This application addresses NSW, VIC, SA and QLD RAC priority: “Developing stock assessment approaches and management frameworks for enhanced and environmentally driven stocks: an inland fisheries case study”. The activities outlined below have been developed with the aim of improving stock status reporting for inland fish species and achieving tangible progress towards the development of inland fishery stock management strategies (SMSs).

Project activities will be led by members of the core project team (listed below). A technical working group (TWG) consisting of the project team and additional experts from all relevant jurisdictions will be formed to facilitate ongoing input and guidance on project activities. The TWG will meet regularly (e.g., quarterly) throughout the project. Members of the TWG will be invited to participate in workshops and, where appropriate, in the authorship and review of project outputs. The TWG will include experts with strong experience in recreational fishing assessment and Indigenous fishing. In line with the NSW DPI Fisheries First Nations Aboriginal Engagement Strategy, it is envisaged that engagement with the Indigenous sector will move from the “Inform” level of engagement towards “Consultation” and “Collaboration” as the work enters the implementation phase. Engagement with the recreational sector will similarly develop as the outcomes of the project are operationalised.

The term ‘stock management strategy’ is used in this application to describe a transparent and consistent decision-making framework that specifies pre-determined management actions needed to achieve agreed ecological, economic and social/cultural objectives. This terminology (rather than ‘fishery harvest strategy’) has been adopted to align the project objectives with fishery harvest strategy principles (Sloan et al. 2014) whilst recognising that key drivers of inland fishery performance (water management, stock enhancement, climatic conditions, etc.) may not be related to fishing mortality (i.e., harvest).
An important aspect of the project is to identify differences in terminology, improve understanding of inland fisheries management, and to better align the language and principles of stock assessment science within the inland fisheries context, particularly in light of the available high quality fishery independent data. This will require a fundamental consideration of the compatibility of stock assessment approaches with our existing understanding of inland fisheries ecology, as well as progress on incorporating appropriate assessment methods and reference points into fit-for-purpose inland fishery management frameworks.

The project consists of four desktop activities aimed at achieving these goals:
1. Evaluate key drivers of population dynamics in inland fisheries
Information on the importance of fishing mortality relative to other drivers of fish population dynamics (e.g., environmental conditions, stock enhancement) is required to identify management levers that can be used within a framework comprising management and harvest strategies to influence fishery performance. This activity will use a review of the international scientific literature and analyses of existing datasets to identify important drivers of population dynamics for two key species (Murray Cod and Golden Perch) in the MDB, recognising impacts may vary with temporal and spatial scales.

2. Evaluate applicability of alternative stock assessment approaches
A wide range of stock assessment approaches are available to support fisheries management, ranging from simplistic approaches with low data requirements to complex models that require estimation of many input parameters. Fishery stock assessment models have rarely been applied to inland fisheries management in Australia and their utility in this context is currently unresolved. In this activity, we will conduct analyses to test the utility of a variety of stock assessment approaches using the population dynamics drivers identified in Activity 1. Results of the analyses will be used to identify the most promising stock assessment methods and the suitability of these methods will then be comprehensively tested by modelling existing data on Murray Cod and Golden Perch.

3. Contextualise key elements of harvest strategies for inland fisheries
The ‘National Guidelines to Develop Fishery Harvest Strategies’ identifies seven key elements of a fishery harvest strategy. To date, these key elements have been interpreted mainly in the context of harvest strategies for marine and coastal fisheries, where fishing mortality is a major driver of population dynamics. Activity 3 will use the outcomes of a technical workshop to produce a detailed evaluation of the key harvest strategy elements in the context of inland fisheries. Workshop participants will consider a series of questions relating to how each key element might be best operationalised for the development of inland fishery SMSs. This information will be summarised and used as an input to Activity 4.
This activity will be informed by outputs from Activities 1 and 2 allowing the workshop to draw upon relevant insights as appropriate.

4. Guiding principles for SMS development for inland fisheries
Using outputs from Activities 1-3 as a basis, we will produce a stand-alone report that presents guiding principles for SMS development for inland fish species. This report will serve as a companion document to the revised National Guidelines to Develop Fishery Harvest Strategies (FRDC 2021-135), providing a more detailed consideration of the specific issues relating to SMS development for inland species.