26 results

A scenario analysis of the social impact of the Western Rock Lobster industry management options on fleet hosting communities

Project number: 2004-247
Project Status:
Completed
Budget expenditure: $427,287.00
Principal Investigator: Matthew Tonts
Organisation: University of Western Australia (UWA)
Project start/end date: 29 Jun 2004 - 31 Oct 2007
Contact:
FRDC

Need

THE WESTERN ROCK LOBSTER FISHERY IS CURRENTLY MANAGED BY INPUT CONTROLS. THE CURRENT MANAGEMENT ARRANGEMENT IS UNDER REVIEW AND CONSIDERATION IS BEING GIVEN TO A MOVE TOWARDS OUTPUT CONTROLS IN 2006. THERE IS RECOGNITION BY WA FISHERIES AND INDUSTRY OF THE IMPORTANCE OF THE SOCIAL DIMENSION AND THE NEED TO ASSESS THE SOCIAL CONSEQUENCES OF CHANGES IN MANAGEMENT ARRANGEMENTS. THIS STUDY WILL ASSESS THE SOCIAL COMPONENT OF THE FISHERY WHICH WILL INFORM MANAGERS AND INDUSTRY ON THE LIKELY SOCIAL CONSEQUENCES OF CHANGES TO THE EXISTING MANAGEMENT RULES, IN PARTICULAR THE CONSEQUENCES OF A CHANGE FROM INPUT TO OUTPUT CONTROLS. INDUSTRY HAS INDICATED THAT ANY DECISION ON THE FUTURE MANAGEMENT OF THE WESTERN ROCK LOBSTER FISHERY WOULD NOT BE POSSIBLE WITHOUT UNDERSTANDING THE SOCIAL DIMENSION. THIS IS CONSISTENT WITH MOST studies THAT highlight the importance of the social dimension and conclude that more extensive investigation IN THIS AREA is required.

The lack of a well developed model for assessing the social consequences of the industry on hosting communities is a substantial and significant gap in knowledge. Failure to address this gap means that future decision regarding the industry will be flawed. Reliable and valid sustainability assessments must be based on a genuine integration of the environmental, economic and social elements of the triple bottom line. This is consistent with the industry commitment to ESD, and addresses key elements of the FRDC research priorities. The 2000-2005 FRDC R & D Plan states, “it is important to understand social impacts of implementing fisheries management regimes…ESD will be pursued most effectively when the industry is economically strong and when social benefits are clear”. AN INTEGRATED ASSESSMENT OF THE ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BENEFITS THAT FLOW TO THE INDUSTRY AND COMMUNITY FROM ECOLOGICALLY SUSTAINABLE USE OF THE WESTERN ROCK LOBSTER RESOURCE WILL ADDRESS THIS IMPERATIVE.

THE OUTCOMES OF THE RESEARCH WILL CONTRIBUTE TO ENSURING THAT THE FISHERY REMAINS WELL MANAGED AND COMMITED TO PRINCIPLES OF ESD. THE POTENTIAL CONTRIBUTION OF THIS PROJECT TO A WIDE RANGE OF DECISION AND PLANNING PROCESSES RECOGNISES THE SIGNIFICANT GAPS IN UNDERSTANDING THE SOCIAL IMPLICATIONS AND IMPACTS OF THE FISHING INDUSTRY IN GENERAL AND THE ROCK LOBSTER FISHERY IN PARTICULAR. AS SUCH, THE STUDY WILL CONTRIBUTE TO A RANGE OF IMPORTANT DECISIONS THAT WILL GUIDE THE FUTURE OF THE INDUSTRY IN WESTERN AUSTRALIA INCLUDING:

A) THE INDUSTRY PROJECT: "DETERMINING THE BEST MANAGEMENT SYSTEM FOR THE WESTERN ROCK LOBSTER INDUSTRY". THIS INTEGRATED 3 YEAR PROJECT WILL ASSESS THE SOCIAL, ECONONOMIC AND ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACTS OF THREE DIFFERENT MANAGEMENT SCENARIOS ON THE WESTERN ROCK LOBSTER FISHERY AND THEIR HOSTING COMMUITIES. THE MAIN DRIVER FOR THE PROJECT IS NATIONAL COMPETITION POLICY. THIS RESEARCH WILL ENABLE DECISION MAKERS TO ADDRESS THE NCP'S ‘NET COMMUNITY BENEFIT’ TEST WITH A FULL APPRECIATION OF THE SOCIAL IMPACT OF CHANGES ON FLEET HOSTING COMMUNITIES. THIS DATA IS NOT CURRENTLY AVAILABLE.

