Given increasing complexity in fisheries management and additional scrutiny on managers, there is a need for fisheries managers from the different jurisdictions to meet as a group to exchange ideas and initiatives and build networks. The Australian Fisheries Management Forum (AFMF), comprised of the respective heads of Commonwealth and State/Territory management agencies, supports the need for such a forum.

Similar cross-fertilisation forums exist between researchers through the Australian Society for Fish Biology (ASFB) and the National Compliance Committee for compliance officers.

It has been a considerable period since fisheries managers workshops were last held. Previous workshops occurred in the 1980s and early 1990s. In March 2014, a two-day national fisheries management workshop was held in Adelaide at the South Australian Aquatic Sciences Centre. This workshop was overseen by the AFMF’s Fisheries Management Sub-Committee (FMSC), with funding support from the Fisheries Research and Development Corporation (FRDC). Recommendations arising from this workshop included convening a subsequent fisheries managers workshop in 12-24 months and the formation of an Australian Professional Fisheries Management Society.

As an interim arrangement pending the potential formation of a professional fisheries managers society as a chapter of ASFB, the FMSC has agreed to hold another fisheries managers workshop, which Queensland will host in October 2017.

Future workshops will be held to coincide with ASFB annually (starting in 2018).

Diagnostic laboratories across the country vary in their diagnostic capability for aquatic animal pathogens. Due to their individual needs, many diagnostic laboratories have developed their own reagents and procedures for the identification of bacterial pathogens. This lack of standardisation can be problematical, for example, when reporting on aquatic animal health status. Using Vibrio identification as an example, it is likely that diagnostic laboratories would be capable of identification to the genus level (i.e. Vibrio sp.). However, due to differences in the various laboratories, identification to the species level would be difficult, and different laboratories are likely to use different procedures for identification.

There is a clear need for diagnostic scientists working in this area to compare and standardise protocols between States. A series of workshops aimed at providing training in the diagnosis of bacterial disease in aquatic animals for those new to the area, and at the same time providing an opportunity to evaluate the various diagnostic protocols used in Australia for their ability to identify both enzootic and exotic pathogens is overdue.

Development of Standard Diagnostic Techniques will require three logical steps:

1. Comparison and evaluation of the tests currently used by diagnostic laboratories;
2. Development of, and agreement on, the most sensitive, accurate and reproducible methods;
3. Adoption and publication of the agreed method for each pathogen as the Standard Diagnostic Technique.

Thus development of SDTs in aquatic animal bacteriology may include an SDT on general methods for aquatic animal bacteriology followed by SDTs for specific diseases such as Vibriosis. Vibriosis, due to its widespread occurence in vertebrate and invertebrate aquatic animal species in tropical and temperate regions of Australia, was identified as a disease of particular importance with respect to standardisation of diagnostic methods [1].

In order to ensure that the SDTs incorporate the latest technologies and information on exotic, as well as enzootic, bacterial pathogens, and that the SDTs will be recognised internationally as state-of-the-art, an international expert on the specific disease will be invited to participate in each of the respective workshops.

References

1. Fish Health Management Committee (1998). Report of the Fish Health Management Committee and the Fish Health Coordinating Group: Workshop on Aquatic Animal Health: Technical Issues, 7-9 December 1998, Melbourne, Victoria.