Project number: 2019-027
Project Status:
Current
Budget expenditure: $776,141.00
Principal Investigator: Matt K. Broadhurst
Organisation: Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development (NSW)
Project start/end date: 29 Jul 2020 - 29 Sep 2024
Contact:
FRDC

Need

It is very clear that fishing-technology research to improve resource harvesting is a priority need for the future sustainability of fish trawling in Australia. The issue is quite poignant, considering that over the past 15 years, there has been a massive reduction in the total number of trawlers in Australia, and lower profits among remaining operators struggling to remain viable. Innovative modifications and refinements to existing systems that improve selectivity and reduce environmental impacts and costs are an urgent priority to ensure economic viability. Such developments are difficult to achieve by individual fishers without quality research, development and extension that is adequately resourced.

More specifically, there is a clear need to maintain progress towards developing innovative, high-priority technological modifications to fish trawls in the CTS and GABTS that mitigate sustainability issues while maintaining target catches at existing levels. Equally important, ratified designs then need to be tested across fleets to encourage adoption and refinement as a precursor to eventual legislation. Ultimately, satisfying these needs will contribute towards improving the social licence and economic return of trawl fisheries in the SESSF, while helping to ensure their ongoing sustainability and address what remains one of the most controversial issues facing bottom trawling.

Objectives

1. Review the available domestic and international literature and data, and consult with a project stakeholder committee (comprising representatives of the CTS, GABTS, NSW PFA and AFMA) to prioritise modifications to be formally assessed for their utility in minimising bycatch, while maintaining target catches among trawls used in the CTS and GABTS.
2. Based on the outcomes of 1 above, assess the utility of existing and new modifications to trawls for minimising bycatch, while maintaining target catches in the CTS and GABTS.
3. By providing strong economic incentives through improved efficiencies, and via applied extension activities, encourage the wide-scale voluntary adoption and ongoing exploration of appropriate best-practice technologies that cumulatively reduce bycatches, while maintaining target catches in the CTS and GABTS.

Final report

ISBN: 978-1-76058-820-5
Author: Matt K Broadhurst
Final Report • 2024-11-18 • 21.33 MB
2019-027-DLD.pdf

Summary

This project sought to produce the first-ever review of technical options for improving fish-trawl selectivity around the planet and then use this information to address a deficit in experimental work quantifying the utility of industry-developed and new selective-gear modifications in the Commonwealth Trawl Sector (CTS) and Great Australian Bight Trawl Sector (GABTS) of the Southern and Eastern Scalefish and Shark Fishery (SESSF). The work was completed during a four-year collaboration (from September 2020) between the New South Wales Department of Primary industries (NSW DPI), Fishwell Consulting, the Australian Fisheries Management Authority (AFMA), Commonwealth Scientific and Industry Research Organisation (CSIRO), South East Trawl Fishing Industry Association (SETFIA) and the Great Australian Bight Industry Association (GABIA). Ultimately, by highlighting regional industry efforts and identifying and validating the benefits of new options to reduce one of the most controversial issues facing bottom trawling, the project contributes towards improving the social licence and economic return of trawl fisheries in the SESSF, and supports ongoing Australian research into technological solutions to ensure fishery sustainability.

Related research

Environment
Industry
Adoption