Novel fishery independent, biological and economic-processing methods to underpin expansion of Australia's fastest growing fishery, the Western Rock Octopus

Project number: 2023-052
Project Status:
Current
Budget expenditure: $650,260.00
Principal Investigator: Lachlan Strain
Organisation: Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development (DPIRD) Hillarys
Project start/end date: 31 Aug 2024 - 30 Aug 2026
Contact:
FRDC
SPECIES

Need

The Western Rock Octopus fishery has become Australia’s fastest growing fishery, with a 5-year average growth of 50% per annum between 2017 and 2022. Despite this expansion, there are still significant gaps in knowledge and practice that do not allow this fishery to grow and develop in an optimum sustainable and socio-economic manner. This project will fill the information gaps and develop pro-active management and economic policy settings that facilitate a comprehensive development of the fishery to its natural capacity. It meets FRDCs two main outcomes of the 2020-2025 R&D plan; growth for enduring prosperity, best practices and production systems, and also meets Enabling Strategy IV: Building capacity and capability.

Objectives

1. Quantify species mix, growth, population connectivity, and reproduction of the unexplored South Coast and deep-water West Coast stocks of Octopus djinda.
2. Develop and test an octopus trap mounted camera system as fishery independent survey tool for density, bycatch, habitat, and environmental data.
3. Develop a bioeconomic model for octopus fishery management and expansion in Australia.

Related research

Industry
Industry
Industry

Economic Impact assessment of FRDC's annual RD&E investments: a three year procurement

Project number: 2023-160
Project Status:
Current
Budget expenditure: $517,225.00
Principal Investigator: Susan Madden
Organisation: GHD Pty Ltd Sydney
Project start/end date: 14 Apr 2024 - 2 Jul 2026
Contact:
FRDC

Need

It is becoming increasingly important for Rural RDCs to continually monitor and evaluate the returns from RD&E investment, as government and industry require greater transparency and accountability of RD&E funds.

In addition to FRDC’s Statutory Funding Agreement requirements for valuing return on investment and use in its Annual Reports, impact assessments of FRDC’s RD&E investments are needed to inform:
– Future investment decisions
– CRRDC’s overall performance review of impact generated by RDCs
– Levy payers and government of the performance of investments.

GHD understands that the project will comprise two key components:
– An economic impact assessment of up to 20 research projects for the three-year period FY23/24, 24/25, and 25/26
– An individual and aggregated report of all assessed projects at the completion of assessments.

GHD notes that within this period the first five assessments for FY23/24 are required by June 2024 with the remainder of the projects, i.e. 10, due in September 2024. These assessments are required to be consistent with the CRRDC Guidelines for Impact Assessments. FRDC RD&E projects are to be assessed annually to meet Statutory Funding Agreement (SFA) requirements for valuing return on investment for use in FRDC’s Annual Reports and performance of FRDC’s investments.
In conducting the impact assessment project it will be important to note that one of FRDC’s key responsibilities is to ensure that research to assist management of fisheries and aquaculture resources is being undertaken to maintain ongoing sustainability. While the primary focus of these benefit-cost analyses over time has been economic impact, with references to environmental and social implications where appropriate, FRDC is increasingly interested in understanding the impact of R&D investments on environmental, social, and economic aspects more holistically.

Objectives

1. To inform FRDC's delivery of R&D Plans and future investment decisions
2. To provide information on the return of FRDC’s RD&E investment that can be used in FRDC’s annual reporting to the Australian Commonwealth
3. To contribute to populating the Evaluation Framework for FRDC reporting to DAFF under the current SFA agreement
4. To provide FRDC input to the overall performance assessment of the RDCs being compiled by CRRDC