21 results
Environment
PROJECT NUMBER • 2011-039
PROJECT STATUS:
COMPLETED

FRDC-DCCEE: preparing fisheries for climate change: identifying adaptation options for four key fisheries in South Eastern Australia

Over the next century, the marine ecosystems of south-eastern Australia are expected to exhibit some of the largest climate-driven changes in the Southern Hemisphere. The effects of these changes on communities and businesses will depend, in part, on how well fishing industries and resource managers...
ORGANISATION:
University of Tasmania (UTAS)
TAGS
Population Dynamics
SPECIES
Snapper
Industry
Industry

Seafood CRC: Spatial management of southern rock lobster fisheries to improve yield, value and sustainability

Project number: 2006-220
Project Status:
Completed
Budget expenditure: $1,264,950.33
Principal Investigator: Caleb Gardner
Organisation: University of Tasmania (UTAS)
Project start/end date: 29 Sep 2006 - 29 Aug 2010
:
TAGS
Stakeholder
Profitability
Fishing Technology
Energy
Energy
SPECIES
Southern Rock Lobster

Need

Quota management of rock lobster fisheries in southern States combined with higher prices for shallow-water lobsters has driven effort inshore. This is because fishers now manage their business to optimise the value of each kg, not maximise catch. Deeper water lobsters are often uneconomical to fish under current management as beach price can be as little as $4/kg above lease price (as lease price responds to beach price of shallow water product). This has produced an unusual situation in fisheries management where fishers are shifting effort away from high catch rate areas and into more depleted areas. There is now a management need for improved ability to follow trends in stocks at different depths and to evaluate novel harvest strategies suited to these spatial issues.

Adjusting harvest strategies to take account of spatial patterns in the biology of lobsters and patterns in the fleet has the potential to substantially increase yield, value and sustainability of the fishery. For example, preliminary modelling of the Tasmanian fishery has shown that regional size limits could double egg production in northern regions where levels are currently of concern, while simultaneously increasing yield by around 25%. Shifting effort into deeper water by means such as specific deep-water quota would be expected to increase yield given that these stocks are currently under-exploited. Translocating lobsters from slow to high growth areas leads to increased productivity and also higher beach price per lobster due to improved colour. Bio-economic modelling has indicated that gains in nett economic yield could be more than doubled in many cases through translocation (FRDC 2005/217). These opportunities also exist to varying degrees in SA and Victoria.

Objectives

0. To conduct field experiments and sampling to provide additional data required for alternative harvest strategy evaluation (fisher catch sampling, translocation release survival, release movement, translocation growth transition, effects of translocation on maturity and egg production parameters, density dependent growth).
1. To develop functional management and monitoring recommendations to apply outcomes.
2. To evaluate alternative spatial management options (deep-water quota, translocation, size limits) by economic analysis.
3. To conduct field experiments on translocation to provide additional data required for economic evaluation (change in colour, tail width, condition, and ability to survive transport).
4. To determine the extent of ecological community change in deep water reef habitats in response to increased harvest rates of lobsters.
5. To evaluate alternative spatial management options (deep-water quota, translocation, size limits) in respect to yield and egg production (biological projection).
6. To enable assessment reporting of trends in biomass and egg production by depth (model fitting).

Final report

ISBN: 978-0-646-58073-9
Authors: Bridget S. Green Caleb Gardner Adrian D. Linnane David Hobday Arani Chandrapavan Andre Punt Rick McGarvey Klaas Hartmann Rodney Treloggen Hilary Revill Matthew Hoare Peter Hawthorne
Final Report • 2017-09-29 • 6.65 MB
2006-220-DLD.pdf

Summary

(1) To enable assessment reporting of trends in biomass and egg production by depth.
(2) To evaluate separate deep-water quota to increase yield and egg production.
(3) To evaluate regional size limits in Tasmania for increase in yield and egg production.
(4) To conduct field experiments and sampling to provide additional data required for alternative harvest strategy evaluation:
i. fisher catch sampling,
ii. translocation release survival,
iii. release movement,
iv. translocation growth transition,
v. effects of translocation on maturity and egg production parameters,
vi. density-dependent growth.
(5) To conduct field experiments on translocation to provide additional data required for economic evaluations:
i. change in colour,
ii. tail width,
iii. condition,
iv. survival in live transport.
 
(6) To evaluate translocation options that increase yield and egg production.
(7) To evaluate and compare spatial management options by economic analysis.
(8) To determine the extent of ecological community change in deep water reef habitats in response to increased harvest rates of lobsters.
(9) To develop functional management and monitoring recommendations to apply outcomes.

