274 results

Coastal fish habitat workshop

Project number: 2012-029
Project Status:
Completed
Budget expenditure: $14,025.11
Principal Investigator: James Fogarty
Organisation: Shearwater Consulting Pty Ltd
Project start/end date: 30 Jan 2012 - 27 Apr 2012
Contact:
FRDC

Need

Project 2012/010 addressed one of QFRAB's high priorities but was rejected by the FRDC as inadequate. The FRDC decided this priority should be further addressed to construct a further project that would ensure the priority was full addressed.

Objectives

1. Produce ab FRDC application that addresses QFRAB priority "Quantify the value of Fisheries Habitat to document ongoing economic contributions of fish habitats supporting fisheries production and catches by all fisheries sectors
to incorporate these values within impact and offset assessments for development proposals.
Adoption
PROJECT NUMBER • 2015-501
PROJECT STATUS:
COMPLETED

Empowering recreational fishers as champions of healthy fish habitat

From 2016 to 2018, recreational fishers across Australia focussed their attention on fish habitat as part of the project, Empowering recreational fishers as champions of healthy fish habitat. Fish habitat throughout Australia is in trouble. Progressive degradation of fish habitat has occurred since...
ORGANISATION:
OzFish Unlimited

Fish use of sub-tropical saltmarsh habitat

Project number: 1997-203
Project Status:
Completed
Budget expenditure: $41,728.00
Principal Investigator: Rod Connolly
Organisation: Griffith University Nathan Campus
Project start/end date: 26 Jun 1997 - 17 May 2000
Contact:
FRDC

Need

Despite legislation requiring that the preservation of saltmarshes be considered prior to developments that could harm their ecological integrity, saltmarshes continue to be destroyed and altered. Part of the rationale for encouraging the conservation of saltmarshes has been their assumed importance as fish habitat, especially for juveniles of economically important species (Hyland & Butler 1989). This role needs demonstrating, with a view to strengthening demands that saltmarsh habitat be retained in the face of increasing urbanisation.

Apart from direct loss of saltmarshes through urban development in southeast Qld and northern NSW, several other human activities are destroying or degrading saltmarshes. Anthropogenic changes to saltmarshes can result in loss of vegetation through changes in drainage regimes and salinity levels (Ruiz et al. 1993). While maps have been produced showing loss of saltmarshes in subtropical Australia (Hyland & Butler 1989), loss of vegetation from extant marshes has not been catalogued, despite the massive changes in drainage regimes, modification of marshes to control mosquitoes, grazing by stock, and use of marshes by off-road vehicles.

Debate about the role of vegetation in structuring fish communities of intertidal and subtidal habitats other than saltmarshes has been based on numerous comparisons of vegetated and unvegetated habitats (eg. in seagrass meadows, Connolly (1994b,c) and mangroves). In these habitats vegetated areas tend to have higher abundances and greater species richness. No attempt has been made in Australia to consider the role of vegetation in determining fish abundances on saltmarshes.

This proposal takes the first step towards determining the importance of saltmarsh habitat to fisheries by examining whether fish directly use inundated saltmarsh flats and whether vegetation plays a role in determining how many fish go there.

Objectives

1. To determine which fish species, in what abundance, directly use saltmarsh flats in subtropical east coast waters
2. To compare the use by fish of vegetated (saltcouch) and unvegetated (saltpan) habitats on the marsh flats
3. To make clear recommendations to managers of fisheries and the environment about the impacts on fisheries of human activities affecting saltmarsh habitat, and advise on the direction of future research

Restoration of estuarine fisheries habitat

Project number: 1994-041
Project Status:
Completed
Budget expenditure: $73,119.28
Principal Investigator: Rob J. Williams
Organisation: Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development (NSW)
Project start/end date: 5 Oct 1994 - 12 Sep 1996
Contact:
FRDC

Objectives

1. To extend an ongoing study to make the work relevant to the general coastline of eastern Australia
2. To identify key degraded wetlands on the NSW coast that have the potential to be rehabilitated
Environment

Review and synthesis of Australian fisheries habitat research

Project number: 1995-055
Project Status:
Completed
Budget expenditure: $88,781.00
Principal Investigator: Mike Cappo
Organisation: Australian Institute Of Marine Science (AIMS)
Project start/end date: 20 Sep 1995 - 30 Jun 1998
Contact:
FRDC

Objectives

1. To review and synthesise the past decade of Australian research relevant to fisheries habitats. The scope of the review will include : identity of "critical" and "limiting" habitat factors for finfish and shellfish
knowledge of processes linking fisheries with habitats
natural variation in these processes and habitats
and knowledge of major threats to these habitats. The synthesis will aim to document both the existence, and absence, of knowledge of specific processes and patterns of generic application to Australian fisheries and habitats.
2. To use this synthesis to evaluate the suitability, rank and coverage of the six areas of research priority identified in the Cronulla Workshop (Williams and Newton, 1994). These were, in order of priority, 1. Natural Dynamics, 2. Modification of nearshore, estuarine and wetland habitats, 3. Effects of fishing, 4. Change in drainage, 5. Introduction of marine pests, 6. Nutrient inputs.
3. To summarise the results of searches for past and ongoing fisheries habitat research in an annotated bibliography with a spatial reference (lat. / long.) for each study identified. This will be in the form of an ASCII file on computer diskette.

