The absence of reliable performance indicators (PIs) for Australian abalone fisheries has limited stock assessments to an informal, ad hoc review framework, (overly conservative management vs unrealistic optimism from Industry). Without a formal assessment framework based on effective PIs, with target (TRP) and limit reference points (LRPs) combined with clear decision rules, abalone assessment and management will continue to be exposed to decisions prejudiced by opinion rather than fact. Searching for effective PIs for assessing abalone fisheries has continued for years but they remain untested. A need remains to identify an array of informative PIs for abalone fisheries. This requires a re-consideration of PIs (both current and those being developed) and their formal testing in a Management Strategy Evaluation (MSE) framework. The Tasmanian Abalone Strategic Research Plan gives high priority to research into MSE and the development of TRPs and LRPs. NSW, Victoria, and Tasmania all listed MSE of PIs, LRPs and TRPs, as a high priority at the 2006 National R&D Workshop. South Australia places a high priority on the development of a new management plan for abalone, which requires the development of informative PIs. Most recently, the Draft National Abalone Health Workplan recommends conducting a MSE to compare likely outcomes following the viral outbreak in Western Victoria. Failure to find PIs and management strategies that will operate with different Australian abalone fisheries, constitutes a significant threat to their ongoing sustainability. If ad hoc assessments and their associated risks are to be avoided the debate over PIs needs to stop and the generally accepted method of MSE, needs to be developed for abalone fisheries. Without developing this predictive capacity, stock assessments will remain ad hoc and subject to considerations other than finding the optimum trade off between maximizing the product value while minimizing the risk to sustainability.
Project number:
2007-020
Project Status:
Completed
Budget expenditure:
$449,845.00
Principal Investigator:
Craig Mundy
Organisation:
University of Tasmania (UTAS)
Project start/end date:
31 Mar 2009
-
29 Sep 2012
Contact:
FRDC
SPECIES
1. Determine, document and review the Performance Indicators (PIs), related stock assessments and fishery management objectives used in the abalone fisheries of Australia and similar fisheries worldwide.
2. Identify in close collaboration with abalone Industry, Management, and researchers, a suite of fishery assessment PIs that facilitate assessments against the management objectives for abalone fisheries.
3. Where possible, evaluate the fishery assessment PIs against known fishery performance.
4. Develop a National Management Strategy Evaluation framework that can be adapted to represent different abalone fisheries from the various jurisdictions in southern Australia.
5. Identify, using the PIs determined in Objective 1, a suite of Management Strategies (i.e. unique combinations of data, PIs and decision rules) that aim to achieve the fishery objectives identified in objective 1).
6. Use the Management Strategy Evaluation framework (from objective 4), to assess the relative effectiveness of the alternate Management Strategies (from Objective 5) to achieve the fishery objectives, in the face of multiple sources of uncertainty and spatial variation in data availability and quality.
ISBN:
9781486301270
PROJECT NUMBER
•
2021-060
PROJECT STATUS:
CURRENT
Analysis of historical sea urchin research for improved management of nearshore fisheries in New South Wales
1. Analyse historical unpublished data on the ecology of Centrostephanus and its interactions with nearshore biota and augment the findings with oral histories of fishers to inform desirable outcomes for nearshore reef management
ORGANISATION:
University of Wollongong
PROJECT NUMBER
•
2020-065
PROJECT STATUS:
CURRENT
Indicators for density and biomass of exploitable abalone – developing and applying a new approach
1. Use the Victorian Western Zone (and other fisheries data, where available) as a test-bed to develop and evaluate a new approach to calculating density and biomass indicators of exploitable abalone.
ORGANISATION:
Western Abalone Divers Association (WADA)
PROJECT NUMBER
•
2020-004
PROJECT STATUS:
CURRENT
The impact and implication of Perkinsus olseni on Australian abalone fisheries
1. Assessment of the economic impact of Perkinsus olseni on blacklip and greenlip abalone fisheries
ORGANISATION:
University of Adelaide