The Culture And Performance Of Greenback Flounder Rhombosolea Tapirina Under Grow-out Conditions
Funder
Fisheries Research and Development Corporation
Funding Amount
$120,799.00
Summary
Objectives: 1. To identify the suitability of various grow-out conditions including cage, tank raceway intensive systems and pond intensive systems 2. To assess the performance of juveniles in the above systems by measuring growth rates, survival, FCR, and time to market size 3. To determine additional parameters important to grow-out management such as feeding behavious, feed wastage, disease susceptilbility degree of maturation 4. To determine the market acceptance of the ....Objectives: 1. To identify the suitability of various grow-out conditions including cage, tank raceway intensive systems and pond intensive systems 2. To assess the performance of juveniles in the above systems by measuring growth rates, survival, FCR, and time to market size 3. To determine additional parameters important to grow-out management such as feeding behavious, feed wastage, disease susceptilbility degree of maturation 4. To determine the market acceptance of the cultured fish Read moreRead less
Mapping The Economic And Social Contributions Of The NT Seafood Industry – Part 2
Funder
Fisheries Research and Development Corporation
Funding Amount
$295,760.00
Summary
The Northern Territory Seafood Council (NTSC) and the Northern Territory Government (NTG) recognise the vital need to bridge the knowledge gap regarding the economic impact of the NT seafood industry. This gap severely impedes effective advocacy for industry growth and development by the NTSC and hampers evidence decision-making. Without a comprehensive understanding of the industry's economic footprint throughout the supply chain of each major fishery/sector, it is challenging to address critic ....The Northern Territory Seafood Council (NTSC) and the Northern Territory Government (NTG) recognise the vital need to bridge the knowledge gap regarding the economic impact of the NT seafood industry. This gap severely impedes effective advocacy for industry growth and development by the NTSC and hampers evidence decision-making. Without a comprehensive understanding of the industry's economic footprint throughout the supply chain of each major fishery/sector, it is challenging to address critical issues and identify vulnerable points within the sector.
A whole of fishery and sector analysis, will provide essential insights for targeted advocacy and informed decision-making, fostering sustainable growth, enhancing resilience, and addressing critical issues within the Northern Territory's seafood industry.
Understanding the complete value of the NT seafood industry to the local community is crucial for making strategic decisions related to negotiations such as those concerning Blue Mud Bay and infrastructure investments. It will also contribute to ongoing investment in the industry.
The project aims to test economic protocols and processes identified in FRDC Project 2021-034 to establish cost-effective and valued systems beyond its duration. These systems will incorporate socio-economic information into decision-making processes and shift the culture from a government-driven collection process to one driven by the industry.
Without a plan to highlight the wider socio-economic value and benefits of the industry, the industry may face mounting pressure on its social license to operate, impacting access, industry structure, and fees. Moreover, the lack of understanding regarding the consequences of uncertainty surrounding secure access and potential loss of access for commercial fishers may have unintended effects on the NT seafood industry. Additionally, the limited availability of current financial and economic information for NT fisheries hampers economic analysis and the provision of advice to policymakers and decision-makers, hindering opportunities for growth and sustainability.
With that context in mind, NTSC experience to date identifies a number of known issues with existing data, including: - Limitations in the scope of data available which has historically excluded measurement of the contributions made by commercial charter fishing, processing of imported seafood, and activities downstream of immediate seafood processing (i.e. transport to retail markets, retail sector activity). - The poor quality of economic data (such as production, price and employment data) necessary to improve estimates of direct or initial effects from fishing, aquaculture production and processing in some fisheries and for some sub-sectors and seafood processing (where there is a need to further disaggregate ANZSIC categories or investigate alternative means of measurement for fisheries with too few licence holders for data to be reported). - Gaps in data regarding indirect contributions, including downstream production-induced and consumption-induced effects, where key data regarding employment, household-income and enterprise-level cost of production (i.e. expenditure on goods and services as inputs to fishing and aquaculture production) are unknown. - Gaps in data for a range of monetised and non-monetised social, environmental and cultural activities which contribute value to individuals and communities. While previous estimations have referred to the social contributions of fisheries and aquaculture to regional communities this has not involved any primary data collection or analysis of secondary data, requiring further work to select specific indicators and the basis of evidence.
