457 results

Inventory and assessment of Australian estuaries

Project number: 1999-230
Project Status:
Completed
Budget expenditure: $495,000.00
Principal Investigator: Lynne Turner
Organisation: CSIRO Land and Water Canberra
Project start/end date: 29 Jun 2000 - 15 Jun 2005
:
TAGS
Policy
Modelling
Fisheries Management
Estuarine
Environmental Impact

Need

Most of the impacts on estuaries result from the land use pattern of their contributing catchments. Understanding the trend and condition of Australia’s estuaries will do much to provide a report card of the aggregate impact of our land use activities across catchments on the natural environment as well as providing a framework for more strategic estuary management.
Estuaries are the subject of systemic failure – for example, the estuary based oyster industry in NSW and southern Queensland has reduced in value in the last 3 years from $50M to $30M – most of which is related to impacts of land use.
Estuaries are key landscapes for recreational use and commercial use, with many fish and prawn species using estuaries for nursery and sometimes maturation phases of their lifecycles. Estuaries are greatly impacted upon by our growing population – with predictions that the next 5M people in Australia will virtually all live around estuaries.
Given the widespread nature of the problem, there is a need to take a national overview of the state of estuaries and identify mechanisms for restoring their health.

Objectives

1. Determine, using readily available data where possible, the state of ecological health of Australia’s estuaries
2. Bring together in an accessible and comparable format across Australia, readily available data on estuarine health, diversity, impacts and management practices
3. Develop and apply models that describe the processes driving particular estuary types and providing a specification for the nature of data to be collected on each estuary type
4. Identify management regimes required for estuary types, assess current management and recommend improved management
5. Develop a series of monitoring and assessment activities protocols that will result in high quality information on the health of Australian estuaries, informs and evaluates management, and identifies research and development priorities
6. Assist in the establishment of an Australia wide network of researchers, managers and policy makers that facilitates a greater understanding of estuarine natural resources

Final report

Author: Lynne Turner
Final Report • 2005-11-01 • 186.72 KB
1999-230-DLD.pdf

Project products

Report • 2002-03-01 • 171.82 MB
1999-230 Australian Catchment River and Estuary Assessment 2002 Volumes 1 and 2.pdf
Report • 54.24 MB
1999-230 Where River Meets Sea - Exploring Australia's Estuaries.pdf
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Industry
PROJECT NUMBER • 2013-204
PROJECT STATUS:
COMPLETED

Meeting sustainability expectations: translating and aligning objectives, reporting and evaluation of the performance of Australian fisheries

This report presents findings of a research project which examined the extent to which the stated objectives being pursued to guide the management of Australia’s fisheries are aligned with community expectations for sustainability. And, further to this, the extent to which the design of objectives...
ORGANISATION:
University of Tasmania (UTAS)
TAGS
Sustainability
Adoption
PROJECT NUMBER • 1999-340
PROJECT STATUS:
COMPLETED

Seafood Directions '99 - the inaugural biennial national seafood industry conference

While the Australian Seafood Industry is valued in excess of $2bn, there has never been a national seafood conference in Australia. During 1998, the Australian Seafood Industry Council (ASIC) recognised that a conference would provide opportunities for industry to showcase its advances in recent...
ORGANISATION:
Seafood Council (SA) Ltd
TAGS
Training

Tactical Research Fund: Shark futures - a synthesis of available data on Mako and Porbeagle sharks in Australasian waters - current status and future directions

Project number: 2011-045
Project Status:
Completed
Budget expenditure: $69,533.00
Principal Investigator: Barry Bruce
Organisation: CSIRO Oceans and Atmosphere Hobart
Project start/end date: 27 Dec 2011 - 31 Oct 2012
:
TAGS
Wild Catch
Recreational Fishing
Population Dynamics
Oceanography
Nutrition