B) MARINE PARK PLANNING: A THOROUGH UNDERSTANDING OF THE IMPLICATIONS OF REALLOCATING FISHERIES RESOURCES FROM EXTRACTIVE USERS SUCH AS COMMERCIAL AND RECREATIONAL FISHERIES TO NON EXTRACTIVE USERS SUCH AS DIVE CHARTERS REQUIRE INFORMATION ON SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC ASPECTS. THIS RESEARCH PROJECT WILL ENABLE THE MARINE PARK PLANNING PROCESS TO BETTER UNDERSTAND THE SOCIAL COSTS OF CHANGES THAT WILL RESULT FROM MARINE PARK PLANNING AND IMPLEMENTING A SERIES OF MARINE PROTECTED AREAS ON COASTAL COMMUNITIES.

C) INTEGRATED FISHERIES MANAGEMENT: THE OUTCOMES OF THIS PROJECT WILL ASSIST DECISION MAKERS ENGAGED IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF AN INTEGRATED FISHERIES MANAGEMENT PLAN. THIS PLAN WILL HAVE IMPORTANT IMPLICATIONS FOR FISHERIES MANAGEMENT AND A FULL APPRECIATION OF THE SOCIAL DIMENSIONS IS CRUCIAL TO INFORMED, INTEGRATED PLANNING. THE BASIS OF INTEGRATED FISHERIES MANAGEMENT IS EXPLICIT ALLOCATION OF THE FISHERIES RESOURCES BETWEEN EXTRACTIVE USERS, FOR EXAMPLE, AN EXPLICIT ALLOCATION OF WESTERN ROCK LOBSTER BETWEEN THE RECREATIONAL AND COMMERCIAL SECTOR. THIS RESEARCH WILL ASSIST IN UNDERSTANDING THE SOCIAL COSTS OR BENEFITS OF REALLOCATION OF THE RESOURCE FROM COMMERCIAL TO RECREATIONAL USERS.

Objectives

1. To assist in the formulation of authoritative advice based on a thorough understanding of ESD principles (particularly social) to the relevant minister in response to national competition policy (NCP).
2. To establish a database of quantitative and qualitative social indicators for the communities hosting the western rock lobster fleet that will enable an integrated socio-economic assessment of a range of industry management options.
3. To contribute to the development of a framework and predictive sustainability assessment model integrating social data with environmental and economic data for use in predicting the wider effects of management changes on host communities.
Adoption
PROJECT NUMBER • 2001-304
PROJECT STATUS:
COMPLETED

2nd National Rock Lobster Industry Conference – Melbourne September 2001

The 2nd National Rock Lobster Congress was hosted by Seafood Industry Victoria (SIV) with support from industry in each lobster producing state, at the Royal Geelong Yatch Club, Geelong on Thursday 20 September and Friday 21 September 2001. The Congress received its funding from the major...
ORGANISATION:
South Australian Rock Lobster Advisory Council (SARLAC)
Industry
PROJECT NUMBER • 2013-734
PROJECT STATUS:
COMPLETED

Seafood CRC: Western Rock Lobster RD&E Plan 2013-22

Research, development and extension (RD&E) is well known for contributing to a range of technological advances and expertise that leads to productivity growth, increasing our knowledge bank on our fishery and the important long term sustainability of the Western Rocklobster (WRL) fishery....
ORGANISATION:
Ridge Partners
Environment
PROJECT NUMBER • 2014-011
PROJECT STATUS:
COMPLETED

Direct age determination with validation for commercially important Australian lobster and crab species (western, eastern, southern and ornate rock lobsters, and crystal, Tasmanian giant and mud crabs)

This research project was undertaken by a national collaboration of government and academic scientists representing key Australian crustacean fisheries. The collaborating institutions were the: Marine Ecology Research Centre – Southern Cross University, Department of Fisheries Western...
ORGANISATION:
Southern Cross University (SCU) Lismore Campus

An industry based mark recapture program to provide stock assessment inputs for the Western Rock Lobster Fishery following introduction of quota management

Project number: 2014-023
Project Status:
Completed
Budget expenditure: $330,222.10
Principal Investigator: Jason How
Organisation: Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development (DPIRD) WA
Project start/end date: 18 May 2014 - 29 Jun 2017
Contact:
FRDC

