This proposal directly addresses QFIRAC priority 2.2b. "Development of case studies for co-management options in Queensland fisheries". The pre-proposal was ranked high by QFIRAC and the PI was invited to submit a full proposal to the FRAB. The FRAB reviewed a draft of the full proposal at its October meeting and the proposal was ranked the second highest of all draft full proposals submitted to the FRAB this year.

The need for co-management has also been identified by the Queensland Department of Primary Industries & Fisheries as a key to the future economic prosperity of the Queensland commercial fishing industry. It has the potential to build-on, and progress further, cultural change in industry sectors. It also has the potential to reduce cost of production for industry and administrative costs for Government. It can also lead to real time monitoring and management, allowing for fisheries to respond to natural environmental variability through adaptive management that adds to, rather than compromises economic viability.

The need for greater co-management, particularly for small scale fisheries, was also a central theme of Seafood Directions 2005 recently held in Sydney. In particular, the presentation by Martin Smallridge on the Spencer Gulf Prawn Fishery highlighted what could be achieved by a co-management approach. Further, the AFMF have identified co-managament as a medium-high priority.

To improve the management of the Shark Bay prawn fishery there is a specific need for refined identification of areas and times of higher tiger prawn numbers relative to king prawns so that closure areas/times can be specifically targeted to protect the more vulnerable tiger prawns from over-fishing. In addition, scallop fishers have expressed concern that prawn fishing in areas of overlap with good scallop abundance is affecting the abundance of scallops. In both cases, answers would be provided by the development of a detailed space-time model for both prawn and scallop catch to identify abundance and fishing patterns and to document when and where prawn and scallop trawlers target higher abundance areas. There are now six years of precise spatial recording of prawn and scallop catch for each trawl shot and this information can be used to model the migrating king and tiger prawn stocks and to fine-tune the area-time closures that are currently in place to protect the tiger prawn breeding stock while allowing fishing on the more robust king prawn stocks.

For the scallop fishery in Shark Bay, currently, an annual pre-season scallop survey is undertaken. A spatial analysis of the relationship between the spatial distribution of the subsequent scallop catch and that of the pre-season survey will enable an assessment of the effect that prawn trawling prior to scallop fishing may have on the scallop catch. These analyses will improve the management of these fisheries ensuring optimum sustainable exploitation of valuable fish stocks.

There is a need in Australia in general, and Western Australia in particular, for more trained personnel in the area of application of geostatistics to renewable resources modelling. The involvement of an ECU research student in this project, and the recruitment of a Graduate Research Assistant, will increase the numerical fisheries modelling capacity in WA.

Due to highly publicised concern about the impact of prawn trawling to the benthos, particularly pertaining to the GBR region, there is a critical need to minimise the intensity of seabed impact and demonstrate that the residual impact does not constitute a threat to biodiversity. This is consistent with the goals and strategies set by QFIRAC in their Strategic R&D Plan: 2002 – 2006. Specifically this need relates to QFIRAC’s key R&D areas titled, “Effect of Fishing/Cleaner Production” and the underlying goal, “Environmentally friendly fishing practices and technologies in place, which reduce to a minimum the impact of fishing on the environment”. The stated strategies of QFIRAC with respect to this goal are to support the quantification of the impact of trawling on the benthos and the development of innovations that minimise this impact. This project seeks to contribute to the latter strategy by quantifying the relative benthic impact of modified trawl gear with respect to a set of standard contemporary trawl gear.

The R&D plans and strategies of all advisory bodies to the FRDC contain high priority goals to reduce the impact of fishing on the environment. For example, the priority research areas identified by NORMAC includes; “improved efficiency in fishing gear and techniques in order to reduce bycatch and discarding, increased survivorship of bycatch and environmental impacts on the benthos”. This demonstrates that the proposed work has widespread relevance in terms of its potential application. The proposed work directly relates to trawling operations occurring in the GBR, which is a world heritage area and a national icon. This certainly makes the work of national significance.

