Seafood CRC: Review of the 2012 paralytic shellfish toxin non-compliance incident in Tasmania
Oil and Gas: National coordination - seismic and other issues
Seafood CRC: optimising business structures and fisheries management systems for key fisheries
The main causes of these major DECLINES IN FISHERY PERFORMANCE are substantial decreases in real prices (prawns, abalone), large increases in costs (all sectors) and, in a few cases, significant reductions in stock size and productivity (rock lobster).
In many fisheries major improvements in economic performance will only be achieved through MAJOR AND INTEGRATED CHANGES in operational procedures, business structures and resource management systems.
Inertia and active to resistance to change, within both government and industry, currently impede the implementation of the CULTURAL SHIFT that is required to revive the CRC’s ecologically-sustainable, but FINANCIALLY-CHALLENGED fisheries.
Major, integrated changes and cultural shifts require a clearly articulated VISION FOR THE FUTURE.
Convincing vision statements require EVIDENCE.
This project will provide the information that is needed for industry and government to develop the joint VISION STATEMENTS that are required to chart a clear pathway to a more profitable future for each selected CRC fishery.
Critical INFORMATION NEEDED TO UNDERPIN EACH VISION STATEMENT that this project will provide includes:
1. Objective assessments of the key FACTORS LIMITING FISHERY PERFORMANCE;
2. Comprehensive evaluations of the OPTIONS FOR INCREASING PROFITABILITY;
3. Clear advice about the COMPLEX AND INTER-RELATED CHANGES TO operational procedures, business structures and resource management systems that are required ACHIEVE MAJOR IMPROVEMENTS IN FISHERY PERFORMANCE;
4. A clear PATHWAY TO ADOPTION that recognises the inertia and resistance to change within government and industry that must be overcome for these MAJOR AND INTEGRATED CHANGES to be implemented.
Final report
There is currently an estimated economic gap (lost profit) in the CRC participant fisheries of approximately 40% or $200 million per annum.. If the economic gap could be halved from 40% to 20% the profitability of CRC fisheries would be improved by approximately $100 million. This project aimed to contribute to that outcome by identifying practical opportunities to improve their economic performance. This will be done by:
- Identifying key impediments to wealth creation (i.e. factors contributing to high costs and low revenue) in selected CRC fisheries.
- Describing the innovative operational procedures, business structures and fisheries management systems that have been established to improve the economic performance of successful fisheries worldwide.
- Identifying practical opportunities to improve the economic performance of CRC fisheries and outlining a pathway to adoption.
Therefore, this project aimed to:
- Assess the performance and identify impediments to wealth creation in selected CRC fisheries.
- Describe and evaluate innovative systems that have been established to improve the performance of successful fisheries worldwide.
- Identify practical opportunities for overcoming impediments to wealth creation and improving the performance of selected CRC fisheries
Seafood CRC: harvest strategy evaluations and co-management for the Moreton Bay trawl fishery
Abalone diver observation collection, analysis and reporting system for improved management decision making
Valuing Victoria's Wild-catch fisheries and aquaculture industries
A study which measures the contribution of Victorian wild-catch and aquaculture fisheries to community wellbeing will meet multiple needs:
• Generate detailed, spatially-defined knowledge on the economic and social contributions of fisheries to community wellbeing, and elicit where contributions could be enhanced
• Inform government (local, state) of the importance of fisheries and likely impacts of policy or management decisions on regional and metropolitan communities
• Enhance community engagement and support for fisheries through demonstrating the benefits that flow from professional fishing and aquaculture sectors into communities
Audience: 1) industry representative organizations; 2) government; 3) general public. Currently, very little data exists about the economic and/or social benefits of professional fisheries to communities in Victoria. Existing data only calculate total value of production (beach/farm gate price x volume), and the number of business owners or fisheries employees identified in the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) Census. There is no reporting of the multiplier effects in communities of having businesses based there, through service industries or seafood product going into markets. The lack of sophisticated information about the contributions of professional fishing puts the industry as a group at a disadvantage compared to competing resource users which do have such reporting and have been persuasive in negotiations.
Information on social contributions dovetails with economic contributions to build a picture of the overall contributions fisheries make. This can help address the lack of community support for fisheries and consumer influence on the regulatory environment, which has grown to constitute a threat to the continued viability of fisheries. While information generated via this project will not fix the problem – relationships between industry and community must be improved via sustained, strategic engagement – credible data on the social and economic contributions commercial fisheries make to Victoria is useful for boosting the industry’s ‘social license to operate’.