Tactical Research Fund: 2013 Trans Tasman Lobster Congress - improving the environmental and economic performance of Australian rocklobster fisheries through collaboration and cooperation across research, management, harvest, transportation and markets

Project number: 2013-411
Project Status:
Completed
Budget expenditure: $20,000.00
Principal Investigator: Daryl Sykes
Organisation: NSW Rock Lobster Assocation
Project start/end date: 28 Aug 2013 - 9 Nov 2013
:
TAGS
Yield
Stakeholder
Responsible Fishing
Resource Access And Allocation
Policy
SPECIES
Western Rock Lobster
Eastern Rock Lobster
Southern Rock Lobster
Tropical Rock Lobsters

Need

Australian rock lobster fisheries, similar to their New Zealand counterparts, are coming under increasing pressure to forfeit access to fishing grounds and to shares of available yields as a consequence of a well organised and resourced marine protection lobby and opportunistic political decision making. In recent seasons the situation for the Australian lobster industries has been made more difficult because of Federal Government marine protected area agendas and difficulties in brokering direct export to the lucrative China market. Industry capacity that might otherwise be committed to improving reputation and efficiency and promoting economic growth and investment has instead been diverted to protecting existing access and utilisation opportunities. The rock lobster industries will directly and indirectly benefit from cooperative approaches to current and emerging challenges (the most recent being biotoxin events for example) and from collaborative efforts to agree and implement growth and consolidation strategies based on good science and credible decision making. The 'sharing of knowledge' which is a feature of each Lobster Congress draws greater numbers of industry participants into agreed work plans and creates wider understanding and awareness across the industries as to he need for responsible fishing, strategic responses to external forces, and wise and credible political lobby and positive profiles within the wider community.

Objectives

1. Rock lobster industries fully aware of the social and political issues which influence management decision making.
2. Rock lobster industries equipped to make credible responses to challenges from environmental NGOs, animal rights and other community groups intent on eliminating or constraining commercial fishing access and opportunity.
3. Rock lobster industries willing to share information and expertise in pursuit of cost effective and timely outcomes for collaborative research, harvest and market initiatives.
4. Rock lobster industries which are equipped to present consistent and positive messages about industry performance against credible standards.
5. Rock lobster industries which are able to agree and implement codes of responsible fishing consistent with the rights and responsibilities associated with rights-based management regimes.
6. Rock lobster industries which can identify and align strategic pathways and consolidate funding and investment for the same.
7. Rock lobster industries which provide safe working environments, career pathways and employment opportunities as components of their contributions to local, regional and national economies.
8. Rock lobster industries better able to understand the influences of climate variability
better able to adapt to the consequences of that variability
and able to capitalise on change when appropriate.
Industry
PROJECT NUMBER • 2023-026
PROJECT STATUS:
COMPLETED

Biosecurity threats and vulnerabilities of the Southern Rock Lobster Fishery

Ausvet undertook an assessment of biosecurity threats and vulnerabilities of the Southern Rock Lobster Fishery on behalf of the Fisheries Research and Development Corporation (FRDC) for Southern Rocklobster Limited. This report identifies key biosecurity threats, barriers/impediments and solutions...
ORGANISATION:
AusVet Pty Ltd
TAGS
Biosecurity
SPECIES
Southern Rock Lobster
Environment

Southern Rock Lobster IPA: Assessing functionality and suitability of the iPhone application 'Deckhand' for on-board electronic data capture in Southern Australian Rock Lobster (Jasus edwardsii) fisheries

Project number: 2011-250
Project Status:
Completed
Budget expenditure: $94,490.00
Principal Investigator: Justin Phillips
Organisation: South Eastern Professional Fishermen's Association Inc (SEPFA)
Project start/end date: 2 Jan 2012 - 10 Nov 2012
:
TAGS
Fisheries Management
Electronic Log Book
Economic
Data
Automation
SPECIES
Southern Rock Lobster

Need

The primary needs in relation to this work are:

1. Regulators and research agencies, generally, are requiring greater levels of data to demonstrate the sustainability of fisheries resources - this increased level of information provision is also within the interests of industry, particularly within the current political climate. This requirement for further data also increases the impost on fishers to report a day's catch - there is a need to consolidate reporting across all areas.

2. For a range of reasons e.g. implementation of marine parks networks (State and Commonwealth) and for enhanced resource management, there is a need to provide fishery data on a finer spatial scale, or at least make provision to do so in the future.

3. The current environment for fisheries is one of change - access, allocation and increasing external scrutiny are all contributors to this. The provision of data captured on-board the vessel electronically can only expedite the process of decision making providing fishers / business operators with more timely outcomes. There is a need to provide fishers with a greater level of certainty and stability within their operating environment.

