The health and longevity of fisheries depend on access critical habitats appropriate to each particular life-history stage. While many key fisheries habitats are under threat from rapidly increasing coastal development, management of those habitats is severely hampered by very poor understanding of these life history-stage habitat requirements. This not only prevents effective management of critical fisheries resources but hampers the ability to direct development to enhance, rather than degrade fisheries value. At the moment many management and offsets actions are unsatisfactory to all users because they are based on incomplete understanding of fish-habitat relationships. This means actions and offsets rarely product tangible gains in ecosystem health or biodiversity, frustrating fishers, environmentalists, developers and governments alike. Not only can carefully designed developments provide new areas of critical habitat to replace habitats damaged in the past, but the opportunity exists for directing mandatory offsets from new coastal developments towards beneficial fisheries outcomes. This would provide the basis for greatly improved management of coastal fisheries habitats and would help to direct effective offset strategies, assist in directing fisheries friendly infrastructure design, and allow the development of metrics appropriate to the definitive measurement of specific fisheries outcomes from particular offset actions. Consequently, improved understanding of stage-specific habitat requirements of fisheries species is central to both the long-term health of fish stocks and fisheries productivity, and the effective management of coastal development to enhance fisheries values.

The northern Australian red snapper fisheries between the Kimberleys and Cape York comprise of five key species from the family Lutjanidae (Lutjanus erythropterus, L. malabaricus, L. argentimaculatus, L. johnii and L. sebae). Status reports indicate about 1500-1800 tonnes per year of red snappers are caught across northern Australia, with a landings value of $6-8 million. The stock range of the crimson and saddletail snappers extends well into Indonesian waters, with significant landings and overfishing by trawling outside of Australia’s Fishing Zone (AFZ). Illegal foreign fishing also occurs in the AFZ.

Limited data, the species longevity (30-40 years) and unquantifiable external catch compromises analytical assessments. Improved fishery monitoring and management in the AFZ is needed to ensure the sustainability and commercial profitability of red snappers.

In September 2007 the Northern Australian Fisheries Committee (NAFC) resolved to develop a Harvest Strategy Framework (based on the Commonwealth HSF) to guide the management of red snappers across northern Australia. NAFC’s Northern Management and Science Working Group (NMSWG) held workshops late 2007 to develop the HSF and identify means of improving our knowledge on the uncertain status of red snappers. It was clear that critical indicators developed from relative abundance indices and age composition data are needed to service management decision rules in a harvest strategy framework.

The next important requirement to finalise the HSF is to design databased reference points and a complementary monitoring program. Analyses on the historical data held by fishery agencies (WA, NT, QLD and Commonwealth) will lead to monitoring by industry vessels to provide independent data for the HSF. This high priority tactical work will enhance agency collaborations and deliver the needs for sustainable and profitable stocks. The HSF will provide greater certainty for managers and industry through an open and transparent process for ongoing adjustment to management arrangements.

There is a need to develop a holistic approach to fisheries management and to understand what effect fishing has on the entire ecosystem; this is the basis of Ecosystem Based Fishery Management (EBFM). However present methods are not well suited to addressing this problem, hence the need to develop new techniques that can analyse the complex interactions and relationships that occur within an ecosystem. We believe that GIS spatial statistical methods have the potential to address some aspects of this problem. Moreover GIS has the ability to address the additional problem of utilising information that occurs at different spatial scales.

Although many fisheries are multi-species, they are normally managed as if they were single species fisheries, focused on the target species. For more effective management of multi-species fisheries and to meet ESD requirements there is a need to be able to observe what effect management strategies have on the suite of species within a fishery. There is also a need to be able to determine effective “trigger” or “response” points for a fishery, often with only a small amount of biological information. From the preliminary work already undertaken we believe that GIS spatial statistical methods are well suited to meet these requirements and support an Ecosytem Based Fishery Management approach.

There is a need to discern between what effect environmental influences are having on fish catches in order to ascertain whether a decrease in catch rates is due to declining fish stocks or the result of a temporary decrease in catchability due to environmental conditions. The techniques proposed in this application are well suited to determining this.

Present indications are that a decline in abundance of goldband snapper is occurring on small spatial scales in some prime fishing areas in the Timor Sea. Do these declines represent fishing down to sustainable productive levels on local scales or significant reductions relative to the whole of the population? This project will address this need by using all available information to determine areas where goldband snapper is likely to be concentrated.

There is also a need to be able to utilise disparate data sets. This is an important consideration given the high cost of fisheries research and diminishing research budgets. Now researchers must be able to maximise the use of all available data, including historical data. Often this data has been collected on different spatial scales, making analysis difficult using conventional methods. However GIS is well suited to handling data from different sources and on different spatial scales.

There is a need to develop methods of analysing and presenting data that will allow stakeholders to participate more fully in the assessment process. This will also allow scientist to obtain feedback about their interpretation of data earlier in the process rather than when the final report is delivered. We believe GIS spatial statistical methods provide an effective mechanism to facilitate this process, which will allow stakeholders to have greater participation in policy formulation and decision making.

We have been advised of strategic business plans by supermarkets as to how the retail sector will position itself within the next few years. In-house re-packing operations, such as those currently evidenced in supermarket meat, seafood and deli departments, will eventually be non -existent with retailers seeking to out source case-ready products offering extended shelf life, a greater choice, and a reduction in food-related health hazards. The health hazard issue is seen as a real concern within these supermarket departments.
As a leading seafood processor in Western Australia we have a need to position our company in readiness for this major change. Seafood is one of the last fresh protein items to be packaged in a MAP format for retail supermarket sale. Retailers have seen significant changes and growth in the presentation of red meat and poultry in the MAP format and are keen for seafood processors to develop the MAP technology. In the UK for example, since the mid 80's, 80% of case-ready seafood for retail supermarkets is presented in the MAP format.
MAP of seafood in Australia is still in its infancy and to our knowledge there are only 2 companies exploring the use of MAP technology for seafood. Whilst there has been some research on MAP for Australian seafood, little work has been done on WA species. There has been no evaluation of benefits of MAP against the costs, yet this is the fundamental for commercialisation of the technology.
There is also a need to develop bulk packs of seafood for the domestic and export markets. The use of this technology on fresh fish for the Singapore market in particular, can possibily open up new markets. Our company is currently exporting chilled fish such as Snapper, Threadfin Bream, Flag-fish, Blue Spot Emperor, and Swordfish to Singapore and we believe there may be potential to develop new markets if the shelf life is extended using the MAP format. We clearly need to evaluate what benefits can be achieved and what new products and markets can be developed. Furthermore, we have been working with a company in Sydney who has developed a new electronic marketing strategy for seafood by way of Internet Marketing and direct delivery to consumers and commercial accounts. (The company can be viewed on the Internet - www.greengrocer.com.au). We currently supply Greengrocer.com quality hand selected, dry filleted, individually wrapped fillets, which are specially processed and trimmed. This type of presentation commands a higher return.
We believe there is good potential for this type of premium product marketed by e-commerce if the shelf life can be extended to enable greater distribution throughout Australia.