28 results
Communities

Developing automated data cleansing and validation processes for fisheries catch and effort data

Project number: 2017-085
Project Status:
Current
Budget expenditure: $397,750.00
Principal Investigator: Karina C. Hall
Organisation: Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development (NSW)
Project start/end date: 21 Dec 2017 - 29 Jun 2020
Contact:
FRDC

Need

During a recent national Fisheries Statistics Working Group meeting, data managers from all Australian states highlighted and discussed the likely high prevalence of inaccurate or fraudulent data supplied by fishers and accrued through data-entry errors. Current data quality control measures in each jurisdiction are largely heterogeneous, undocumented and often rely on manual checks by clerks or analysts that are labour intensive and costly and not routinely executed. Because many of these checks occur during manual data entry of paper-based records, these are likely to become obsolete as reliance on electronic reporting increases, with data entered directly by fishers through online portals or mobile applications.

There is a need to develop automated data cleansing and diagnostic procedures that can be applied post-hoc or retrospectively to large fisheries databases to detect and flag errors and outliers and provide subsets of reliable catch and effort data for stock assessments and other analyses. This project will contribute towards addressing these issues, by developing automated processes to routinely assess newly entered fisheries catch and effort data for errors, retrospectively quantify error rates in existing data and assess their likely influence on the outputs of stock assessment analyses. The outcomes will help improve the quality and accuracy of catch and effort data used in routine stock assessments, and in turn lead to more sustainable management of wild capture fisheries resources.

Objectives

1. Review existing data quality control and cleansing processes applied to fisheries catch and effort databases in all state and commonwealth jurisdictions.
2. Develop a suite of generic algorithmic and statistical approaches to detect and flag different error types (e.g., anomalous, missing and outlying values) in fisheries catch and effort relational databases.
3. Trial the above approaches with several case-study fisheries datasets to assess the performance of different data cleansing approaches, quantify error rates and types and assess the sensitivity of catch and effort statistics to these errors and outliers.
4. On the basis of the above findings, recommend a standard national approach for data cleansing and validation of fisheries catch and effort data.
5. Customise and integrate the generic approaches into NSW fisheries database systems to implement automated data cleansing processes.
6. Extend the results of the project to fishers and industry representatives to encourage greater accuracy in fisheries catch and effort data reporting.

Biological parameters for stock assessments in South Eastern Australia – an information and capacity uplift

Project number: 2022-032
Project Status:
Current
Budget expenditure: $766,806.00
Principal Investigator: Alistair Hobday
Organisation: CSIRO Oceans and Atmosphere Hobart
Project start/end date: 28 Feb 2023 - 27 Feb 2027
Contact:
FRDC

Need

South-east Australian waters are recognised as ocean warming hotspots and overall, Australian waters have warmed faster than the global average (Hobday and Pecl 2013, IPCC 2019). Key components of the productivity of marine fish (growth, maturity, and recruitment) are expected to be changing in response to shifts in climate and it is entirely possible that there have been changes in fundamental productivity parameters for Australian stocks.
The regularity with which the biological parameters that are used in stock assessments are evaluated and updated varies considerably among the species that are targeted in Commonwealth Fisheries. Assessment of changes in these parameters is limited largely to sensitivity analyses consisting of exploring alternate time-invariant values of natural mortality, maturity and stock recruitment steepness at values close to those used in the base-case assessment and generally agreed upon as within acceptable ranges of values. Recently an evaluation of the provenance of the biological parameters used in stock assessments found that species from the SESSF contained the largest number of parameters where provenance could not be ascertained from the literature and that SESSF species comprised over 50% of those species where biological parameters were determined to be more than 20 years old (FRDC project 2019-010, Evans et al. 2022). When plausible changes to biological parameters (such as those that might occur under environmental change) were explored quite substantial changes in biomass estimates for key target species occurs. This means that parameter mis-specification, such as due to relying on older parameter estimates that encode predator-prey and other ecosystem processes from a system state that has since changed, could be a real issue for assessments in the SESSF.
The reliance of current assessments on what is likely to be out-of-date information leads to considerable uncertainty, which cannot be easily quantified that then propagates into management decisions. Without an understanding of changes in biological parameters and how these changes might impact assessments, it is difficult (if not impossible) to evaluate whether current management measures are ensuring sustainability. Overall, the project recommended that updating parameters in stock assessments, modifying base cases, or more heavily drawing on results from sensitivity analysis in discussion of stock assessment results would be strongly advisable, especially in regions where large environmental shifts are known to be occurring, such as the SESSF.
The RV Investigator voyages to be conducted in 2023 and 2024 under the CSIRO led SEA-MES project provide a unique opportunity to access relevant biological samples that could be used to update the biological parameters identified in FRDC Project 2019-010 as a high priority (age, growth, reproduction, stock structure and although not directly used in stock assessments themselves but having significant influence on parameters that are used in assessments (such as growth and mortality), diet and food webs). These voyages have a focus on the marine ecosystem that supports the SESSF and a number of the hypotheses being posed by the study are focused on target species within the SESSF and their food webs. This will result in significant sampling of those species , with the co-benefit that there will be new samples available for the contemporary estimation of key biological parameters and evaluation of the representativeness of parameters being used in stock assessments (and with sufficient sample numbers to ensure robust updated estimates). These voyages also provide a unique opportunity to build capacity in at sea sampling, exposure to ecosystem level sampling design and post-voyage biological analyses. By linking post voyage analyses with the direct needs of both stock assessments and ecosystem models used in the SESSF, the project provides opportunities for building deeper understanding of the use of biological parameters in stock assessments, and direct application of fisheries biology.