Final report

ISBN: 0 642 32200 7
Author: Mike Cappo
Final Report • 1998-03-02 • 5.04 MB
1995-055-DLD.pdf

Summary

This project was commissioned by FRDC. The task was to review and synthesise the available knowledge on Australian fisheries habitat research and on this basis:

  • describe and evaluate the suitability and coverage of the areas of research priority identified at a scientific workshop convened by the FRDC in March 1994, and
  • prepare a prospectus of opportunities for the FRDC Ecosystem Protection Program.

The priority issues and impacts reviewed were:

  1. natural dynamics in fisheries habitats and environmental variability
  2. changes to drainage and habitat alteration
  3. nutrient and contaminant inputs
  4. effects of harvesting on ecosystems and biodiversity
  5. introduced and translocated pests and diseases.

To obtain this information we conducted a formal literature search and interviews with informants from key organisations in all States and Territories in 1995-96.

The results have been prepared as a detailed scoping review (Volume 2) describing the issues, knowledge gaps and impacts, and proposing more than 60 R&D opportunities. These R&D themes, issues have been summarised as a prospectus here in Volume 1. Sources of citations are provided in Volume 3, and the full bibliography will be linked (HTML) with the scoping review for access on the Internet.

Project products

Publication • 4.38 MB
1995-055 Priorities for Seagrass Research in Australia.pdf

Summary

This booklet is a summary of Seagrass in Australia: a Strategic Review and Development of an R&D P/an' (short title Seagrass Review) with emphasis on its key features. It is not a substitute for the Seagrass Review itself, but only an outline. The Seagross Review is targeted at all organisations and individuals that have direct or indirect influence on sustainable management of seagrass.
 
Seagrass is seen as one link in a "critical chain of habitats' (see the Fisheries Habitat Review1} important not only to fisheries, but also to aquaculture, tourism, the protection of biodiversity, and the healthy functioning of nearshore marine ecosystems. The Seagrass Review was undertaken to assess: 
• gaps in existing knowledge of seagrass ecosystems
• knowledge of links between seagrass and fisheries
• the state of the art in rehabilitation and restoration of damaged seagrass beds
• the state of the art in monitoring and assessment of seagrass
• relationships between research on seagrass and fisheries management
• and to develop a research and development plan for seagrass
 

Habitat and fisheries production in the South East Fishery ecosystem

Project number: 1994-040
Project Status:
Completed
Budget expenditure: $568,549.00
Principal Investigator: Nicholas Bax
Organisation: CSIRO Oceans and Atmosphere Hobart
Project start/end date: 13 Dec 1994 - 14 Nov 2000
Contact:
FRDC

Objectives

1. Survey the structure and broad definitions of habitat types and associated fish assemblages in the SEF shelf ecosystem
2. Assess the selectivity of different commercial gear types for quota species in different habitats
3. Assess the relative abundance, age composition, distribution and vulnerability to fishing gear of key commercial species, primarily redfish and warehous
4. Evaluate the importance of hard ground as a refuge for commercial fish species
5. Define the major trophic linkages of SEF quota species by habitat type and identify the relative importance of benthic, pelagic and inshore sources of production to quota fish species
6. Develop hierarchical models based on the fishery and on the fishery ecology

Final report

ISBN: 0 643 06217 3
Author: Drs Nicholas J. Bax and Alan Williams
Final Report • 2000-08-31 • 25.84 MB
1994-040-DLD.pdf

Summary

In 1994 CSIRO and FRDC started a 5-year ecosystem study of the southeastern Australian continental shelf. Fisheries management in this area is currently based on individual species. Our goal was to identify ecosystem features that could extend the data available to manage the fisheries in this area. We focused on the area of the shelf between Wilson's Promontory and Bermagui, where there are important fishing grounds. We were particularly interested in how habitat influences productivity of the fishery.

Management of marine ecosystems, rather than of individual fish species, is a frequently expressed goal of involved scientists and managers, but what does it really mean? In stressed ecosystems, ecosystem functions e.g. nutrient processing, may remain unchanged while the proportion of species and diversity in the ecosystem and even the health of individuals, can change dramatically. Species are more sensitive indicators of stress than is the system itself. Therefore, we did not try to study the marine ecosystem as a whole, but rather, concentrated on examining interactions of people and the particular ecosystem components that influence the quantity and quality of desired products. These particular interactions are known as 'leverage points'. Leverage is based on the notion that small, well-focussed actions can produce enduring improvements if they are directed at sensitive system components. We used the notion of leverage to direct our research.

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