4. As we see competition for fishery resources increase between various stakeholders e.g. conservation, community and other industry, there is a need to ensure that the commercial fishing industry, while ensuring sustainability as the absolute priority, has the opportunity to maximise its returns - this is often a legislated objective. Provision of more precise and timely information at both the boat and fishery level will assist in delivering this.

Objectives

1. A functional on-board electronic data capture system which addresses the requirements of regulators, research agencies and industry.
2. A detailed Cost-Benefit Analysis (CBA).
3. A simpler, consolidated, more efficient way of reporting a day's catch.
4. Enhanced resource sustainability through the provision of improved information.
5. More efficient and effective, and therefore profitable, operation at the individual business level through the provision of more detailed information in a timely fashion.

Final report

ISBN: 978-0-646-93919-3
Final Report • 2015-06-17 • 26.00 MB
2011-250-DLD.pdf

Developing cost-effective industry based techniques for monitoring puerulus settlement in all conditions: Phase 2

Project number: 2014-025
Project Status:
Completed
Budget expenditure: $281,407.52
Principal Investigator: Stewart Frusher
Organisation: University of Tasmania (UTAS)
Project start/end date: 14 Jan 2015 - 13 Mar 2017
:
TAGS
Life History
Inshore
Fishing Technology
Fishing Gear
Climate Adaptation
SPECIES
Southern Rock Lobster

Need

Rock lobster fisheries throughout southern Australia show substantial fluctuations in recruitment which if not carefully monitored and managed may lead to lost opportunity and substantial loss in revenue. In Australia, larval (puerulus) collectors have been established in shallow water regions to provide early warning of future changes in abundance. These collectors are serviced either by divers (SA, Tas & Vic) or from dinghies (WA) which make them expensive to service and thus limited in their regional distribution to a few sites. For southern rock lobster there has been concern over how well the observed larval settlement represents the entire fishery as sampling sites are few and limited to the East Coast whereas the majority of catch is from deeper reefs on the South and West Coasts where no collectors are deployed. To improve our understanding of the relationship between recruitment, future catches and short and long term recruitment trends, there is a need to improve spatial (region and depth) coverage.

This proposal follows on from Phase 1 which:
(1) Successfully developed a deep water collector that is easily serviceable by fishers and that captures puerulus.
(2) Developed an in-situ camera system that enables real time remote viewing of puerulus settlement

The need is to determine the sampling strategy that will provide meaningful results to industry and managers on recruitment patterns and trends to the fishery in regions important to the fishery and currently not represented in existing monitoring programs.

To meet this need, this phase aims to determine the depths, times and number/collectors of puerulus that settle in deeper water to determine the number of sites and the number of collectors per site that will provide meaningful settlement data to support management decisions.

Objectives

1. To determine an appropriate and cost effective sampling strategy (number of collectors, depth and time) to enable statistically meaningful analysis of spatial and depth trends in puerulus settlement.
2. To compare shallow and deep water survey methods (e.g. diver based, fisher servicing) to establish the most cost effective methods for on-going monitoring of puerulus settlement.

Final report

ISBN: 978-1-925646-34-4
Authors: Stewart Frusher Graeme Ewing Justin Rizari and Ruari Colqhoun
Final Report • 2018-10-29 • 4.10 MB
2014-025-DLD.pdf

Summary

Outcomes achieved to date
The outputs from this second phase of the project have led to the following outcomes:
1. A refined puerulus collector design that:
• Collects puerulus as effectively as traditional diver-serviced inshore collector systems
• Collects puerulus effectively from deep water (>50m)
• Can be easily and safely deployed, retrieved and serviced by vessels from the Tasmanian commercial lobster fleet during routine fishing operations
2. Deployments at various locations around the Tasmanian coast over 4 settlement seasons have shown that:
• Puerulus settlement is considerably lower in deeper offshore waters than in shallow inshore waters although sufficient to demonstrate major changes in recruitment.
• Puerulus settlement in deeper waters was higher in the 2016/2017 settlement season on the south coast of Tasmania than it was on the east coast
• Puerulus settlement rates in deep waters varied between recent seasons similarly to settlement in inshore waters
3. A cost-benefit analysis comparing traditional diver-based and deep-water fisher serviced puerulus collection strategies has shown that:
• Fisher-serviced is more cost-effective than diver-based methods for similar arrays of collectors
• The current fisher-serviced design is not suitable for deployment in inshore shallow exposed waters due to sedimentation from mobile sediments
• The fisher-serviced collection system developed in this project is a cost-effective way to monitor puerulus settlement in deep water
• Despite yielding lower catch rates than inshore settlement monitoring, the number of offshore collectors used in this project displayed similar temporal patterns of settlement with similar statistical power.
• Offshore collectors retain puerulus settlers similarly to inshore collectors
• Fisher-serviced puerulus monitoring would be even more cost effective if industry agreed to provide support without the requirement for financial compensation

A review of the Tasmanian puerulus program undertaken in 2008 involving government, industry and an external review identified that the current puerulus collectors were all on the East Coast (with the exception of King Island); despite the southern and western regions supporting the largest catches in the fishery. The review identified as a priority to "investigate options for collection on the west coast using boat-based collection and using the commercial fleet to reduce cost of collection".

