Due to highly publicised concern about the impact of prawn trawling to the benthos, particularly pertaining to the GBR region, there is a critical need to minimise the intensity of seabed impact and demonstrate that the residual impact does not constitute a threat to biodiversity. This is consistent with the goals and strategies set by QFIRAC in their Strategic R&D Plan: 2002 – 2006. Specifically this need relates to QFIRAC’s key R&D areas titled, “Effect of Fishing/Cleaner Production” and the underlying goal, “Environmentally friendly fishing practices and technologies in place, which reduce to a minimum the impact of fishing on the environment”. The stated strategies of QFIRAC with respect to this goal are to support the quantification of the impact of trawling on the benthos and the development of innovations that minimise this impact. This project seeks to contribute to the latter strategy by quantifying the relative benthic impact of modified trawl gear with respect to a set of standard contemporary trawl gear.

The R&D plans and strategies of all advisory bodies to the FRDC contain high priority goals to reduce the impact of fishing on the environment. For example, the priority research areas identified by NORMAC includes; “improved efficiency in fishing gear and techniques in order to reduce bycatch and discarding, increased survivorship of bycatch and environmental impacts on the benthos”. This demonstrates that the proposed work has widespread relevance in terms of its potential application. The proposed work directly relates to trawling operations occurring in the GBR, which is a world heritage area and a national icon. This certainly makes the work of national significance.

Correspondingly there is also a need to determine the effects of the proposed modifications on the operating efficiency of trawl gear (operating efficiency can be thought of as a relative measure of the catching and engineering performance of trawl gear). This recognises that it is not only important to develop fishing technology that has improved environmental performance, but also it must maintain or improve the economic viability of fishing enterprises otherwise the technology is of low value to the industry and the community. This is consistent with FRDC’s Industry Development goal (planned outcome) that, “The commercial sector of the Australian fishing industry is profitable, internationally competitive and socially resilient”. The prototype devices to be investigated have been designed with the intention of maintaining or improving the catching and engineering performance of the trawl gear. The project will quantify these relative performances for the modified trawl gear with respect to standard contemporary gear.

Domestic need

Within Australia, the regulatory frameworks for ecologically sustainable development (ESD) are at a critical point in their development. At the Commonwealth level, aquaculture will be directly affected by amendments to Schedule 4 of the Wildlife Protection (Regulation of Exports and Imports) Act 1982 (WPA); by the introduction of the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (EPBC); and in Queensland, by the introduction of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park (Aquaculture) Regulations 1999. Environmental legislation regulating shrimp culture in Queensland is also currently under review.

The Standing Committee on Fisheries and Aquaculture (SCFA) has established a Working Group on ESD. The working group aims to develop ESD indicators for assessing fisheries and aquaculture in environmental, social and economic contexts. It is anticipated that the ESD assessment process developed through this work will form the basis for Environment Australia’s assessment of fisheries and aquaculture under WPA and EPBC. The first aquaculture case study was held on shrimp farming, 3-4 October 2000.

The Australian Prawn Farmers Association (APFA) convened a National Shrimp Farming Environmental Management Workshop 24-25 May 2000. One of the outcomes of the workshop was for Australian industry “…by 2010, to have technology and farming practices and strategies that achieve worlds best practice and nil tangible water quality impacts…APFA to establish a comprehensive strategy for ESD by fully supporting SCFA Case Study for developing ESD Indicators.”

Given these developments, the expert consultation is ideally placed to facilitate the development of appropriate ESD policy, legal frameworks and good management practices for shrimp culture in Australia. It is expected that the outcomes of the consultation will provide guidance and a common platform for the policy development currently being undertaken by SCFA, Environment Australia and the Australian Prawn Farmer’s Association. This will occur through the interaction of key Australian policy officers with international experts at the consultation, and through the guidelines arising from the workshop.

International need

In December 1997, FAO convened the Technical Consultation on Policies for Sustainable Shrimp Culture. This consultation brought together government delegates and observers from 12 countries of Asia and America accounting for about 90 % of the global production and major consuming countries.

The Consultation noted that the achievement of sustainable shrimp culture is dependent on effective government policy and regulatory actions, as well as the co-operation of industry in utilising sound technology in its planning, development and operations. In this regard, the Consultation recommended that: FAO convene expert meetings to elaborate best practices for shrimp culture and the legal and other regulatory instruments for coastal aquaculture.

A major leap forward in bycatch reduction can be achieved through improved knowledge of factors that affect BRD performance. This can be very effectively achieved in a workshop, focussing on discussion of BRD performance. A workshop also provides fishers an opportunity to discuss new, innovative solutions to bycatch reduction, as well as future directions for related R & D.

The proposal meets the research priorities of the ComFRAB in the following ways:

Innovative approaches to fisheries management: Bringing fishers together provides a unique opportunity for accelerated learning (about successful BRDs) in the industry. Innovative BRD designs will also be a focus of the workshop to provide a basis for new thinking and solutions to bycatch reduction.

Economics of fisheries: Improved BRD performance may translate to reduced codend drag and fuel consumption, improved catch value (per litre of fuel consumed) and possibly increased prawn catches through improved swept-area performance.

People and industry development: This workshop aims to help change the culture of the industry re use of BRDs from ‘minimise their impact’ to maximise their performance’. This change in thinking has occurred for TEDs but the leap has not been made for BRDs. Effective BRDs (in conjunction with the already effective TEDs) will substantially reduce the ecological impact of prawn trawling and improve the reputation of prawn-trawl fisheries.

Cross-fishery issues: This workshop has application to all Australian prawn-trawl fisheries, especially the NPF, Qld ECTF and the Torres Strait fishery, and fishers, managers and researchers from each of these will be involved in the workshop.

This workshop also meets a (high) research priority of NORMAC and QFIRAC by contributing to the development of effective bycatch reduction devices.