26 results
People
PROJECT NUMBER • 2009-712
PROJECT STATUS:
COMPLETED

Seafood CRC: future harvest theme leadership

The CRC has developed the Future Harvest theme business plan to deliver the following outcomes: Fisheries management delivering maximum benefit from the resource while maintaining stocks above sustainability indicators Novel management strategies in place which increase economic yield from...
ORGANISATION:
University of Tasmania (UTAS)
TAGS
Training
Sustainability
Rac Wa
Harvest Strategy
Fishing Effort
SPECIES
Western Rock Lobster
Southern Rock Lobster
Blacklip Abalone
Greenlip Abalone
Prawns
Industry
PROJECT NUMBER • 2016-208
PROJECT STATUS:
COMPLETED

Waste to profit in urchin fisheries: developing business opportunities to ensure fishery sustainability and safeguard reef dependent fisheries from destructive urchin grazing

This report examines two potential applications of Longspined Sea Urchin (Centrostephanus rodgersii) via pitot scale trials; processing waste as an agricultural fertiliser and use as Southern Rock Lobster bait. The biochemical composition of Longspined Sea Urchin waste products was analysed, and the...
ORGANISATION:
University of Tasmania (UTAS)
TAGS
Rac Vic
Rac Tas
SPECIES
Sea Urchins
Environment
Environment
PROJECT NUMBER • 2012-027
PROJECT STATUS:
COMPLETED

Determining when and where to fish: Linking scallop spawning, settlement, size and condition to collaborative spatial harvest and industry in-season management strategies

Spatially explicit harvest strategies employed in the southeast Australian commercial scallop fisheries aim to buffer against recruitment variation to increase both production and continuity between seasons. As part of these harvest strategies, biomass surveys determine areas to be opened the...
ORGANISATION:
University of Tasmania (UTAS)
TAGS
Workshop
Rac Tas
Habitat
Economic
SPECIES
Commercial Scallop
Adoption
PROJECT NUMBER • 2017-049
PROJECT STATUS:
COMPLETED

Monitoring abalone juvenile abundance following removal of Centrostephanus and translocation

A new system of Abalone recruitment modules (ARMs) have proven to be successful in collecting juvenile abalone in Tasmanian waters. This design was subsequently transferred to the Eastern Zone, Victoria, where IMAS staff and Eastern Zone Abalone Industry Association (EZIZA) members installed ARMs at...
ORGANISATION:
University of Tasmania (UTAS)
TAGS
Reproduction
Rac Vic
Fisheries Management
Depredation
SPECIES
Blacklip Abalone
Sea Urchins

Tasmania's Marine Atlas

Project number: 2019-111
Project Status:
Completed
Budget expenditure: $455,936.36
Principal Investigator: Myriam Lacharite
Organisation: University of Tasmania (UTAS)
Project start/end date: 31 Dec 2020 - 30 Dec 2023
Contact:
FRDC
TAGS
Rac Tas
Modelling
Habitat
Ecosystem
Community

Need

Marine spatial planning (MSP) has emerged in recent years as a tool for sea use management. However, MSP requires adequate and accurate information on the biophysical state and usage of the marine environment. Such data often exists, but generally not in a format which allows several data layers to be overlaid in order to identify potential conflicts/trade-offs.

Marine information management and data science are developing areas of research addressing how to easily access, collate and use multiple disparate sources of data to support marine ecosystem and resource management. Significant efforts are made to standardize the collection, reporting and open access to marine data in existing databases and platforms, but these platforms commonly use specific (and differing) sources and types of data. Challenges arise from disparities in spatiotemporal resolution, uncertainty in geographic positioning, diversity of data sources and types, lack of access, and often limited metadata standards within and across scientific disciplines. To address this problem, this project will identify, compile and standardize spatially-resolved datasets required for marine social-ecological system management for Tasmanian State waters. No new field-based data will be collected, although secondary analysis may create new datasets. Rather than duplicating effort, this project builds on accessible databases and platforms to provide recommendations on the availability and best practices of using marine data to support data-driven decision-making processes in Tasmanian waters.

Perhaps more importantly, this project will also compare various off-the-shelf tools to identify trade-offs at various scales and resolutions of interest. Currently, many off-the-shelf spatial multi-criteria decision-analysis tools and methods exist (e.g. Marxan, CommunityViz, SSANTO…). More have been developed for more specific uses (e.g. the Aquaspace tool - developed to plan trade-offs with aquaculture in Europe). Research is required to identify the most appropriate tools for use in identifying conflicts/trade-offs in Tasmanian waters, given the needs of decision-makers and the available data.

Finally, this project will provide planning for database longevity.

Objectives

1. Identify, collate and create database of available spatially-resolved environmental, resource use, and cultural heritage data for Tasmania’s state waters
2. Develop an interactive web-based mapping service to display and download Tasmania’s Marine Atlas data
3. Analyse and compare existing trade-off tool(s), to be used in conjunction with Tasmania’s Marine Atlas, for use in decision-making
4. Establish protocols for ongoing updates (automatic and manual) to, and management of, Tasmania’s Marine Atlas database

Final report

ISBN: 978-1-922708-81-6
Authors: Myriam Lacharité Helena Baird Maree Fudge Cecilia Villanueva
Final Report • 2024-10-01 • 1.80 MB
2019-111-DLD.pdf

