Although Victoria has a well-established fishery independent monitoring program, in recent years the research focus has been toward improving the quality and quantity of fishery dependent data available. To properly realise this goal there is a strong and urgent need to make better use of industry (particularly the catching sector) as a vehicle for sampling and data acquisition. Fishery independent monitoring is costly and limited by MAFRI resources, however it is well recognised that industry can potentially provide sampling opportunities that are at least an order of magnitude more numerous than those provided by fisheries agencies and research institutions. For instance, Victorian abalone divers each spend an average of about 50–55 days at sea each year to obtain the TAC. This equates to a total of at least 3,500 potential sampling opportunities. On many occasions divers visit more than one reef per day so that the number of opportunities is probably closer to about 5,000. The central issue is how to effectively utilise this industry potential for fishery assessment.
Scale fisheries have for many years had the benefit of scientific observers and fisheries extension officers, whereas such support for abalone fisheries is rare. Clearly this type of support will be needed before the Victorian abalone industry can be effectively engaged in sampling and data collection to support improved assessment of their fishery. In the absence of this support, industry based sampling becomes at best ad hoc and at worst ineffective and unsustained.
One of the areas where we have already demonstrated potential for industry to participate is in tagging abalone for growth studies. Growth in abalone characteristically exhibits high spatial heterogeneity to the extent that growth for one location has little meaning for other locations. Despite the release of about 35,000 tagged abalone across commercially important reefs, recapture rates have demonstrated that in most instances this quantity has been inadequate for obtaining sufficient growth data for fishery models to accommodate spatial heterogeneity in growth representatively. This presents particular challenges for modelling an abalone fishery at a geographical scale commensurate with the known population biology of this genus. The abalone industry offers one of the best opportunities for obtaining good growth data for a large number of locations, but experience has shown that effective participation of industry members requires support from scientifically trained persons.
