Developing Code of Practice frameworks and assessing the need for an Australian Standard on Responsible Fishing Practices
A recent FRDC report on Community Perceptions of the Australian Fishing Industry (2011) identified that only 27 percent of those surveyed believe that commercial fishing is sustainable - a similar result was found in surveys in 2003. This finding reflects very poorly on commercial fishing despite the considerable resources that have been invested over the past decade on changes to fishing and management practices. It is evident that consumersc remain largely unaware of the significant progress that has been made. This project will address an element of these consumer concerns about Australian fishers, responsibly fishing.
Consumers need to be able to justify support for the Australian fishers through a framework they recognise, such as a benchmark standard. A core problem is that most sectors of the commercial fishing industry do not have an appropriate framework under which they can promote their responsible fishing practices to consumers. The current mechanisms are fragmented and wide ranging which is confusing for the fishers. In addition, the cost associated with many of the higher level certification schemes are beyond the capacity of many fishery sectors, particularly the smaller inshore sectors. This project provides the extension and adoption framework to resolve this problem at the fishery sector, regional or at individual fisher level - no other scheme offers this breadth of scope. It is envisiaged that this will be a low cost initiative affordable by industry
This Draft Australian Standard is intended to be used as a basis for a certification scheme of individual operators and link to a future Chain of Custody Australian Standard which will go beyond resale.
This project will also deliver the required extension and adoption of many other previous investments by FRDC, in particular, industry codes of practice and ESD initiatives.
Final report
standardisation, including the UK Responsible Fishing Vessel Scheme, Oceanwatch Master Fishers Programme and the South Australian Rock Lobster Clean and Green standard. The review led to a change of project focus to develop code of practice templates for fisheries that were compliant with domestic and international regulatory and normative frameworks. Discussion with stakeholders indicated that there was little demand for an Australian Responsible Fishing Standard, but the templates could be a basis for the development of a standard in the future if required.
Determining ecological effects of longline fishing in the Eastern Tuna and Billfish Fishery
The ET&BF is presently dealing separately with a number of ecological issues. For example, impacts of longliners on shearwaters and turtles are current high profile problems. However, other issues such as depletion of swordfish, SBT bycatch, availability of tunas in relation to oceanographic features, bycatch of sharks and finning have all taken centre stage at different times in the short history of the domestic fishery. This approach is often reactionary, rather than strategic, and may not be the best use of research resources over the long-term. If the ET&BF is to move substantially toward ecosystem-based fishery management, as it is required to do under the EPBC act, rather than continue the individual species management approach, an ecosystem analysis providing ecosystem metrics must be developed. If, for example, ET&BF managers opt for time area closures as part of their management strategy to protect key species, developing these on a species-by-species basis has the potential to impact the whole fishery. To develop and evaluate time area closures that allow for minimizing risk of adverse impacts to the suite of key species, while allowing for optimal efficiency of fishing, understanding the associations, linkages and interactions between species is essential. This is the ecosystem approach. Developing an understanding of how ecosystem-associations relate to oceanographic features is also essential in open ocean systems where the dominant influence on distribution and local abundance is oceanography. The approach we are taking will provide the information needed to support an ecosystem-based management framework. Through the analyses we are proposing we will identify regional “hot spots”, detail their linkages and provide detailed scenarios as to how we think different management strategies and fishing practices will or will not impact pelagic food chains, ecologically related non-target species, competitors (e.g. sharks, marlins etc.) and their associated ecosystems. The need for ecosystem-based fishery management for the Western Pacific region has also been supported by PrepCon for the soon-to-be formed WCPFC (Working Paper 9, 2002).