Objectives

1. Develop, in collaboration and consultation with key research and fishery stakeholders a series of projects involving postgraduate students and early-mid career researchers that directly address priority areas for updating biological parameters for target species in the SESSF and understanding the implications of changing parameters on the fishery
2. Reduce uncertainties in stock assessments for the SESSF through the updating of biological parameters and understanding of key interactions between and drivers of change in biological parameters
3. Progress methods development associated with ascertaining biological parameters and progressing stock assessments to increase efficiencies, reduce time and financial costs, expand applicability and reduce uncertainties in stock assessments
4. Build fisheries capability across multiple pathways to support the ongoing sustainability of high quality fisheries research
Industry

Recfishwest attendance at the World Recreational Fishing Conference in July 2017

Project number: 2016-140
Project Status:
Current
Budget expenditure: $10,000.00
Principal Investigator: Andrew Rowland
Organisation: Recfishwest
Project start/end date: 9 Oct 2017 - 29 Oct 2017
Contact:
FRDC

Need

With an estimated 740,000 people enjoying recreational fishing in Western Australia every year the recreational fishing industry in WA is extremely important social and economic contributor to Western Australia.

The World Recreational Fishing Conference is being held in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada from July 16-20 2017. The conference unites the global recreational fishing community providing an essential forum to discuss current research. Held every three years, this is the only international conference focused solely on recreational fisheries.

The conference theme this year is : Balancing Values - The Future of Recreational Fishing around the World and key issues that will be addressed include:

1. Use and challenges of catch & release fisheries
2. Understanding angler behavior through human dimensions and economics research
3. Fishers driving fish habitat outcomes
4. Genetic and genomic applications towards improved management practices
5. Management strategies, policy development and governance
6. Integrating social-ecological systems for sustaining fisheries
7. Monitoring and assessment of fisheries
8. Social and economic values of fisheries
9. Citizen science
10. Adaptive environmental management of fisheries
11. Reconciling stocking, management and conservation
12. Engagement of fishers in the management process
13. Recreational fisheries as complex adaptive systems
14. The role of recreation in global fisheries
15. Managing wild stock fisheries under uncertainty
16. Expanding fisheries in economies in transition
17. Allocation issues in fisheries: recreational, commercial, aboriginal, subsistence, artisanal

Western Australia faces many of these issues and learning's from the conference will be directly transferable to Western Australia. This project supports the People Development Drivers, Challenges and opportunities outlined in section 2.2 of the WA Research Advisory Committee RD&E Plan. The objectives of this project also address every one of the FRDC's People Development Program priorities.

more information about the conference can be found at http://www. http:/wrfc8.com/

Objectives

1. Provide opportunities for knowledge transfer and R&D adoption, and best practice for WA fisheries.
2. Enhance industry leadership within, and across the recreational sector through exposing participants to international experts and through networking opportunities.
3. Build recreational sector capacity to drive change to achieve goals in WA
4. Build capability within the recreational sector workforce and further outcomes from previous FRDC investments in people development.

