54 results

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

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.
Environment
PROJECT NUMBER • 2007-045
PROJECT STATUS:
COMPLETED

Rebuilding Ecosystem Resilience: assessment of management options to minimise formation of ‘barrens’ habitat by the long-spined sea urchin (Centrostephanus rodgersii) in Tasmania

By overgrazing seaweeds and sessile invertebrates, essentially back to bare rock, the advent of the long‐spined sea urchin Centrostephanus rodgersii in eastern Tasmanian waters poses a significant threat to the integrity, productivity and biodiversity of shallow (<40 m) rocky reef systems and the...
ORGANISATION:
University of Tasmania (UTAS)
Environment
PROJECT NUMBER • 2006-308
PROJECT STATUS:
COMPLETED

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

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...
ORGANISATION:
University of Tasmania (UTAS)
Environment
PROJECT NUMBER • 2004-214
PROJECT STATUS:
COMPLETED

Aquafin CRC - Atlantic Salmon Aquaculture Subprogram: effects of husbandry on AGD

Before this project our knowledge of the effects of husbandry on Amoebic Gill Disease (AGD) was limited. This project allowed on-farm assessment of effects of husbandry procedures and stock characteristics on AGD severity. Furthermore, we investigated the potential to re-use fresh water for...
ORGANISATION:
University of Tasmania (UTAS)
Environment
PROJECT NUMBER • 2004-213
PROJECT STATUS:
COMPLETED

Aquafin CRC - Atlantic Salmon Aquaculture Subprogram: commercial AGD and salmon health project

Prior to this project there had been investigations into some potential candidate amoebicides, with little success except for the possibility of oxidative disinfectants such as chloramine-T. This project has since tested a number of amoebicides using a progressive approach of in vitro...
ORGANISATION:
University of Tasmania (UTAS)
Environment
PROJECT NUMBER • 2001-245
PROJECT STATUS:
COMPLETED

Aquafin CRC - Atlantic Salmon Aquaculture Subprogram: model development for epidemiology of Amoebic Gill Disease

Amoebic Gill Disease (AGD) is the main health problem affecting salmon industry in Southern Tasmania. To improve management of fish with AGD on the farms, the industry needs better understanding of AGD epidemiology. This will provide a basis on which to develop strategies for new...
ORGANISATION:
University of Tasmania (UTAS)
People
PROJECT NUMBER • 2000-223
PROJECT STATUS:
COMPLETED

Aquafin CRC - Atlantic Salmon Aquaculture Subprogram: facilitation, administration and promotion

The salmon industry is one of Australia’s largest aquaculture industries and produced approximately 16,000 tonnes of farmed Atlantic salmon, Salmo salar, in 2001/02 at an estimated farm gate value of $170 million. The industry is a major regional and youth employer and is based in Tasmania...
ORGANISATION:
University of Tasmania (UTAS)

Assessment of broad-scale exploitation rates and biomass estimates for the Tasmanian southern rock lobster fishery

Project number: 1997-101
Project Status:
Completed
Budget expenditure: $468,370.00
Principal Investigator: Stewart Frusher
Organisation: University of Tasmania (UTAS)
Project start/end date: 22 Jun 1997 - 29 Apr 2003
Contact:
FRDC

Need

Traditionally, catch per unit of effort (CPUE) is used to monitor the health of the fishery and indicate the success or otherwise of management practices. Under current input controls CPUE is based on fishers maximising their total catch. In contrast, under output controls where catch is predetermined fishers will alter their catching scenarios to maximise the return (dollars per kilogram) from their catch. In southern rock lobster fisheries there is significant potential to alter fishing patterns to maximise economic return, especially through seasonal shifts in effort. As this change occurs, the value of using CPUE data to continue monitoring the fishery will be eroded. As such, both fisheries independant means of monitoring the fishery and new monitoring methods will become increasing important.
Both exploitation rates and biomass estimates are important stock assessment parameters and biological reference points in sustainable management of fisheries resources.
This project will evaluate fishery independant means of deriving these estimates and by determining the precision of derived estimates, demonstrate their suitability as biological reference points.
In a report to the Department of Industry, Technology and Commerce titled "Oceans of Wealth?", the Review Committee on Marine Industries, Science and Technology stated in their conclusion, 'The knowledge gained from scientific research into fish stocks and the impacts of the environmental and harvesting factors is a necessary but not sufficient element in the conservation of productive fish stocks. A vital element in both scientific assessments is the availability of reliable information about exploitation levels'. This project is aimed at addressing this need for southern rock lobster.

