance. A workshop also provides fishers an opportunity to discuss new, innovative solutions to bycatch reduction, as well as future directions for related R & D.

The proposal meets the research priorities of the ComFRAB in the following ways:

Innovative approaches to fisheries management: Bringing fishers together provides a unique opportunity for accelerated learning (about successful BRDs) in the industry. Innovative BRD designs will also be a focus of the workshop to provide a basis for new thinking and solutions to bycatch reduction.

Economics of fisheries: Improved BRD performance may translate to reduced codend drag and fuel consumption, improved catch value (per litre of fuel consumed) and possibly increased prawn catches through improved swept-area performance.

People and industry development: This workshop aims to help change the culture of the industry re use of BRDs from ‘minimise their impact’ to maximise their performance’. This change in thinking has occurred for TEDs but the leap has not been made for BRDs. Effective BRDs (in conjunction with the already effective TEDs) will substantially reduce the ecological impact of prawn trawling and improve the reputation of prawn-trawl fisheries.

Cross-fishery issues: This workshop has application to all Australian prawn-trawl fisheries, especially the NPF, Qld ECTF and the Torres Strait fishery, and fishers, managers and researchers from each of these will be involved in the workshop.

This workshop also meets a (high) research priority of NORMAC and QFIRAC by contributing to the development of effective bycatch reduction devices.

Objectives

1. Increase fishers knowledge of latest developments in bycatch reduction.
2. Assess a suite of innovative options to reduce bycatch and their potential application to the fishery.
3. Engage fishers and others in the identification and uptake of suitable BRDs for tropical prawn trawl fisheries.
4. Engage fishers and others in the development of a coordinated plan for future BRD R & D.

Final report

ISBN: 978-1-86295-495-3
Author: Nick Rawlinson
Final Report • 2010-05-18 • 935.44 KB
2006-308-DLD.pdf

Summary

Since 2000 the use of bycatch reduction devices (BRDs) and turtle excluder devices (TEDs) has been a mandatory requirement in most tropical prawn trawl fisheries in Australia. Despite this period of mandatory use, the number of BRD designs has remained largely unchanged and their performance can, at best, be described as modest. In the Northern Prawn Fishery (NPF) tiger prawn fishery, these devices typically exclude less than 8% of small-fish bycatch (Brewer et al., 2006), while in the Queensland’s East Coast Trawl Fishery (ECTF) less than 20% of bycatch is excluded (Courtney and Campbell, 2002). Attempts in both fisheries to improve bycatch reduction have commonly been accompanied by prawn loss, and this acts as a disincentive for further BRD development.

In 2004 the need to develop more effective BRDs was discussed at the FRDC R&D workshop in Cairns. At this time it was suggested that a workshop should be convened for fishers to discuss ways to improve BRD performance and to develop new, innovative options to reduce bycatch. This notion received widespread support by participants at the workshop. Subsequent discussions with NPF and Queensland fishers have also confirmed a need to improve BRD performance, both to reduce prawn loss and improve bycatch reduction.

In November 2006 a two-day workshop was held in Cairns, Queensland. 58 people, including presenters from overseas as well as 21 fishers, net makers and fleet managers, attended this workshop.

In July 2007 a short workshop was held in Darwin prior to the opening of the tiger prawn season. A total of 20 fishers attended this meeting plus representatives from the fishing companies based in Darwin.

This workshop included the pre-season briefing for the NPF by officers from the Australian Fisheries Management Authority (AFMA) and a summary of the options for bycatch reduction that were discussed at the Cairns workshop. 

The proceedings of these two workshops have been compiled into a report entitled ‘Options to improve bycatch reduction in tropical prawn trawl fisheries’.

Keywords: Bycatch reduction, tropical prawn trawl fisheries.

Spatial and seasonal stock dynamics of northern tiger prawns using fine-scale commercial catch-effort data

Project number: 1999-100
Project Status:
Completed
Budget expenditure: $44,681.00
Principal Investigator: Malcolm Haddon
Organisation: University of Tasmania (UTAS)
Project start/end date: 28 Nov 1999 - 24 May 2002
Contact:
FRDC
TAGS
Stock Assessment
Mortality
Modelling
Fishing Effort
Fisheries Management
SPECIES
Tiger Prawns

Need

The current assessment of the Northern tiger prawn fishery is based upon a separate analysis of the fishery for each of the two species (Wang & Die, 1996). An alternative stock modelling approach, which considered both species together (Haddon, 1997, 1998), supports the results of the first method but is somewhat more pessimistic. This alternative model provides an independent view of the status of the tiger prawn stocks and the uncertainties affecting the analysis are also different. That both approaches produce a similar conclusion (that the stocks appear to be vulnerable and fishing mortality is currently too high to be sustainable in the long term), increases confidence in the conclusion that there are serious problems with the fishery.

A weakness of the alternative model is that it is based upon commercial catch-effort data summarized over the statistical reporting areas and for each year. It is likely that this aggregation of catch and effort data is obscuring or biasing details of the stock dynamics. If the seasonal fishing behaviour of the trawl fleet, in terms of its use of the fishing grounds, has altered either in a steady manner or over shorter periods, this could have large implications for the real status of the tiger prawn stock which may have been obscured by the aggregation of the commercial catch-effort data. This may lead to the stock appearing to be more stressed than it is in reality. To test whether the alternative model is overly pessimistic, and to refine the analysis of stock dynamics, it would be necessary, using the same approaches as in the earlier model, to investigate stock and fleet dynamics at finer spatial and temporal scales.

The proposed modelling should reduce uncertainty over the present status of the tiger prawn stocks.

Objectives

1. Determine whether the spatial and temporal scales of fleet behaviour bias the interpretation of the tiger prawn stock dynamics when analyzed by a non-equilibrium stock-production model.
2. Prepare NPFAG Working Papers which will include full descriptions of the model structure, data analyses, and potential management implications.
3. Communicate to the Northern Prawn Fleet and Industry the results of the analyses in a format such that the implications become clear to everyone and that permits comments and criticisms by Industry members.

Final report

Author: Malcolm Haddon
Final Report • 2001-11-13 • 684.70 KB
1999-100-DLD.pdf
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