445 results
Industry
PROJECT NUMBER • 2013-225
PROJECT STATUS:
COMPLETED

Tactical Research Fund: Developing a management framework and harvest strategies for small scale multi-species, multi-method community based fisheries, using the South Australian Lakes and Coorong Fishery as a case study

The commercial Lakes and Coorong Fishery (LCF) operates at the end of the Murray-Darling Basin where the river system meets the Southern Ocean, encompassing a diverse range of freshwater, estuarine and marine habitats and communities. This multi-gear fishery targets a range of species...
ORGANISATION:
Fishwell Consulting Pty Ltd
Environment
PROJECT NUMBER • 2007-010
PROJECT STATUS:
COMPLETED

Integration of socio economic sustainability criteria into a reporting framework for the Australian aquaculture industry

This study has tested and refined the indicators and potential data collection questions that may be implemented by individual aquaculture enterprises, and subjected to basic interpretation by the industry, to inform ESD reporting. Some of the economic and social data also has the potential for use,...
ORGANISATION:
National Aquaculture Council (NAC)
People
PROJECT NUMBER • 2013-748.20
PROJECT STATUS:
COMPLETED

Seafood CRC: addressing roadblocks to the adoption of economics in fisheries policy (2013/748.20 Communal)

This project has led to the development of three journal articles examining how the use of economic analyses and stock enhancement can lead to improved economic outcomes in Australian wild-capture commercial fisheries. The Seafood Cooperative Research Centre (Seafood CRC) Future Harvest (FH)...
ORGANISATION:
University of Tasmania (UTAS)

Maximising net economic returns from a multispecies fishery

Project number: 2015-202
Project Status:
Completed
Budget expenditure: $229,305.00
Principal Investigator: Sean Pascoe
Organisation: CSIRO Oceans and Atmosphere Hobart
Project start/end date: 30 Jun 2015 - 28 Sep 2017
Contact:
FRDC

Need

An objective of the Fisheries Management Act 1991 is ‘maximising the net economic returns to the Australian community from the management of fisheries’, which has been interpreted as achieving the biomass that, on average, produces maximum economic yield (BMEY) in the Commonwealth Fisheries Harvest Strategy 2007 and the more recent Borthwick (2012) and DAFF (2013) Reviews cited earlier.

To date, only two Australian fisheries (the Northern Prawn Fishery (Punt et al 2011) and the Great Australian Bight trawl fishery (Kompas et al 2013) have models suitable for assessing MEY. These are data rich fishery, both in terms of economic and biological information. Methods for estimating proxy target reference points in single and multispecies fisheries have recently been developed (FRDC 2011/200 and FRDC 2010/044) but not yet applied in any fishery. Other approaches have also been developed elsewhere (e.g. FRDC 2008/08). These methods have not accounted for environmental externalities, particularly in terms of bycatch and discards, which may affect the optimal outcome. A range of other complications were also identified during a technical review of economic issues (FRDC 2012/225) and the review of the Commonwealth Policy on fisheries bycatch.

Developing harvest strategies that maximise net economic returns is a different problem to that of identifying targets. The latter is an endpoint while the former is the process to achieve the end point. The purpose and aim of this project is to establish a practical and cost effective method for managing a multispecies fishery towards maximising net economic returns as a whole, taking into account non-target catches.

Objectives

1. Development of a methodology for maximising net economic return to a multispecies fishery as a whole, and with regard to by-catch and discard species
2. Development of a framework to operationalise the methodology into fisheries management objectives

Final report

ISBN: 978-1-4863-1076-0
Authors: Pascoe S. Hutton T. Hoshino E. Sporcic M. Yamazaki S. and Kompas T.
Final Report • 2018-06-01 • 1.45 MB
2015-202-DLD.pdf

Summary

Achieving fishery MEY may result in a reduction in net economic returns in a broader sense if the loss to consumers exceeds the gain to the industry. Such a loss may occur if supplies to the local market are reduced and prices paid by consumers increase. This results in a transfer of benefits from consumers to producers, which is considered undesirable in itself. However, if the loss to consumers is greater than the gain to producers then overall there is a loss of net economic returns. Similarly, the disutility associated
with bycatch in fisheries may also affect our interpretation of “optimal” yields if non‐monetary values are assigned. The “generic” multispecies bioeconomic model was used to estimate the impact on target fishing mortality rates of broadening the consideration of net economic returns to include also changes in consumer surplus and inclusion of non‐market values associated with bycatch. The model is run stochastically while maximising profit but varying the number of species caught, their biological characteristics and prices, fishing costs, price flexibilities, bycatch rates and values.

The results of the analysis were largely as expect, namely that including consumer benefits into the definition of MEY resulted in a higher optimal level of fishing effort and yield, while including non‐market costs associated with discards resulted in a lower optimal level of fishing effort and yield. The degree to which these factors affected the definition of MEY was, unsurprisingly, related to their overall magnitude relative to the benefits to the fishery.

Implementing MEY, once identified, also has several challenges. The study considered a range of harvest control rules, as well as other potential management options. The results of the model analysis suggest that “hockey‐stick” harvest control rules in multispecies fisheries may overly restrict the catch of species that are currently above their target biomass. Given the higher abundance, catch of these species is likely to result in increased discarding and lower economic returns than might otherwise be achieved. An alternative harvest control rule that allowed higher than “optimal” fishing mortality rates for species that were above their target biomass resulted in less discarding and higher economic returns.

Having quota on too many species may be counterproductive, as the fishery is largely constrained by the quota for the main species. Imposing quotas also on secondary species can result in a situation where a minor species becomes a “choke” species, restricting the total fishery for little benefit. Reducing the number of species subject to quota constraints to only those that were most important (in terms of revenue) resulted in improved economic performance of the fishery as well as lower levels of discarding. However, in the model changes in targeting ability of the fleet was not considered, so monitoring of fisher behaviour in response to proposed management regimes that only have a few species under quota would
be essential.
Environment
PROJECT NUMBER • 2009-038
PROJECT STATUS:
COMPLETED

Aboriginal fisheries in New South Wales: determining catch, cultural significance of species and traditional fishing knowledge needs

This report presents the results of a Fisheries Research Development Corporation (FRDC) funded study of Aboriginal fisheries in New South Wales. A key objective of the study was to address information gaps in relation to catch, cultural significance of species and traditional fishing knowledge (TFK)...
ORGANISATION:
Southern Cross University (SCU) Lismore Campus
Industry
PROJECT NUMBER • 2013-237
PROJECT STATUS:
COMPLETED

Tactical Research Fund: Identification and development of the domestic and export market requirements for packaged Donax deltoides (MAP, frozen and pasteurised)

The present project was initiated to identify the trade preferences for packaged pipi products, particularly chilled Modified Atmosphere Packs (MAP), trade and regulatory requirements, prospective demand and indicative prices to underpin the development of a market entry strategy for the selected...
ORGANISATION:
Goolwa Pipi Harvesters Association Inc
Adoption
PROJECT NUMBER • 2019-162
PROJECT STATUS:
COMPLETED

Western Abalone Divers Association 2020 Quota Setting Workshop: Opportunity for shared understanding of potential TACC setting processes by Western Australian Abalone stakeholders

The staff of the Industry Consultation Unit travelled in January 2020 to Port Fairy Victoria to attend the WADA 2020 Quota Setting Workshop to gain an understanding of the Western Zones TACC setting process, and formulate a overview of how to better undertake the workshop in Western Australia,...
ORGANISATION:
Western Australian Fishing Industry Council Inc (WAFIC)
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