The current Harvest Strategy Framework has no formal process for deciding whether the Tier harvest strategy applied to a stock is appropriate or not, there is thus no formal process for deciding when to use a lower Tier. Even worse, when a Tier4 assessment is deemed inappropriate in the SESSF there is no lower Tier available for use. There is thus a need to establish guidelines for identifying when a Tier method is inappropriate for a stock, and also a need to develop an array of alternative harvest strategies for use as a Tier5 when Tier4 is deemed inappropriate. As there is such a wide range of potential Tier 5 procedures, many with the same data requirements, testing is required to allow an informed decision about which are best to implement - particularly in the SESSF context.

Section 6 of the DAFF public discussion paper for the review of the Commonwealth fisheries Harvest Strategy Policy (see FRDC project 2012/225) investigates questions of uncertainty about assessment approaches, the level of data required to maintain species within a given Tier and when to switch between Tiers. The proposed project directly addresses known issues in the SESSF that relate to this question, and timing of the review allows this project to tailor analyses to specifically address review recommendations and advice.

A parallel and complementary project (FRDC 2012/202) provides a study of the trade-off among ecological and economic risks associated with harvesting, the benefits of harvesting and the costs associated with management. This is concerned with strategic considerations over all Tiers, whereas the current project looks more specifically at data requirements within SESSF Tiers, and alternative Tier procedures for data poor species in the SESSF.