A policy shift by the WA government towards facilitating Habitat Enhancement Structures (HES) has created the need for the community and fishing industry to gain a better understanding of what technology exists in this space and how it might be best applied in WA. There is a need to have a better set of tools to effectively assess this infrastructure and benefits to meet specific purposes in the most cost effective manner, as well as gain a better understand of the regulatory environment to facilitate cost effective and timely deployment.

This project will help the WA seafood sector and community to determine optimum reef structures, layouts and monitoring and will help with the approval process of future developments. This project will identify habitat designs suitable for enhancing fish production as well as determining applications to benefit the aquatic environment in general.

This project meets one of the W.A. FRAB 2014 priorities (Application of artificial habitats in WA – how is his technology applied to WA to ensure environmental benefits are achieved, offset effort provide amenities including social benefits, tourism opportunities and are designed to fit purposes.

This project aligns with the theme 2,3 and 4 of FRDC program 1 (Environment), theme 7 and 9 of program 2 (Industry) and theme 10 of program 3 (Communities).

This project would help to meet the Recfishwest business goal 2013-2014 of ‘Supporting sustainability in fisheries management and pursuing recreational fishing development and enhancement opportunities.’ It also aligns with WAFIC’s 2020 plan.

This project is needed as there are knowledge gaps about the effect of recreational fishing on the health and wellbeing of recreational fishers. Recent years have seen many claims about the health and wellbeing benefits of recreational fishing, as well as growing interest in nature connection and outdoor recreation as wellbeing interventions more generally. Measuring and valuing the wellbeing benefits of recreational fishing is not currently possible due to a lack of evidence, and limited methods for monitoring, measuring and reporting wellbeing effects. The FRDC’s RD&E Plan 2015-20 aims by 2020 to have robust community net benefit metrics that enable measurement of the benefits of fishing. This project will develop robust metrics related to health and wellbeing benefits of recreational fishing. Achieving this requires better understanding both (i) whether and under what circumstances engaging in recreational fishing has measurable impacts on health and wellbeing, and (ii) how to measure these benefits to produce readily accessible and understandable metrics. This will help achieve the FRDC’s national research strategy deliverable ‘Social contribution is supported by the fishing and aquaculture sector so it can capture the non-monetary value of activities across sectors.’ This work will also contribute to national science and research priorities in the health field, specifically the priority ‘Build healthy and resilient communities throughout Australia by developing … preventative strategies to improve physical and mental well-being’ (http://www.science.gov.au/scienceGov/ScienceAndResearchPriorities/Pages/Health.aspx). Nationally, this research priority aims to develop strategies for supporting wellbeing. This project contributes by identifying the role recreational fishing can play in building healthy and resilient communities through supporting physical and mental wellbeing. This research will also contribute to the overarching aims of Australia’s rural research, development and extension strategy, which include ‘develop a range of technologies and knowledge to contribute to healthy Australian lifestyles’ (http://www.agriculture.gov.au/SiteCollectionDocuments/ag-food/innovation2/nsrrdip-investment-plan1.pdf)

East Coast Trawl Fishery (ECTF) involves fishers, agent and/or wholesaler, processors, various industry and government organisations and retailers. The lack of collaboration and production activities due to the lengthy coast and long distance between trawl areas along with a multi species fishery has resulted in the fishery becoming (i) a production focused industry and (ii) location oriented rather than whole of state or whole of fishery oriented industry. Consequently, intense competition exists within East Coast Trawl throughout the whole supply and value chain. This has been exacerbated by the decline in the value of Queensland prawn production over the past five years caused by record high fuel costs; labour shortages; competition from imported product and the strong Australian dollar. Furthermore, ACPF have identified a whole of industry approach as a research priority with an objective to identify a specific opportunity/strategy to pursue, not as individual fishers, but as a collective fishery. This project aims to develop a framework and benchmark case study to identify the leadership qualities and commitment within the ECTF. The implementation of a market opportunity/strategy will assess the identified ECTF leadership group and the network’s ability to increase long term profitability for the fishery.
The industry has identified and agreed to the need to develop collaboration within the fishery to leverage existing and future market opportunities. The understanding and building of industry social capital to support internal leadership through a network analysis is seen as fundamental to the development, coordination and implementation of a market approach for the industry.

Understanding the demographic characteristics, connectivity and stock structure of a fish species is crucial for identifying the appropriate scale and strategy for management.

Black bream is a slow growing and long-lived finfish species with reproduction confined to estuarine habitats. It is distributed in the estuaries and inshore marine waters of southern Australia, from central NSW to central west coast WA, including Tasmania. Throughout its broad distribution, black bream is thought to be composed of a number of isolated spawning stocks, with limited evidence of movements between estuaries.

In SA, black bream supports important commercial fisheries, and is highly sought-after by recreational anglers. Most of the State-wide commercial catch is taken by the Lakes and Coorong Fishery (LCF) in the Coorong estuary, with smaller contributions taken by the Marine Scalefish Fishery. In 2016, the LCF for black bream, which was historically one of Australia’s most productive black bream fisheries, was classified as ‘overfished’. It is unknown whether this status is reflective of the broader population in SA waters, or if current management arrangements for the Coorong population, which are aimed to promote stock recovery, are adequate in terms of the spatial scale that they apply.

There is a need to understand the demography, connectivity and stock structure of black bream populations across southern Australia (SA, VIC and WA). This information will assist in identifying appropriate scales and strategies for management.

‘People development’ is one of several priorities identified in the FRDC’s RD&E Plan 2015-20. The proposed project will be undertaken by a high-performing student as a PhD project. The student will undertake applied research relevant to FRDC stakeholders (scientists, fishery managers, commercial, recreational and indigenous fishers) in SA, and gain industry experience by being co-supervised by scientists from SARDI. The project will increase fisheries science capacity in SA through training of the next generation of researchers.