Mapping the economic and social contributions of the NT seafood industry – Part 2

Project number: 2023-029
Project Status:
Current
Budget expenditure: $295,760.00
Principal Investigator: Daniel Capps
Organisation: Northern Territory Seafood Council (NTSC)
Project start/end date: 4 Dec 2023 - 27 Jun 2024
Contact:
FRDC

Need

The Northern Territory Seafood Council (NTSC) and the Northern Territory Government (NTG) recognise the vital need to bridge the knowledge gap regarding the economic impact of the NT seafood industry. This gap severely impedes effective advocacy for industry growth and development by the NTSC and hampers evidence decision-making. Without a comprehensive understanding of the industry's economic footprint throughout the supply chain of each major fishery/sector, it is challenging to address critical issues and identify vulnerable points within the sector.

A whole of fishery and sector analysis, will provide essential insights for targeted advocacy and informed decision-making, fostering sustainable growth, enhancing resilience, and addressing critical issues within the Northern Territory's seafood industry.

Understanding the complete value of the NT seafood industry to the local community is crucial for making strategic decisions related to negotiations such as those concerning Blue Mud Bay and infrastructure investments. It will also contribute to ongoing investment in the industry.

The project aims to test economic protocols and processes identified in FRDC Project 2021-034 to establish cost-effective and valued systems beyond its duration. These systems will incorporate socio-economic information into decision-making processes and shift the culture from a government-driven collection process to one driven by the industry.

Without a plan to highlight the wider socio-economic value and benefits of the industry, the industry may face mounting pressure on its social license to operate, impacting access, industry structure, and fees. Moreover, the lack of understanding regarding the consequences of uncertainty surrounding secure access and potential loss of access for commercial fishers may have unintended effects on the NT seafood industry. Additionally, the limited availability of current financial and economic information for NT fisheries hampers economic analysis and the provision of advice to policymakers and decision-makers, hindering opportunities for growth and sustainability.

With that context in mind, NTSC experience to date identifies a number of known issues with existing data, including:
- Limitations in the scope of data available which has historically excluded measurement of the contributions made by commercial charter fishing, processing of imported seafood, and activities downstream of immediate seafood processing (i.e. transport to retail markets, retail sector activity).
- The poor quality of economic data (such as production, price and employment data) necessary to improve estimates of direct or initial effects from fishing, aquaculture production and processing in some fisheries and for some sub-sectors and seafood processing (where there is a need to further disaggregate ANZSIC categories or investigate alternative means of measurement for fisheries with too few licence holders for data to be reported).
- Gaps in data regarding indirect contributions, including downstream production-induced and consumption-induced effects, where key data regarding employment, household-income and enterprise-level cost of production (i.e. expenditure on goods and services as inputs to fishing and aquaculture production) are unknown.
- Gaps in data for a range of monetised and non-monetised social, environmental and cultural activities which contribute value to individuals and communities. While previous estimations have referred to the social contributions of fisheries and aquaculture to regional communities this has not involved any primary data collection or analysis of secondary data, requiring further work to select specific indicators and the basis of evidence.

In scoping and analysing the available data, the project will use third party providers to:
- Ensure data collection methods are consistent and participant consent and privacy is achieved. The privacy of participants must be protected through adherence to the Australian Privacy Principles in the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth), such that names of individuals are not recorded. Where the explicit informed consent of participants is required this may include a requirement to sign a consent form. Under circumstances where a vulnerable group is consulted, such as Indigenous Territorians, specific consent may be required from a Human Research Ethics Committee to ensure the data collection process causes no harm to participants.
- Ensure data storage is secure and access is limited to the reasonable requirements of the project. All digital data (i.e. from an online survey) would be stored on a secure network with file access restricted to the nominated project team through use of file encryption and passwords. Any primary data collected cannot be used for any purpose other than that required to meet study objectives.

Objectives

1. Understanding of the economic footprint of the NT seafood industry within the NT economy
2. Understanding of the economic footprint of the NT seafood industry within the Australian economy
3. Understanding the economic footprint of the main fishery sectors and their supply chains
4. Improved understanding and valuation of the NT seafood industry
5. Improved understanding of where the vulnerable points in the supply chain are
Environment
PROJECT NUMBER • 2023-205
PROJECT STATUS:
CURRENT

Role of marine reserves in sustainable management of Australia's ocean estate - review of the Heard Island and McDonald Islands bioregion

The statutory requirement to undertake a 10-year review of the Heard and McDonald Islands (HIMI) Marine Reserve led to a proposal to expand the HIMI marine reserve and include new National Park Zones (IUCN II) and Habitat Protection Zone (IUCN IV) arrangements. Subsequently, the total...
ORGANISATION:
TJB Management Pty Ltd
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