In scoping and analysing the available data, the project will use third party providers to: - Ensure data collection methods are consistent and participant consent and privacy is achieved. The privacy of participants must be protected through adherence to the Australian Privacy Principles in the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth), such that names of individuals are not recorded. Where the explicit informed consent of participants is required this may include a requirement to sign a consent form. Under circumstances where a vulnerable group is consulted, such as Indigenous Territorians, specific consent may be required from a Human Research Ethics Committee to ensure the data collection process causes no harm to participants. - Ensure data storage is secure and access is limited to the reasonable requirements of the project. All digital data (i.e. from an online survey) would be stored on a secure network with file access restricted to the nominated project team through use of file encryption and passwords. Any primary data collected cannot be used for any purpose other than that required to meet study objectives.
Objectives: 1. Understanding of the economic footprint of the NT seafood industry within the NT economy 2. Understanding of the economic footprint of the NT seafood industry within the Australian economy 3. Understanding the economic footprint of the main fishery sectors and their supply chains 4. Improved understanding and valuation of the NT seafood industry 5. Improved understanding of where the vulnerable points in the supply chain are Read moreRead less
Human Dimensions Research Coordination Program 2021-24
Funder
Fisheries Research and Development Corporation
Funding Amount
$440,705.00
Summary
The operating environment within which Australian fisheries and aquaculture are positioned is complex, comprising economic, social and political institutions and organisations that are continuously being re-shaped by multiple external and internal drivers.
Addressing these specific drivers requires understanding of the human dimensions of fisheries and aquaculture, along with the biophysical. Human dimensions refers to the social, economic and cultural factors that affect outcomes for b ....The operating environment within which Australian fisheries and aquaculture are positioned is complex, comprising economic, social and political institutions and organisations that are continuously being re-shaped by multiple external and internal drivers.
Addressing these specific drivers requires understanding of the human dimensions of fisheries and aquaculture, along with the biophysical. Human dimensions refers to the social, economic and cultural factors that affect outcomes for both the seafood community and in terms of public good. This includes the attitudes, processes and behaviours of individual people, companies, management agencies, communities, organisations, consumers, and markets. Human dimensions research has been successfully applied to understand how to enable better outcomes for Australia's fisheries and aquaculture (e.g. improved social acceptability, resilience through shocks, inclusive growth, economic productivity), and what are the effective strategies to achieve this (e.g. market based mechanisms, behavioural approaches). It brings together research capability from a broad range of disciplines.
Historically, achieving the level of coordinated investment required to effectively deliver against this need has been hampered by a range of factors, which have included: • effective integration of human dimensions RD&E with biophysical sciences; and • research capability and expertise capable of undertaking such research to ensure end user needs are met.
The FRDC has invested substantively in human dimensions R&D capability in recognition of this need. Ongoing coordination and strategic development of human dimensions R&D activities will support the FRDC to deliver its Fish Forever 2030 vision: Collaborative, vibrant fishing and aquaculture, creating diverse benefits from aquatic resources, and celebrated by the community.
The FRDC considers Coordination Programs as critical to delivering relevant outcomes of the R&D Plan. With respect to Human Dimensions, it is evident that a planned R&D outcome can be achieved more successfully if expertise and related activities are developed and managed in a coordinated manner. Objectives: 1. Identify and coordinate the development of human dimensions R&D priorities through review and consultation with key stakeholders, and assist to develop scopes to address those priorities 2. Ensure quality and relevance of human dimensions R&D through technical and extension advice and support for FRDC management and project teams 3. Support management of external partnerships delivering human dimensions R&D across FRDC 4. Support development of FRDC human dimensions data and analytics 5. Inform FRDC and stakeholders of state of knowledge and capability, and emerging needs, in key human dimensions R&D areas relevant to the FRDC's R&D Plan outcome and enabling strategy areas 6. Support extension and adoption of R&D in key human dimensions R&D areas relevant to the FRDC R&D Plan outcome and enabling strategy areas 7. Develop and foster R&D collaboration on international initiatives in human dimensions research of relevance to Australian fisheries and aquaculture Read moreRead less
Aquaculture-Community Futures: North West Tasmania
Funder
Fisheries Research and Development Corporation
Funding Amount
$172,996.00
Summary
To secure the future of Australian aquaculture, building and maintaining a sufficient level of support and trust from interested and affected communities is vital. Worldwide, there have been several examples of where aquaculture operations have been threatened because of a lack of societal acceptability. In Australia, a recent example of this has been the environmental non-governmental organisations (eNGOs) campaigns against proposed fish farm operations in Okehampton Bay on Tasmania’s east co ....To secure the future of Australian aquaculture, building and maintaining a sufficient level of support and trust from interested and affected communities is vital. Worldwide, there have been several examples of where aquaculture operations have been threatened because of a lack of societal acceptability. In Australia, a recent example of this has been the environmental non-governmental organisations (eNGOs) campaigns against proposed fish farm operations in Okehampton Bay on Tasmania’s east coast (Murphy-Gregory, 2017). In the Tasmanian context, attitudes toward the commercial exploitation/use of natural resources involve multi-dimensional, often conflicting, values often with a spatial dimension (see Evans, Kirkpatrick & Bridle 2018).