Summary

Marine groups in Tasmania expressed a need to better understand the distribution of ocean uses, ecosystems and species in Tasmanian marine waters, and to make that information readily available to stakeholders. The Tasmania’s Marine Atlas project aimed to address this need by collating datasets relevant to marine resources and make this information available via a publicly available web-based mapping platform. 
The Tasmania’s Marine Atlas enables Tasmanian stakeholders to easily access relevant information on marine activities and ecosystems. The Atlas is designed for ease-of-use to foster opportunities for research through data discovery and data gaps, and facilitate engagement and extension with relevant stakeholders. The Atlas can support spatial planning to ensure fair access to the marine estate and the sustainable development of marine industries. The Atlas aims to appeal to a broad range of stakeholders and contains ocean literacy content to support engagement. 
It is expected several groups will benefit from the development of the Tasmania’s Marine Atlas, including the fisheries and aquaculture sectors, marine transport, recreational users, the Tasmanian Government, the general public, researchers and educators. 
The Tasmania’s Marine Atlas is a web-based mapping platform where users can easily access relevant datasets on the uses of Tasmania’s marine waters and its ecosystems. The platform connects to online databases and repositories from state and federal government agencies and research organisations (e.g., University of Tasmania, CSIRO). The platform is hosted by a front-end accessible website that also contains targeted science communication products meant to foster ocean literacy in Tasmania. The Tasmania’s Marine Atlas is now available at tasmarineatlas.org. 
Industry
Environment
Environment

Indigenous business development opportunities and impediments in the fishing and seafood industry - 'Wave to plate' establishing a market for Tasmanian cultural fisheries

Project number: 2016-204
Project Status:
Completed
Budget expenditure: $255,195.00
Principal Investigator: Marcus Haward
Organisation: University of Tasmania (UTAS)
Project start/end date: 29 Dec 2016 - 29 Nov 2018
Contact:
FRDC
TAGS
Workforce
Rac Tas
Policy
Marketing
Indigenous

Need

Aboriginal wild catch is aspirational, seasonal and culture-dependent. For these reasons, it does not compete well against large-scale, industrial fishing operations. Addressing the FRDC’s Indigenous Sector strategy to improve understanding and engagement that ‘best support individual and community economic development’ (FRDC 2015), this project aims to develop a niche market of boutique seafoods, together with investigating how the arts and tourism sectors can foster fisheries management for greater Indigenous community benefit.

A Tasmanian Aboriginal engagement framework in fisheries has not yet been developed by government (Lee 2016, in press). This project will create the conditions for extensions development, based upon resetting engagement terms between Indigenous peoples and government, providing a toolkit of self-determining strategies for regional development. Economic models for future development of fisheries can build upon the capacity of Indigenous communities to translate value into benefit in subsequent projects, such as employment opportunities within the network chain of wild catch procurement to presentation.

There is a need to provide best practice guidance that demonstrates Australia’s commitment to international obligations, such as 2007’s UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. In Australia, building on the growing jurisprudence that affirms native title rights to land, the High Court in 2013 extended such rights to commercial fishing in the Torres Strait in its Akiba v Commonwealth decision (Butterly 2013). However, judicial recognition of Indigenous fishing or other marine-based rights does not in itself provide specific guidance on how those environmental resources should be managed culturally and economically.

Objectives

1. Adapt successful terrestrial model to marine environments, investigating specific conditions of Tasmanian Government policy relating to Indigenous peoples.
2. Assess cultural fishery extensions within commercial operations and determine best practice for government and industry partners.
3. Explore the network chain opportunities for Indigenous involvement in food tourism.
4. Develop postgraduate Indigenous research capacity and broaden scope of marine studies in academia.

Final report

ISBN: 978-1-925761-09-2
Author: Emma Lee and Marcus Haward
Final Report • 2019-05-01 • 4.86 MB
2016-204-DLD.pdf

Summary

The FRDC project, ‘Wave to Plate’: establishing a market for cultural fisheries in Tasmania, is the first time that an Aboriginal Tasmanian postdoctoral researcher has engaged with marine research in Tasmania. Indigenous-led research has delivered a raft of outcomes that can be considered important social shifts for Tasmanian Aboriginal fisheries in over a generation, and, at the time of writing, the Tasmanian Government is actively working to implement the outcomes of the project in relation to access to resources and good governance.
This project has been successful in highlighting the barriers to participation and engagement in cultural fisheries, specifically the current regulatory and policy frameworks that impede progress towards regional development and the contributions that cultural economies of Aboriginal Tasmanians can make to the Tasmanian state. It has identified gaps in knowledge and posited future research directions that are Indigenous-led and centred upon connections to sea country. The project has also been successful in publicly demonstrating the appetite for cultural fisheries through the trialling of the ‘Wave to Plate’ concept with commercial partners.
 
There has been increased understanding from government, Aboriginal communities, industry and research stake holders and partners to the potential of new markets and developmental fisheries from making centre and core Aboriginal Tasmanian connections to sea country. New collaborations with food tourism interests have resulted from the project to inject cultural strengths into Tasmanian fisheries.
This report outlines several key areas that must be considered for establishing a market for cultural fisheries in Tasmania. These include:
  • access to marine resources for Aboriginal Tasmanians;
  • the governance forms, such as a proposed Indigenous Fisheries Advisory Committee and cultural marine planning unit, to assist in decision-making that provide fairness, equity,transparency and opportunities for Aboriginal Tasmanians to develop cultural fisheries that suit local conditions;
  • the models for Indigenous rights to resources and business enterprise that provides a best fit for Aboriginal Tasmanian regional development and fisheries management;
  • the research directions that require a multi-disciplinary focus; and
  • the types of partnerships that can aid in the establishing a market for cultural fisheries.
The report demonstrates that there is a vast array of good will towards Aboriginal Tasmanian aspirations and a variety of means upon which the direction of fisheries can deliver mutual benefit. Above all, there is a breadth and depth of Aboriginal Tasmanian community expertise to create a new industry based upon ancient traditions.
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