2 results

Estimating the impacts of management changes on bycatch reduction and sustainability of high-risk bycatch species in the Queensland East Coast Otter Trawl Fishery

Project number: 2015-014
Project Status:
Completed
Budget expenditure: $249,986.14
Principal Investigator: Matthew J. Campbell
Organisation: Department of Primary Industries (QLD)
Project start/end date: 30 Jun 2015 - 29 Jun 2017
Contact:
FRDC
TAGS
Rac Qld
Post Harvest
Mortality
Modelling
Fishing Gear
SPECIES
Shovelnose Rays
Rays

Need

This project addresses aspects of Priority 8 of the Environment Program as outlined in the FRDC’s 2015 Competitive Round Call for Expressions of Interest. Specifically, the project will measure the improvement in bycatch reduction that has occurred in the Queensland East Coast Otter Trawl Fishery and how these reductions have been achieved. Effort has decreased over time and BRDs and TEDs were mandated in the QECOTF in the early 2000’s. These and other management changes have likely led to significant decreases in the amount of bycatch generated by the QECOTF. There is a need, therefore, to quantify this decrease and extend the results to stakeholders. Further, through these results, the trawl industry is better able to demonstrate that its impact on bycatch species has significantly decreased over time, with resultant positive outcomes regarding the ecological impact of the fishery. These results will contribute directly to the assessment of the fishery for the Great Barrier Reef Outlook Report process and World Trade Organisation’s (WTO) approval process.

Despite improvements in bycatch management, the sustainability of trawl bycatch species remains a significant issue for some stakeholders and the community. For example, sharks and rays exhibit low fecundity and, due to their biology, are susceptible to capture by trawls, resulting in concerns regarding their sustainability - the impact of trawling on high risk species including skates and rays was recently highlighted by an Ecological Risk Assessment conducted by the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority. Goals of fisheries management include maintaining ecosystem structure, conserving biodiversity and supporting sustainable fisheries. This applies to both target and bycatch species. To achieve the key management goals for bycatch, it is essential to estimate the fishing-induced mortality of bycatch species, particularly those identified as being at significant risk, and ensure this impact is within the species’ intrinsic capability to withstand. This project will contribute to the sustainability for bycatch species with particular focus on potentially high risk species identified in previous research.

Objectives

1. Quantify the survival of elasmobranchs (i.e., sharks and rays) that are caught incidentally in Queensland prawn trawl nets and discarded
2. Quantify reductions in bycatch over the last 20-30 years in the Queensland East Coast Otter Trawl Fishery and describe how these have come about e.g. fleet reduction, gear technology
3. Assess the risk that trawling poses to the sustainability of high-risk bycatch species, including elasmobranchs, from the Queensland East Coast Otter Trawl Fishery

Final report

ISBN: 978 0 7345 0455 5
Author: Matthew Campbell
Final Report • 2017-11-30 • 8.34 MB
2015-014-DLD.pdf

Summary

Keywords: Discards, elasmobranchs, post-trawl survival, Aptychotrema rostrata, Trygonoptera testacea, turtle excluder device, bycatch reduction device, TEDs, BRDs, ecological risk assessment, ERA
 
Executive Summary: Researchers from the Queensland Government’s Department of Agriculture and Fisheries (DAF) have assessed aspects of the environmental impacts of Australia’s largest trawl fishery, the Queensland East Coast Otter Trawl Fishery (QECOTF). A suite of management measures implemented in 2001 have resulted in a reduction in discards from a peak of 87,175 tonnes in 1997 to 25,271 in 2014, or 71%. This reduction was measured using quantitative methods based on catch, fishing effort and swept area. The risk posed to elasmobranchs from trawling operations south of the Great Barrier Marine Park was also assessed using a quantitative method known as Sustainability Assessment for Fishing Effects (SAFE). Of the 47 species assessed, one, the Piked Spurdog, was found to be at high risk. A further six species were found to be at medium risk, with the remainder at low risk. These findings satisfy environmental constraints placed on the QECOTF by the Federal Government, allowing fishers to access fishing grounds within the World Heritage-listed Great Barrier Reef Marine Park. Fishers are also able to continue accessing lucrative overseas markets, increasing the profitability of the fishery.

