Seafood CRC: economic management guidance for Australian abalone fisheries

Funded Activity Summary

The project addresses the need for harvest optimisation in Australian abalone fisheries.

No Australian abalone fisheries effectively utilise economic data in their management decision making process. South Australia has progressed the furthest by examining the historical performance of their abalone fishery with high-quality survey data, however, this is not incorporated into the decision making process for important rules like TAC setting (ie there are no forward projection analyses of alternate management strategies on economic yield). All fisheries examine catch rate data with some appreciation that this is is an indiator of fishing costs as well as an index of stock abundance. However, this relationship between changing catch rates and cost has not been quantified. In summary, the level of economic information feeding into abalone fishery (business) decision making is sparse and there is ample scope for improvement in the data supplied to the people responsible for management decisions.

Thus there is a need for (i) tracking of economic performance of fisheries (beyond SA); (ii) formal consideration of cost of fishing (through CPUE) in setting management targets for different areas; (iii) considering the effect of product price in making management decisions that affect the location and timing of catch.

The project targets Investment Platform 3: Harvest Optimisation of the ACA strategic plan. This platform has three objectives that are not well addressed without this project. Several projects are underway on Objective 2 (“Management tools that enable targeted harvesting of fish to optimise market returns”) but these do not specifically address the economics of markets. Objectives 3 and 4 (“Techniques to increase marketable yield per fish” and “Benchmark harvest performance” also require fisheries economic research proposed here.

Lastly, the project squarely address the mission of the Future Harvest Theme: “Novel management strategies to increase economic yield and productivity of wild fisheries”.


Objectives:
1. Define baseline economic performance of participating abalone fisheries
2. Produce bio-economic analysis tools in abalone fisheries
3. Determine optimal management strategies using stock and economic information including seasonal / size / catch combinations
4. Promote and drive management change to capture opportunities identified at (3).
5. Define baseline economic performance of participating abalone fisheries

Funded Activity Details

Start Date: 01-10-2011

End Date: 30-06-2013

Funding Scheme: Funding Scheme not available

Funding Amount: $84,140.55

Funder: Fisheries Research and Development Corporation

Research Topics

ANZSRC Field of Research (FoR)

There are no FoR codes available for this funding activity

ANZSRC Socio-Economic Objective (SEO)

There are no SEO codes available for this funding activity

Other Keywords

Biology | Cost | Data | Economic | Fisheries Management | Harvest Strategy | Marketing | Modelling | Reproduction | Sustainability

Related Links