The Australian Fisheries Management Authority (AFMA), in partnership with the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) and the Fisheries Research and Development Corporation (FRDC), is leading research to improve the sustainability and economic performance of fisheries management in Australia.
A new four-year research project, supported by FRDC, aims to develop a new harvest strategy for the Southern and Eastern Scalefish and Shark Fishery (SESSF) that better reflects its multi-species dynamics and addresses modern challenges such as climate change and the high costs of managing such a complex fishery.
Harvest strategies guide key fisheries management decisions like catch limits. The aim is to allow a profitable level of commercial fishing activity, with sustainability as the overriding priority. For the fishery to remain economically viable, it is essential to manage operational costs in proportion to its overall economic value and risk profile. This concept is also known as balancing risk-catch-cost.
This project builds on existing research (also funded by FRDC) into the development and evaluation of multi-species harvest strategies that began in 2018. This previous work designed and tested a series of options broadly applicable to multi-species fisheries, using the SESSF as a test case. Now, the goal is to develop a practical and cost-effective multi-species harvest strategy that can be implemented in the SESSF.
Managed within a globally recognised climate change hotspot, the SESSF faces mounting challenges, from changing ecosystems and ecological risks to economic pressures and data limitations. This presents a unique opportunity: the SESSF can serve as a pioneering testbed for innovative, climate-adaptive, multi-species harvest strategies.
The challenges in managing the SESSF are not unique to AFMA, so the project is expected to be of interest to other fisheries management agencies.
"A key strength of this work is its broader relevance," said Dan Corrie, AFMA's Senior Manager of Climate Adaptation and Strategic Reform and Principal Investigator for this project. "The framework and methods we're developing will offer adaptable harvest strategy options for other jurisdictions grappling with similar challenges - multi-species fisheries, limited data, and the growing impacts of climate change.
"While our primary deliverable is a tailored, fit-for-purpose harvest strategy for the SESSF, the process itself is designed to be transferable, enabling other regions to apply the same principles to their own fisheries."
Dan is working alongside Dr Geoff Tuck, a Senior Research Scientist from CSIRO whose team oversees the development of harvest strategies and undertakes assessments of fish stocks in the SESSF, and a team of co-investigators also from CSIRO.
The project is supported by an expert advisory group comprising AFMA fisheries managers, fisheries scientists, policy experts and industry representatives. A steering committee of Commonwealth and state government senior executives, including AFMA, will ensure the resulting harvest strategy can be implemented in line with the relevant Commonwealth policies and legislation.
There will be ongoing consultation with Resource Advisory Groups and Management Advisory Committees - AFMA's primary consultative and advisory bodies - and a series of workshops engaging a wider group of interested researchers and stakeholders from industry, government and environmentally focused non-government organisations.
This will allow a wider field of experts and key stakeholders to provide input to early concepts and influence the development and finalisation of the multi-species harvest strategy, which is expected to be delivered in late 2028.
2024-065: Development of a preferred multi-species harvest strategy in the Southern and Eastern Scalefish and Shark Fishery is supported by funding from the Fisheries Research and Development Corporation on behalf of the Australian Government.
