Project Search

Introduction
Independent data validation in commercial fishing is becoming more commonplace in Australia. Fisheries in Australia provide a significant income to the country, and play an integral role in our food security, livelihoods, and social lives. Challenges such as overfishing, illegal and unreported fishing, bycatch and interactions with threatened, endangered, or protected species, provide hinderances to fully sustainable fishing. The increasing demands on the marine environment for energy production, marine protected areas, and recreational use are leading management of fisheries in Australia to be spatially based. Currently, some jurisdictions in Australia (e.g. Queensland, Tasmania, Australian Fisheries Management Authority), have already introduced independent data validation programs. The aim of these programs is, on the surface, to improve the quality, reliability, and transparency of fisheries data in Australia. However, there is considerable distrust from commercial fishers regarding a) data collection methods; b) the use of collected data; c) the legality of both collecting, and storing data; d) the cost of installing and running the systems – both financial and physical; e) ongoing maintenance of systems; f) the reliability of data from the systems, and g) whether the data are actually going to be used for their intended purpose.
Recognising the need for greater transparency in fisheries data, and the general distrust of these systems, this project aims to provide an external review of data validation options, uses, and opportunities within Australia.
Objective
The primary objective of this project is to address industry stakeholders’ concerns regarding the reliability and transparency around the collection, use, and storage of independent fisheries data validation methods. This will be achieved by conducting a comprehensive, and systematic review of independent data validation (IDV) processes both within Australia, and globally. The review will then allow us to evaluate IDV mechanisms, legal implications around IDV, and economic considerations of various IDV methods, including whether any value-add opportunities exist. The project will provide outputs that will allow for efficient choice of relevant data validation options for particular fisheries in Australia, while outlining the pros and cons for relevant methods. The results will enhance confidence for commercial fishers, and fishery managers around choosing the best data validation options for their fishery.

Methods
1) Systematic literature review to determine available independent data validation methods
We will research and compile a comprehensive list of independent data validation methods (IDV) that are available currently, and in the future through a systematic literature review. The systematic literature review will cover peer-reviewed literature and relevant reports published globally in the last 10 years. The review will examine existing technologies, methodologies, and best practices in IDV used in relevant industries (not just limited to fisheries), and present a summary of current best practice, and likely additions in the future to IDV. The review will include information on the potential add-on possibilities associated with IDV methods – which will be expanded upon in (4). The review will equip industry stakeholders with the knowledge to fully understand the range of options in IDV, and those most suitable for their fishery.
2) Stakeholder consultation – strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT)
Within the project we will conduct an extensive survey across a diversity of fishers across Australia (including those that have already implemented IDV, and those that have not), to gather insight into the perceptions of independent data validation (IDV). Through this SWOT analysis, we will identify the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats associated with current IDV mechanisms from the perception of industry, and map this to the published literature in point (1). This will allow us to address concerns from industry and identify those concerns that are representative of IDV globally. This analysis will serve as a foundational understanding of the industry's readiness and receptiveness towards adopting IDV and provide industry with independent information relating to their concerns.
3) Review of legal implications for IDV implementation, including case studies
Alongside the systematic literature review in (1), we will conduct a thorough review of Australian legislation relating to IDV. This will include both publicly available legal documents, and information regarding internal policy documents from governmental departments. The review will include fisheries legislation and policy, data ownership, data licencing, data storing, and Freedom of Information requests that have occurred within the context of fisheries data relating to IDV. Some of industry’s concerns regarding IDV relate to how the data will be used outside of a fisheries context, and we will ensure that our legislative review includes advice regarding data use. The review will provide information on Australian legislation relating to IDV, and data collection, storage and sharing.
4) Assessment of value-add opportunities
Building upon the findings from (1-3), we will assess the value-add opportunities presented by adopting IDV. This assessment will include a financial model similar to the one in the report “Challenges, Opportunities, and Costs of Electronic Monitoring” that was published by The Environmental Defence Fund in 2016 [REF] that will provide industry with a tool to investigate the costs and benefits of adopting various IDV methods. Additionally, we will explore how IDV can contribute to improved market access, stakeholder relationships, and sustainability credentials for fisheries businesses, alongside the potential of improved data quality from fisheries. Our work will build on our planned literature and legal review of independent data validation (IDV) and provide potential ‘value-add’ opportunities for commercial fishers, based on the information in the review. Some potential benefits may include:
• Increased or improved market access (where IDV can demonstrate aspects of sustainable fishing practices required by, for example, sustainability labels such as the Marine Stewardship Council Certification).
• Potential for selling or distribution of data to researchers / third parties (depending on data owners.

