Project number: 2016-062
Project Status:
Completed
Budget expenditure: $533,328.74
Principal Investigator: Sevaly Sen
Organisation: Oceanomics Pty Ltd
Project start/end date: 1 Jan 2017 - 19 Dec 2020
Contact:
FRDC

Need

There are increasing community expectations about the social and environmental performance of fisheries and therefore the a growing need for accurate, timely, defensible information to defend the fishing industry, support good purchasing decisions by consumers, protect reputational integrity for the seafood businesses and growing. As these underlying concerns relate to industry-wide pre-competitive activities, collective investment and action focusing on provision of robust and credible information on sustainability and agreed assessment methodologies will reduce overall costs of fishery certification, internal species and fisheries assessments undertaken by seafood businesses and assessments required under the EBPC Act. SAFS is already considered a source of some of this information , but stakeholders require the inclusion of more species and fisheries , a reduction in the undefined species (as this status is difficult to communicate), habitat, TEPs, by-catch and expansion to include social and economic criteria.To reduce assessment costs there is also a need to develop a benchmark which recognises equivalence amongst third party certification and legislative assessment processes to reduce costs and avoid duplication. Progress has also been made on development and standardisation of approaches within all jurisdictions to ensure consistent language and approaches to defining sustainability and responsible fisheries management practices including data poor and inshore fisheries.

There is now a need to build on all this progress through effective and focused coordination and wherever possible, fast track developments by adapting existing international initiative such as the UKs Sustainable Seafood Coalition and the Responsible Fishing Vessel scheme to the Australian fisheries to achieve National Priority 1 objectives by 2020.

Linkages with National Priority 2 have to also be established to ensure that outcomes and outputs support the achievement of those goals i.e. demonstrate that increased productivity and profitability consistent with economic, social and environmental sustainability.

Objectives

1. Manage a portfolio of R&D projects that are directly concerned with National Priority 1 and are not managed by other FRDC subprograms, RAC's or IPA's
2. In consultation with key stakeholders develop strategic directions for R&D
3. Facilitate the dissemination of outputs (information and results) from R&D projects to key stakeholders
4. Collaborate closely with international initiatives on benchmarking and verifying sustainability of commercial fisheries

Final report

ISBN: 978-0-6480476-2-9
Author: Sevaly Sen
Final Report • 2022-02-01 • 2.40 MB
2016-062-DLD.pdf

Summary

The FRDC's RD&E Plan 2015-20 focused on maximising impacts by concentrating on knowledge development around three national priorities including National Priority 1(NP1): to ensure that Australian fishing and aquaculture products are sustainable and acknowledged to be so. 

 

In 2015 and 2016, FRDC held two NP1 workshops to bring together Principal Investigators on projects which were of direct relevance to this priority. Participants at these workshops emphasised the need for a coordinated approach to address NP1 objectives and ensure that outputs and outcomes can be accessed and used by the community.

 

In response, this sub-program was established at the end of 2016 to support NP1 research outputs (including the Status of Australian Fish Stocks) so that credible information on sustainability was easily accessible, regularly updated, and trusted as a source. The sub-program was also tasked with identifying research which addressed emerging sustainability issues and the development of assurance tools. The expected users of sub-program outputs and information included seafood businesses, fishers, aquaculture enterprises, government agencies and non-government organisations. An important component of the subprogram was collaboration with international initiatives to ensure NP1 outputs were harmonised, aligned and/or exceeded international norms.

Related research

Environment
People
People
PROJECT NUMBER • 2023-088
PROJECT STATUS:
CURRENT

FRDC Sponsored RD&E State Awards

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ORGANISATION:
Fisheries Research and Development Corporation (FRDC)