Need

The recent change to quota management for the Western Rock Lobster fishery has resulted in significant changes in fishing behaviour which has affected the ability to use the long standing empirical catch rate indices that have been a major component of the assessment of lobster stocks (e.g. catch rates of legal, undersize and breeding lobsters). A recent FRDC funded study (2009/019) examined the possibility of using alternative data sources unbiased by effort to monitor biomass levels and exploitation rates using change-in-ratio techniques. The project concluded that:
1. The current data sources available to the fishery had too many unknowns including size and sex specific timing of growth and movement to enable the assessment of exploitation rates using these techniques.
2. A robust tag-recapture study using multiple release periods across different fishing seasons could generate independent assessments of legal biomass and exploitation rates providing an additional baseline level to improve the interpretation of post quota catch rate indices.
A comprehensive tag-recapture study would also provide increased resolution of the movement dynamics of lobsters, especially the rate of migration between management zones. Such information is considered vital by industry in their discussions of the potential benefits of voluntarily reducing quotas to generate increased localised catch rates.

Objectives

1. Determine spatially specific exploitation rates and legal biomass levels
2. Increase precision of estimates for movement rates between management zones
3. Improve understanding of the variability of growth throughout the range of the fishery

Final report

ISBN: 978-1-921258-76-3 (Print); 978-1-921258-77-0 (Online)
Author: Simon de Lestang
Final Report • 2020-08-01 • 5.40 MB
2014-023-DLD.pdf

Summary

The West Coast Lobster Managed Fishery (WCRLMF) moved from input to output controls in 2010. This change directly affected the relativity of a number of fisherybased data sources, making assessment of the fishery more problematic. A novel examination of the stock dynamics was required to help ensure the stock assessment and associated management outcomes for this valuable resource were maintained. This study derived estimates of current biomass levels and harvest rates throughout the WCRLMF based on the release (over 40,000) of tagged Western Rock Lobsters (Panulirus cygnus) and the recapture of tagged lobsters, using a multi-stage modelling process. Components of this study, such as tag loss and reporting rates, were initially independently examined, before a generalised “Brownie” tag-recapture (BTR) model was implemented that provided an assessment on a fishery-wide basis. Finally a novel purpose-built individual-based model (IBM) was developed that was capable of producing estimates of biomass and harvest rates on finer spatial and temporal scale, as well as providing estimates of migration and growth. 

Establishing a low risk incremental approach for setting Total Allowable Commercial Quotas (TACCs) (changing quotas) in the Western Rock Lobster Fishery, taking into account maximum economic yield and other industry objectives

Project number: 2015-236
Project Status:
Completed
Budget expenditure: $74,000.00
Principal Investigator: Simon de Lestang
Organisation: Western Rock Lobster Council Inc (WRLC)
Project start/end date: 30 Apr 2016 - 29 Nov 2016
Contact:
FRDC

Need

The WRLC needs generally-accepted methods for setting the annual quota that is robust to many of the differences that exist throughout industry but underpins within an acceptable harvest range, resource sustainability. The approach to be adopted needs to take into account MEY analyses, changing price relationships in the market, known risks facing the rock lobster industry, future catch and biomass projections and limits on harvest rates. Uncertainty towards moving to a larger quota can be accommodated by adopting an iterative approach to quota setting built around better industry understanding of the market and other relevant factors. Ideally an annual quota setting process needs to be underpinned by sustainable stock conditions and take into account information derived from ongoing monitoring of market conditions and industry trends. This would enable risk factors to be taken into account balancing the competing requirements of optimising price, preventing oversupply and excessive price investment instability.
The failure of Industry to reach consensus on an agreed methods for future quota setting could result in other parties setting the agenda.

Preferably, as most of the financial risks fall within industry, the industry has a primary role in annual setting of quotas with a transparent accountable decision framework within an appropriate governance, reporting and dispute resolution framework (if necessary) that is supported by government and industry.

Objectives

1. To develop generally-accepted methods for setting the annual TACC
2. To better predict the impact of quota changes on the performance of the Western Rock Lobster fishery.

Final report

ISBN: 978-1-921877-18-6
Author: P.P Rogers
Environment
PROJECT NUMBER • 2009-019
PROJECT STATUS:
COMPLETED

Evaluating the potential use of change-in-ratio and index removal techniques for determining harvest rates and efficiency increases in the Western Rock Lobster Fishery

This project developed and explored methodology intended to enable the production of more reliable estimates of fishing efficiency increases and harvest rate, such that these estimates might be available for use by fisheries scientists, thereby improving the quality of the management decisions...
ORGANISATION:
Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development (DPIRD) WA
View Filter

Species