Low cost, practical management regimes for small-scale, low-value fisheries are desperately needed, to ensure long term sustainability for these fisheries without the need for resource hungry management frameworks. While management should focus on output regimes to provide business cases to support investment, input regimes should also be considered. The level of data and/or resource poverty for these low-value/small-scale fisheries is often such that they lack formal data collection protocols. Associated challenges in providing guidance, even at the level of basic data collection regimes, can include limited literacy and numeracy, and profound associated cultural issues associated with indigenous sectors.
A logical first step is to undertake a desktop study that provides guidance and a recommended approach to developing management regimes. This has been long been flagged as a priority by the Northern Territory for its small-scale, low-value fisheries, including those with an indigenous and/or community emphasis.
The focus would be on developing a kernel for advice that is informed by a starting-point case study. The multi-sector N.T. Spanish Mackerel Fishery would be considered in the first instance, but with proactive awareness that guidance should be developed in a format that is able to be more generally adapted. Work would be undertaken in close collaboration with state/territory agencies and indigenous liaison teams.
The innovative nature of the project lies in providing pragmatic, practical, stepwise guidance provided to date to explicitly confront and address the extreme data poverty and, to a lesser extent, the profound cultural issues associated with small-scale, low-value fisheries.
Where appropriate, the project will apply the general advice from the new National Harvest Strategy Guidelines. It will also be enhanced by i) the experience of the project team within the Commonwealth context, and in providing general guidance to the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), for data-poor fisheries; and ii) the experience, local knowledge and trusted reputation of the N.T. members of the project team.
Final report
This study provides a comprehensive, process-based guidance to developing low-cost management regimes for small-scale, low-value fisheries. The approach outlined is strongly “bottom-up” in that it seeks to identify pragmatic options and provide practical advice that specifically acknowledge(s) the context and (resource, managerial and research capacity, data, socio-economic) constraints within the fishery. That is, it attempts to provide advice that is tailored to each fishery’s unique circumstances. This includes incorporating and formalising, where appropriate, existing management arrangements into a harvest strategy, and recommending assessment approaches based only on currently available information.