Objectives

1. To assess the precision of exploitation rates and biomass estimates derived from broad scale sampling using fisheries independant and fishery dependant sampling.
2. To evaluate both the precision and cost effectiveness of biomass estimation from fisheries dependant and fisheries independent derived exploitation rates and recommend future monitoring methodology for the rock lobster fishery.

Final report

ISBN: 1-86295-079-2
Author: Stewart Frusher
Final Report • 2003-03-25 • 2.06 MB
1997-101-DLD.pdf

Summary

Exploitation rate is an important fishery assessment parameter linking catch to legal-sized biomass, the portion of the stock available for harvest.  Relative change in legal-sized biomass is a crucial performance indicator for the fishery as it measures the success of management outcomes.  Under the recently introduced Individual Transferable Quota Management System (ITQMS) in the Tasmanian rock lobster fishery, rebuilding of legal-sized biomass is a key management objective.  The assessment model that produces biomass estimates for this fishery is primarily dependent on commercial catch and effort data. 

The use of commercial catch and effort data for stock assessment relies on its de facto relationship with stock abundance.  However, the relationship between catch and effort data and abundance is not always constant or linear.  Improvements in fishing gear and technology can result in greater catch for a given amount of effort, unrelated to changes in the biomass.  Management changes and fishers’ behaviour can also affect the relationship between catch rates and biomass.  Under the new ITQMS introduced in 1998, catch is fixed and improved profits can be made by improving the return per unit of fish caught rather than by increasing the amount of catch through increased effort.  Thus fishing during periods when catch rates are low but price is high can change the catch effort relationship independent of biomass change.

Fishery independent surveys, using established sampling protocols and standardised fishing gear are a way in which catch rates can be standardised irrespective of gear efficiencies or fisher’s behaviour.  If these surveys can also produce accurate estimates of exploitation rate then accurate estimates of biomass can be achieved, provided the exploitation rate estimates are representative of the fishing grounds.  Fishery independent estimates of exploitation rate are thus a valuable way of validating model biomass estimates especially with the introduction of an ITQMS where the relationship between catch rates and legal-sized biomass was likely to change pre- and post-quota.

This project aimed to trial change-in-ratio (CIR) and index-removal (IR) techniques to obtain estimates of exploitation rate and biomass from broad scale regions in the fishery.

Keywords: southern rock lobster, change-in-ratio, index-removal, exploitation rates, tagging.

Industry
PROJECT NUMBER • 2004-237
PROJECT STATUS:
COMPLETED

Aquaculture Nutrition Subprogram: assessment of growth performance under limiting environmental conditions

This research has advanced our understanding of how fish growth is influenced by nutrition, by environment and by the interaction between nutritional and environmental factors. When the research started the majority of nutrition research considered the performance of feeds under optimum...
ORGANISATION:
University of Tasmania (UTAS)
People
PROJECT NUMBER • 2005-307
PROJECT STATUS:
COMPLETED

International symposium on cephalopod lifecycles: biology, management and conservation

The University of Tasmania was invited to host the 7th triennial symposium of the Cephalopod International Advisory Council (CIAC) in February 2006. This is the premier international cephalopod symposium attended by scientists, industry, and managers from around the world. The...
ORGANISATION:
University of Tasmania (UTAS)
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