Correspondingly there is also a need to determine the effects of the proposed modifications on the operating efficiency of trawl gear (operating efficiency can be thought of as a relative measure of the catching and engineering performance of trawl gear). This recognises that it is not only important to develop fishing technology that has improved environmental performance, but also it must maintain or improve the economic viability of fishing enterprises otherwise the technology is of low value to the industry and the community. This is consistent with FRDC’s Industry Development goal (planned outcome) that, “The commercial sector of the Australian fishing industry is profitable, internationally competitive and socially resilient”. The prototype devices to be investigated have been designed with the intention of maintaining or improving the catching and engineering performance of the trawl gear. The project will quantify these relative performances for the modified trawl gear with respect to standard contemporary gear.

Need for trawl mapping
Information on where trawling does and does not occur is needed by fishery managers, industry, GBRMPA and others to inform debate and decision making for the trawl fishery. By June 2002, VMS will have recorded all Queensland trawl effort (except the Moreton Bay fishery) every hour for 18 months. These data can be used to map the distribution and intensity of trawling better than ever before. These maps are required by July 2003 for implementation of the Queensland Trawl Plan. Such maps are also needed to model the ecological effects of trawling, since untrawled areas may provide refuge for some vulnerable bycatch species. Such maps will also help assess the required 40% reduction in bycatch.

Need to develop stock assessment and management for ESD
The Trawl MAC have named stock assessment and Review Events as their top research priorities, and VMS research as a high priority. There is a need to improve abundance indices, currently based on CPUE from trawl shots defined as square CFISH grids (6’ by 6’ or 30’ by 30’). This is unrealistic and can lead to significant errors in stock assessment. There is also a need to investigate the way targeting and depletion of aggregations interact with economic factors to affect CPUE.

We can meet these needs using effort and density indices at fine spatial and temporal scales, by using the functionality of newly developed commercial software to develop our modelling systems. Matrices of stock abundance in space and time can be mapped (see attached map) or used in stock assessment models. A major area of research need with the OceanFARM software is user definition of trawl signature and catch distribution functions, which differ between sectors of the trawl fishery.

The functionality must be integrated into the overall management and assessment strategy for each fishing sector. There is potential to substantially improve the reliability of stock assessments.

The Victorian scallop industry has decline substantially and does not appear to be recovering. Scallops have traditionally been one of Victoria's largest fisheries and the ability to resurrect a failing native fishery offers obvious benefits. Victoria has not committed time or moneys to the development of reseeding but in light of the recently successful scallop trials in Victoria it is an area that MAFRI has shown some new interest. This economic feasibility study and the potential direction for research is now very relevant to Victoria Fisheries.

There is considerable industry interest in enhancing saucer scallop populations for subsequent harvest. The Western Australian government has granted exclusive use areas off the Western Australian coastline for two companies to undertake pilot enhancement work. Neither company has developed suitable hatchery technology to support their proposed operations. There has been long-standing industry interest in enhancement in Queensland, and pilot hatchery research on saucer scallops is underway at the Bribie Island Aquaculture Research Centre.

The Queensland trawl industry is facing restructuring and considerable reduction in the area in which it can fish. Profitability in the industry appears to be generally low (Taylor Moore, pers. com.). It is not difficult to forecast that environmental pressure groups will attempt to further curtail industry activities and reduce fishing effort in and adjacent to the Great Barrier Reef World Heritage Area, and that this will further impact on the industry's economic performance. At the same time, the trawl industry is a significant generator of employment and economic wealth in regional areas where unemployment levels are far higher than the national average. Any proposals that have realistic potential to improve social and economic welfare have obvious benefit to such communities, as well as to the national interests.

Those scallop enhancement operation that been successful are now making super-normal profits. The Japanese enhancement operations, for example, are giving returns in the order of 400% profit. While this figure does not adequately address or account for previous research and development expenditure, there is no doubt enhancement operations run properly, and supported by adequate investment and infrastructure can be financially profitable. At the same time, there are numerous examples of scallop enhancement and culture operations that have been financially unsuccessful. Operations such as those in Newfoundland, Scotland, and, to a lesser extent, in Tasmania, have failed to become long production sources of scallops. Developing feasibility studies and business plans seems to be the only way to determine whether it is worth while making the considerable investments in time and money needed for a successful enhancement or culture project.