In phase 1 of this project a design for a deep water collector was developed through consultation with industry and prototypes of this design were constructed and tested in aquaria with captured pueruli, on the seafloor adjacent to an existing inshore shallow collector site on the east coast of Tasmania, and in deep water on the south and southwest coasts of Tasmania. The prototype collectors were successfully deployed, retrieved and serviced by vessels in the commercial lobster fleet and vessel masters reported that the design facilitated safe and efficient handling on deck. The prototypes collected significantly more puerulus than adjacent routine collectors in deployments at the shallow site and collected puerulus for the first time on the deeper and more exposed southwest coast of Tasmania.

This phase 2 of the project saw deployment of a refined collector design onto reefs around Tasmania over 2 puerulus settlement seasons and provided evidence that; (1) puerulus settle in larger numbers in shallow inshore waters; (2) puerulus settlement in deeper water varies in space, time and depth around the Tasmanian coast (eg. Puerulus settlement was higher on the south coast than on the east coast in the 2016/2017 settlement season and puerulus settlement in waters deeper than 100m appears to be very low). 

When deployed alongside traditional diver based collectors, the fisher-serviced puerulus collector captures and retains more puerulus than traditional diver-based methods and is more cost-effective per collector. However, refinements to the design would be required for its use in inshore puerulus monitoring due to siltation issues from mobile sediments in exposed inshore locations. 

Despite experiencing lower catch rates than inshore settlement monitoring, the number and consistence of settlement on offshore deeper water collectors enabled similar temporal patterns of settlement to be determined. The deep water collectors also retained puerulus for similar periods to the traditional collectors.  Consequently, deep water puerulus collection is a feasible alternative to costly inshore diver-serviced monitoring programs and would be expected to indicate similar trends in recruitment. Industry involvement in servicing offshore collectors during routine fishing operations greatly increases the cost-effectiveness of this approach; particularly if this support was provided without the requirement for financial compensation.

Rock Lobster Post Harvest Subprogram: quantification of shell hardness in southern rock lobster

Project number: 2002-238
Project Status:
Completed
Budget expenditure: $86,403.70
Principal Investigator: Caleb Gardner
Organisation: University of Tasmania (UTAS)
Project start/end date: 29 Jun 2002 - 30 Sep 2004
:
TAGS
Post Harvest
SPECIES
Southern Rock Lobster

Need

A new, simple and quick solution to the ambiguity of current measures of shell wear is to quantify shell hardness with a durometer, which is a small, hand-held device originally designed to measure the flexibility of plastic sheeting (Hicks and Johnson, 1999). This system of standardisation has recently been introduced in Alaskan crab fisheries. Before these devices can be used for Australian rock lobster stock-assessment, a series of short experiments are needed to calibrate hardness reading to the moult cycle. These experiments will allow future research sampling to record more useful measures of moult stage and thus provide more effective stock assessment.

This calibration will have immediate application in Tasmanian research for assessing the effect of September and November harvests on mortality of discarded lobsters. Processors in both South Australia and Tasmania anticipate that this project will provide a valuable tool for industry to use in setting acceptable levels of shell hardness for the landing of export-grade lobsters. That is, fishers will be able to establish a quantitative shell hardness grade that a processor will accept prior to landing the catch. This eliminates the current problem of the landing of lobsters that are ambiguously classed as “hard” by a fisher but “soft” by a processor – with resultant negative impacts on economic yield and markets.

Hicks, D. and Johnson, B.A., 1999. A device to measure shell hardness of Dungeness crabs and trial application in the Kodiak Island, Alaska, commercial fishery. Nor. Amer. J. Fish. Man. 19: 581-590.

Objectives

1. To calibrate the rate of change in shell hardness before and after the moult of southern rock lobsters relative to lobster size, sex, region and temperature.
2. To identify the region of the exoskeleton that is most suited for measuring hardness.
3. To develop a prototype gauge for industry use that can be used to measure shell hardness of lobster with precision in industry conditions.

Final report

Final Report • 1.14 MB
2002-238-DLD.pdf
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