FRDC Project 2017-158 ‘Determinates of socially-supported wild-catch and aquaculture fisheries in Australia’ has revealed that several factors contribute towards achieving community acceptance: the perception that a company offers benefits; that it contributes to the well-being of the region and respects the local way of life; that it listens, responds and exhibits reciprocity; and that relations are based on an enduring regard for each other’s interests. These factors are often based on understanding and contributing towards achieving a certain state or condition of that which is valued by local and regional communities (e.g. a certain level of local employment, or of threatened habitat protection). Indeed, a lack of social acceptance for the aquaculture industry has often resulted in part from their practices being seen to, or in some cases actually, compromising the condition or state of what communities ‘value’ (feel is very important).
This project has been designed to examine the mix of community interests and values, and to identify how the aquaculture industry and regional communities can participate in processes of negotiation, to contribute towards the achievement of desired conditions or states of community values, using NW Tasmania as a case study.
Objectives: 1. Identify what the NW communities and Tasmanian residents value (“community values”) in relation to the NW Tasmanian coastal and marine region 2. Establish which of these values future aquaculture in NW Tasmanian can contribute to (“shared values”) 3. Ascertain community preferences for how salmonid farming in NW Tasmania could contribute to these shared values, and how this should be tracked and benchmarked 5. Determine preferences of NW communities and Tasmanian residents for community-industry engagement, communication and partnership models (social engagement strategies) Read moreRead less
SCRC: Australian Aquaculture Genetic Support Capability
Funder
Fisheries Research and Development Corporation
Summary
A proven requirement for sustainable and efficient primary production is well managed selective breeding programs of domesticated stock. This was recognised for Australian aquaculture in establishing the Seafood CRC Breeding for Profit Theme outcomes and strategies.
Breeding programs are long-term investments delivering incremental gains based on selection decisions made on a combination of expert advice, phenotype and genotype data analyses and sound breeding objectives. This combinat ....A proven requirement for sustainable and efficient primary production is well managed selective breeding programs of domesticated stock. This was recognised for Australian aquaculture in establishing the Seafood CRC Breeding for Profit Theme outcomes and strategies.
Breeding programs are long-term investments delivering incremental gains based on selection decisions made on a combination of expert advice, phenotype and genotype data analyses and sound breeding objectives. This combination, and the essential data management and analytical systems required, are beyond the scope of any single aquaculture company to provide in-house. Like the animals in the breeding program, the provision of these capabilities needs to have continuity and a long-term delivery plan.
CSIRO has over 15 years co-investment with multiple sectors of the Australian aquaculture industry in R&D to deliver commercial selective breeding programs to meet individual needs. While delivering on the R&D, CSIRO considered the strategies for its clients to obtain the required future commercial genetic services. Local options for delivering this capability are limited, partly due the current lack of programs requiring the services and the size of the programs.
As such CSIRO has developed some capability and a strategic plan (see attachment) for the transfer of the delivery of the required capabilities and systems to the predicted 8 to 10 Australian and international breeding programs to an autonomous or semi-autonomous unit by 2015 to 2017. To deliver this strategy requires additional investment in the development of the essential capabilities and systems during the transition phase from 2013 to 2015.
However critical to the strategy and further investment is the need for an independent assessment of the economic and management viability of the proposed strategy and an autonomous unit, and potential uptake by identified national and international breeding programs of the services to be provided. This critical assessment is required before further investment in establishing the proposed independent genetic services unit and in developing the essential capability and systems.
This project therefore will be in two stages with a clear Go/No-go point after the first stage. Stage 1, proposed here, will involve an independent consultant completing a Business Case assessment of the proposed strategy and services unit. Stage 2 would proceed if that Business Case proved positive and the Unit and strategy was viable and acceptable to potential clients. The second, implementation stage (which would require an updated full proposal) would involve developing the proposed Unit and training and delivering the essential capability and systems for the Unit and for the long-term viability of Australian aquaculture breeding programs.Read moreRead less