Rapid assessment of sustainability for ecological risk of shark & other chondrichthyan bycatch species taken in the SSF, SENTF, SETF and GABTF

Project number: 2002-033
Project Status:
Completed
Budget expenditure: $526,169.00
Principal Investigator: Terence I. Walker
Organisation: Agriculture Victoria
Project start/end date: 29 Jun 2002 - 14 Jul 2008
Contact:
FRDC
TAGS
Threatened Endangered Protected Species
Sustainability
Stakeholder
Fisheries Management
Environmental Impact
SPECIES
Whitespotted Dogfish
Broadnose Shark
Shovelnose Rays
Angel Sharks
Roughskin Dogfishes

Need

Commonwealth managed fisheries must all be strategically assessed by the Minister for Environment and Heritage, under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999. The requirements for assessment are set out in this Act and that Minister has advised AFMA that strategic assessment reports must, as part of their terms of reference, address the ecological sustainability guidelines, which were initially prepared for Schedule 4 of the Wildlife Protection Regulation of Exports and Imports Act 1982 (WP(REI) Act).

In addition, through the Standing Committee on Fisheries and Aquaculture, all Australian Commonwealth and State fisheries ministers have endorsed the National Policy on Fisheries Bycatch, which includes sharks and other chondrichthyans. The Commonwealth has recently released its bycatch policy, which builds on the endorsed National Policy on Fisheries Bycatch and commits the Commonwealth to developing a Bycatch Action Plan for each major Commonwealth fishery by 31 March 2001. Bycatch Action Plans have now been published for the SFF and SENTF, the SETF, and the GABTF.

Australia is a signatory to the International Plan of Action for the Conservation and Management of Sharks (IPOA-Sharks), which was ratified by the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) Committee of Fisheries during February 1999. As a signatory, Australia is obliged to develop a National Plan of Action for the Conservation and Management of Sharks (NPOA-Sharks). AFFA established a Shark Advisory Group to prepare a Shark Assessment Report and to develop the Australian NPOA-Sharks. The Group includes representatives from all key government and non-government stakeholder groups, including shark specialists. Progress on development of the Report and Australia's NPOA-Sharks was reported to the FAO Committee of Fisheries during February 2001.

All of these initiatives require considerably more data for their full implementation. An AFMA funded project titled Ecological Risk Assessment for Commonwealth Fisheries, scheduled to finish by 31 August 2003, is under way to develop appropriate methods for risk assessment. The present project proposal is designed to address the data requirements for shark and other chondrichthyan species in the SSF, SENTF, SETF, and GABTF and to apply the agreed methods of ecological risk assessment developed through the ERA Project to these species.

Objectives

1. Quantitatively categorise bycatch species of shark and other chondrichthyans taken in the SSF, SEF, and GABTF on the basis of ‘relative biological productivity’.
2. Semi-quantitatively categorise chondrichthyan bycatch species taken in these fisheries on the basis of ‘capture vulnerability’ determined from catchability, selectivity and availability to the fishery based on presently available data.
3. Semi-quantitatively determine diets of chondrichthyan bycatch species taken in these fisheries from analysis of stomach contents analyses to contribute to establishing their positions in marine food chains.
4. Resolve taxonomic uncertainties of various chondrichthyan species.
5. Undertake assessment of sustainability for ecological risk of each chondrichthyan bycatch species through the application of rapid assessment techniques developed through the AFMA funded project titled Ecological Risk Assessment for Commonwealth Fisheries.

Final report

Author: Terence Walker
Final Report • 2008-08-25 • 10.18 MB
2002-033-DLD.pdf
View Filter

Research

Species

Organisation