Project number: 2005-027
Project Status:
Completed
Budget expenditure: $300,992.94
Principal Investigator: Malcolm Haddon
Organisation: University of Tasmania (UTAS)
Project start/end date: 29 Jun 2005 - 30 Sep 2008
Contact:
FRDC

Need

Both the Tasmanian and Commonwealth scallop fisheries are recovering from severe depletion. In an attempt to ensure future sustainability of the fishery, a form of spatial management has been implemented in both jurisdictions, however, specific management protocols are still evolving. This proposal follows naturally from some of the results of FRDC 2003/017, which is investigating some of the management rules used in scallops. One conclusion from 2003/017 will be that the optimal management regime for widely dispersed scallop beds is to close most of the fishable area only opening a limited number of beds each year in a rotational fashion. One essential requirement for such management is the need for detailed information about the size and abundance of scallop beds across the entire fishery. Fishery-independent surveys would be far too expensive in a cost-recovery management regime - in Commonwealth waters relatively small surveys have cost at least $45000 to $50000 a year and that would not cover the area now available. Therefore, the only economically viable means of providing this information is to devise some means of encouraging Industry members to collect the necessary information both prior-to and during fishing seasons. Ad hoc trials were attempted in Tasmanian waters in 2003, which led to the identification of many operational problems with such surveys. Once these practical problems have been overcome, credibility and authority also need to be added to such fishery dependent surveys.

The vision of this project is of an on-going Commonwealth and Tasmanian scallop fishery managed at a small spatial scale using information provided by Industry itself in the absence of formal independent observers. Such a vision relies on Industry becoming a vital component of the management, and thus requires the development of protocols to ensure the growth in participation and expertise for industry-run sampling. This vision has still to be developed in detail but reflects the needs and wishes of Industry for better economic returns to fishers, while ensuring the long-term sustainability of the fishery.

If the general principles of such Industry initiatives are developed in the scallop fishery, then other spatially managed fisheries should be able to develop similar regimes, leading not only to better management but greater industry involvement in management.

Objectives

1. Develop a generalized, credible regime of Industry observations to provide the necessary assessment information required to manage a spatially structured fishery.
2. Develop and trial a workable design for a pre-season permit fishery in the Tasmanian and Commonwealth scallop fisheries to provide the information necessary to characterize the stock status in each spatial region of the entire fishery (Size distribution, condition, and possibly abundance).
3. Develop and trial a workable design for within season volunteer Industry survey observations within the Tasmanian and Commonwealth scallop fishery for within season monitoring, comparison with the pre-season survey, and more detailed characterization of the available resource.
4. Develop mechanisms whereby Industry take (foster) ownership over the details of survey design and the organization and funding of such operations, along with how best to generate management advice that is perceived by Industry as unbiased, acceptable to all, and providing maximum return for product landed.
5. Aid the development of a clear vision for the future of the Bass Strait scallop fishery and how it can use spatial management to its own benefit.

Final report

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