We will include updated outcomes and outputs from the project as detailed below, and will look to refine these with the Professional Fishers Association of New South Wales, commercial fishers, and the Steering Committee.

5) Best Practice Guidelines
We will provide industry and fisheries resource managers with a Best Practice Guideline relating to IDV as a formal result from the steps (1-4) above.
6) Engagement with Industry Stakeholders
Throughout the project, we will actively engage with industry stakeholders through workshops, focus groups, and one-on-one consultations to discuss project findings. This engagement will provide a platform for dialogue, collaboration, and knowledge sharing, fostering a sense of ownership and commitment among stakeholders towards implementing IDV practices. We will facilitate target outreach efforts engaging with industry associations, peak bodies, government agencies, and non-governmental organizations (NGOs), and other interested parties on the project progress.

Objectives

1. Deliver a systematic literature review of global independent data validation methods, and the costs and benefits associated with implementing these in commercial fisheries.

2. Deliver a report on industry opinions and concerns based on stakeholder consultation

3. Deliver a review of legislation and policy that is relevant. and relating to independent data validation methods in Australia

4. Provide opportunities for stakeholder engagement in the project, and in discussions regarding the outcomes.

Reviewing solutions to reduce unwanted fisher interactions with elasmobranchs

Project number: 2023-012

Project Status:

Current

Budget expenditure: $375,390.00

Principal Investigator: Jonathan D. Mitchell

Organisation: Department of Primary Industries (QLD)

Project start/end date: 14 Feb 2024 - 14 Oct 2026

Contact:

FRDC

TAGS

Threatened Endangered Protected Species

Need

This project will build on the 2022 FRDC National Workshop on Shark Depredation (project number 2021-038) and have four complementary phases through: (1) a detailed review of the peer-reviewed and grey literature to identify and assess the efficacy of the most recently developed mitigation methods, (2) a survey of the scientific community and fishing-industry stakeholders (i.e. fishers, industry representatives, managers) to identify lesser known methods developed and/or used by fishers, (3) a series of workshops to identify the most promising approaches for mitigating depredation and plan the design of field trials, with a stop/go point occurring at the end of this phase based on whether suitable methods are found, and if so, (4) a robust experimental trial of the most promising mitigation method(s) to assess their effectiveness at reducing shark depredation. Phase 4 would be dependent on whether suitable methods can be identified through Phases 1–3. Stakeholder involvement and outreach will be a critical part of this project across all phases. The findings of this project will be widely disseminated via presentations to fishing clubs and industry members, written articles in the FRDC and fishing magazines, a final project report and subsequent peer reviewed publications. All off these outreach activities will be conducted in collaboration with the FRDC Extension Officer network. This will ensure broad adoption of the identified depredation mitigation measure(s).

Objectives

1. Review the existing peer-reviewed and grey literature to collate information on the range of methods trialled to date for reducing shark interactions with fishing and assess their relative effectiveness

2. Survey of the scientific community and fishing-industry stakeholders (i.e. fishers, industry representatives, managers) to identify lesser known methods developed and/or used by fishers which may not have been formally discussed or tested in the peer-reviewed or grey literature.

3. Conduct industry workshops to identify the most promising and practical approaches for mitigating depredation and plan a robust experimental design for future trials

4. Based on the outcomes of Objectives 1–3, conduct robust experimental trials of the most promising mitigation method(s)

5. Extend the results of the workshops and on-water testing to the wider fishing community to facilitate broad adoption of the tested mitigation method(s) (should they prove effective)

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

TAGS

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.

PROJECT NUMBER • 2022-138

PROJECT STATUS:

CURRENT