Need

The shortfin mako, longfin mako and porbeagle sharks have widespread distributions in temperate and tropical waters of all the world’s oceans. Makos are bycatch and by-product species of pelagic longline and gillnet fisheries where they are taken for their meat and high-value fins. They are also highly-prized recreational species in many regions. Makos have low productivity, typical of sharks that do not mature until reaching a large size, producing few young and where individuals are unlikely to reproduce annually. Risk assessments both nationally and in the Atlantic concluded that mako sharks are at the highest risk of all pelagic sharks. These species are listed by the IUCN as Vulnerable globally and Critically Endangered in the Mediterranean. Significant population declines in the Mediterranean Sea and the North Atlantic resulted in these species being listed under Appendix II of the Convention on Migratory Species (CMS) in 2008 and concomitant listing under Australia’s EPBC Act in January 2010. This effectively meant that the target commercial or recreational fishing for these species was prohibited in Australian waters. In May 2010 the National Recreational Mako Shark Fishery - Management Forum identified the need for a study to identify and propose cost effective ways to fill key gaps in the collective knowledge of these species. In July 2010, after considerable debate, a legislative amendment was made to allow for the recreational fishing of mako and porbeagle sharks in Commonwealth areas despite the offence provisions under the EPBC Act. Commercial targeting of these species remains an offence, however, there are exemptions where they are taken as bycatch under accredited management plans. The Federal Environment Minister also directed DEWHA/SEWPaC to work with Fisheries Managers to provide a “more comprehensive information base on mako and porbeagle sharks for the future”. This project is a direct result of these needs.

Objectives

1. Identify and collate existing data sets on mako and porbeagle sharks in Australasian waters including data on the geographic distribution and magnitude of current and historical catch (commercial and recreational), demographic parameters, behaviour, movement patterns, habitat associations, diet and trophic interactions and impacts of fishing, including who holds these data.
2. Identify and provide a national framework of coordination and cooperation for current and future research on mako and porbeagle sharks that will contribute towards improving understanding and reduce uncertainty in these parameters.
3. Identify key gaps in our collective knowledge of these species and opportunities for sustained, long-term programs for data collection.
4. Work with managers, policy makers, researchers as well as commercial and recreational sectors to identify cost-effective ways to address these gaps in a coordinated national and regional approach that aligns with the needs for management and policy.
5. Improve communication and coordination between research providers, State and Commonwealth management agencies and the recreational and commercial sectors on data collection and data synthesis for these species to facilitate cost effective science-support for management and policy decision making.

Final report

ISBN: 978-1-4863-0341-0
Author: Barry Bruce
Final Report • 2014-08-13 • 21.95 MB
2011-045-DLD.pdf

Summary

This project summarises the available information on the population biology of the shortfin mako, longfin mako and porbeagle sharks in Australasian waters and other parts of the world based on a workshop held at CSIRO Marine Laboratories, Hobart, Tasmania and via reviews of published literature. The report evaluates the available catch and effort data from the Australian fishery that takes the majority of mako sharks in Australian waters (the Eastern Tuna and Billfish Fishery) and provides data summaries of catches from other fisheries in Australia and New Zealand. It also provides a series \ of progress reports on current research in the Australia-New Zealand region and the Pacific Ocean. Although available data do not indicate any evidence for significant declines in mako shark abundance, it is not possible to quantitatively assess their current status in Australasian waters. Mako and porbeagle sharks have a demonstrated vulnerability to the impacts of fishing in other regions and experiences in both the Mediterranean and Atlantic support that careful attention toward monitoring their populations elsewhere is required, including in Australasian waters.

The workshop provided a highly successful construct to discuss data-sets and current research as well as facilitating collaborative partnerships between researchers, management agencies and
stakeholders. It compiled a comprehensive information base on mako and porbeagle sharks in Australasian waters to support management and inform policy decisions into the future. These elements combined to form a useful framework from which not only to guide nationally coordinated initiatives for mako and porbeagle shark research, but also offer a model for addressing similar issues for other species with international cross-jurisdictional links that require a nationally coordinated approach to research and management.
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