Abalone Viral Ganglioneuritis (AVG) disease is caused by a herpesvirus (infection with abalone herpesvirus, AbHV) and was first detected in Victoria in December 2005. The last recorded instance of this disease in Victoria was in January 2010 at Cape Otway.

The disease was again confirmed in the Cape Nelson area on 2 May 2021. Since then, further detections have been made at several locations and has been confirmed in Victoria as far east as Cape Otway and as far west as the Discovery Bay Marine Park.

While the virus is active there is a need for the Victorian wild catch abalone fishers to urgently review past research, to inform a gap analysis and further research.

This review will support those involved in the outbreak and inform fellow members nationally with a summary of past research and a way forward with other research for up-to-date biosecurity protocols, surveillance, and diagnostic tools to aid rapid detection to future proof the industry. Relevant industry, government representatives and stakeholders will be kept informed and asked to comment and contribute issues and ideas for a cooperative structured way forward to build a common framework on which to establish a set of key actions and or priorities. At the end of a staged process a workshop will be organised to evaluate and reassess research needs, assess and implement research findings and if further gaps are identified develop a framework to action.

National priority: improving productivity and profitability of fishing and aquaculture.

The development of a guideline to investigate and understand disease outbreaks of unknown cause aligns with AQUAPLAN objectives for 2021- 2026 as per the draft document. The objectives were developed through extensive consultation with industry and government. This project was identified by the Aquatic Animal Health and Biosecurity Subprogram as a priority for the current call for applications.

Aquatic emergency animal disease outbreaks are a substantial threat to aquatic animal production and aquatic environments. The nature of aquatic emergency animal diseases makes them difficult to manage as they are often highly pathogenic and affect both wild and farmed populations. Further, new and emerging diseases are common, and eradication is typically challenging due to the presence of wild reservoir hosts.

Emerging diseases are challenging because reliable diagnostic methods are often not available and epidemiological information to guide responses may be absent. These circumstances present difficulties for decision making and disease investigation because there may be competing priorities between the need to learn about a disease and the need to contain or eradicate it. While the circumstances of each outbreak differ, general principles and approaches apply and if they are documented they can be used to guide responses to emerging diseases.

This project is focussed on developing a guideline to investigate and understand disease outbreaks of unknown cause. The ability to control an outbreak of a disease of unknown cause can occur independently of having knowledge of the aetiological agent. The basic epidemiologic tools used in classical outbreak investigation methodologies can provide insights into factors such spatial, temporal and animal elements of the outbreak. Such approaches are routinely used in terrestrial outbreaks of unknown aetioology and have been instrumental in aiding control, for example the Hendra virus outbreak in horses in the 1990s.

As aquaculture continues to expand at a rate approaching 6% per annum, new diseases will emerge and control strategies will benefit from this approach.

The Australian Barramundi Farmers Association (ABFA) called for an EOI via FRDC for a proposal to evaluate alternative humane harvest methods for farmed barramundi. Specifically, the ABFA identified electro-stunning as a technology of interest to further optimise animal welfare outcomes, while maintaining product quality. The association needs all available information reviewed to evaluate the technology’s potential and if recommended, to help shape the direction of future R&D into the suitability of electro-stunning for the barramundi industry. As a precursor to possible on-farm trials, the ABFA wants to better understand the nature of the technology and learn from international experience in other fish culture sectors. This full proposal addresses the ABFA’s desire for greater insight into; (a) consumer’s attitudes towards fish harvesting and slaughter; (b) the state of uptake of similar technologies by other aquaculture sectors; (c) how to adapt electro-stunning efficiently into a harvest process for a range of barramundi farm sites; (d) whether local or overseas manufacturers/agents can be engaged to co-fund tests of equipment on-farm; and (e) what requirements must be met to make that testing possible and how it would be conducted.
Approval of the EOI was subject to the full application addressing the need for the literature review to include any work on methodology for establishing product quality indicators in addition to welfare indicators (Condition 9).

In a scan of FRDC projects with “co-management” in the title five projects identify a need for a culture change to allow co-management, but none provided a process by which such culture change could occur.

The NSW wild harvest industry needs support with culture change skills to allow the Industry Vision to become real. The Industry Vision speaks to fisheries management built on co-management and stakeholder consultation. The current culture of the fishing industry is limiting the industry from being an active participant to this vision. Unless this is urgently addressed the combative relationship between industry and Government will not change.

We focus on developing a process of culture change involving both the seafood sector and government. A new culture will underpin and support initiatives between government and the seafood sector. Co-management provides a tangible goal for the participants in this project, but the need being addressed is testing and developing of a process of culture change explicitly for seafood industry and government agencies.

The Industry Vision needs stakeholders to adopt new ways of thinking, relating, and working so they are receptive to the Industry Vision. Significant growth in this sector is possible, in NSW landings of fish could grow as much as 30% (Smith et al 2019). Unless the industry has confidence to commit to the long-term future of the fishing industry and encourage young fishers to see this future this value will never be realised.

This project will pilot an culture change approach never tried in the seafood industry to:
• identify and explain the current relationship dynamics between industry and regulators ;
• design and implement a suite of projects to transform the relationships to build a trusting and collaborative culture;
• develop the framework and practices that will enable and support self-perpetuating culture change.

There is goodwill and intent by NSW Government to move forward to strong working relationships with industry eg Harvest Strategy Working Groups, and a culture change process will provide the confidence to invest in building relationships and being engaged.

After discussions with MSC, ASBTIA applied for MSC and completed the pre-assessment (ACDR) for SBT caught in the Great Australian Bight (GAB) for farming. An approved CAB, Marine Resources and Assessment Group (MRAG) completed the ACDR (attached) and identified three possible challenges to certification. First was that the MSC Standard requires the product to be “landed.” This was resolved because SBT caught for farming is officially deemed “landed” by AFMA and CCSBT. Second was the SBT listing under the EPBC Act 1999 – the same problem faced by Orange Roughy East (ORE). ASBTIA has applied to the Australian Minister for Environment for SBT to be delisted in 2021.

Another major problem is that the MSC Standard requires the SBT stock to be “at least an 80% probability that the true status of the stock is higher than the point at which there is an appreciable risk of recruitment being impaired” (MSC Standard SA2.2.1.1 and SA2.2.1.2). The Standard notes that: “Where proxy indicators and reference points are used to score Principle 1 (Pl 1.1.1), the team shall justify their use as reasonable proxies of stock biomass for the PRI and/or MSY.” The Standard also notes that “The recent trends in fishing mortality rate may be used as a means of scoring stock status.” (SA2.2.4). Currently the CCSBT MP is tuned to a 70% probability of rebuilding the stock to the interim rebuilding target reference point of 20% of the original spawning stock biomass by 2035, which does not meet the MSC Standards.

As soon as this problem was identified by MRAG in the ACDR – ASBTIA had detailed discussions with AWE and CSIRO on how this barrier could be overcome. The view that SBT could not pass the MSC Principle 1 without this being resolved was then supported by the ISSF analysis in February 2021 (see www.iss-foundation.org) CSIRO noted that the problem could be addressed by a project – but that it required use of data and analysis which evolved from the meetings of the CCSBT Extended Scientific Committee (ESC) but were not published or used in the ESC annual Reports (see www.ccsbt.org)