Indigenous business development opportunities and impediments in the fishing and seafood industry - 'Wave to plate' establishing a market for Tasmanian cultural fisheries
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.
Final report
- 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.
Meeting sustainability expectations: translating and aligning objectives, reporting and evaluation of the performance of Australian fisheries
An economic analysis of management options for tuna fishery development in the east coast tuna longline fishery of the AFZ
SCRC: Understanding Yellowtail Kingfish
Through existing farming practices it is apparent that there are several factors which may be limiting production and ultimately revenue.
Firstly, there is a need to identify an “ideal production strategy” to achieve forecast production levels. As temperature significantly affects YTK growth, feed conversion ratios and health, it is essential that the relationship between growth and temperature is investigated in fish of various sizes. This information will enable CST to make informed decisions on size and time of stocking YTK into sea cages. It is anticipated that this will improve production through shortening the production cycle and will reduce the standing biomass in the water, ultimately increasing farm profitability.
Secondly, maturation may be a constraining factor in YTK production, reducing somatic growth. There are also flesh quality concerns which threaten sales of YTK harvested in November-December, a period when males exhibit maturation. However preliminary analysis of work carried out in Seafood CRC project 2008/901 suggests that male maturity did not have a significant deleterious effect on the flesh quality at that time. Though there are numerous strategies to manage maturation it is initially necessary to characterise the occurrence of maturation and the factors controlling it. With this information, appropriate mitigation strategies can be introduced resulting in economic benefits to the YTK industry.
Lastly, as production is poised to increase, it is imperative that substantial markets are developed for YTK product. One way of increasing sales is to ensure product sold is consistently of the highest possible quality. By attaining knowledge on the quality attributes, shelf-life and nutritional content of the product, producers will be able to tailor a product to specific market requirements. Likewise, as processing techniques and cold chain supply routes are diverse, it is imperative that information is attained on how these influence the quality of the product.