Know & Show Your Carbon Footprint - Discovery Phase
Funder
Fisheries Research and Development Corporation
Funding Amount
$35,000.00
Summary
This project will be an initial discovery phase to inform scoping of overall approach.
Deliverables include: Consultation across fishing and aquaculture stakeholders at least 38 key fishing and aquaculture stakeholders. • Identification of the functional and non-functional requirements to create K&S functionality for the included sectors. • Identification of the data and modelling requirements to create K&S module/functionality for the included sectors. • Assessment ....This project will be an initial discovery phase to inform scoping of overall approach.
Deliverables include: Consultation across fishing and aquaculture stakeholders at least 38 key fishing and aquaculture stakeholders. • Identification of the functional and non-functional requirements to create K&S functionality for the included sectors. • Identification of the data and modelling requirements to create K&S module/functionality for the included sectors. • Assessment of any current solutions/calculators provided relative to the market requirement. • Evaluate current reference and benchmarking data versus what is required to support accurate, automated carbon accounting, and, ultimately inform decision-making that enables productivity whilst reducing carbon emissions. • Understand the gap between knowing your carbon footprint and being able to make informed decisions that lead to reductions in emissions. • Identification of the data and modelling requirements to create a module and/or functionality for the included sectors. • Identification of the missing calculators, features, functionality and underlying data and research required to enable all sectors to participate and benefit from the platform. • Documented solution design for creation of functionality identified during discovery for addition to the core infrastructure. • Report detailing the results of the carbon footprint calculation drivers / needs / existing knowledge, tools & data, gap analysis, and solution design. This will inform the Contributor and AIA in respect of further investment in the K&S solution.
Objectives: 1. Complete discovery phase to inform scoping of 'Know & Show', for consideration Read moreRead less
Sea Change: Co-developing Pathways To Mitigate And Adapt To A Changing Climate For Fisheries And Aquaculture In Australia
Funder
Fisheries Research and Development Corporation
Funding Amount
$1,628,586.00
Summary
There is a need to increase effective engagement between fishing and aquaculture stakeholders and climate science and scientists in an ongoing strategic way, and not ‘just’ for single-project outcomes.
Improved engagement will help increase understanding of the likely implications of a changing climate in relevant contexts, and lay foundations for a shared exploration of available options for reducing risk exposure. We have worked with stakeholders and the FRDC Extension Officer Networ ....There is a need to increase effective engagement between fishing and aquaculture stakeholders and climate science and scientists in an ongoing strategic way, and not ‘just’ for single-project outcomes.
Improved engagement will help increase understanding of the likely implications of a changing climate in relevant contexts, and lay foundations for a shared exploration of available options for reducing risk exposure. We have worked with stakeholders and the FRDC Extension Officer Network to design a strategy that will engage fishing and aquaculture stakeholders on existing knowledge regarding risks and opportunities associated with a changing climate, to enable resource managers and researchers to better understand the ways in which many sectors are already adapting autonomously and to identify the barriers to further adaptation, and to co-design solutions that are relevant at local- and industry-levels to help build climate-ready communities and to stimulate economic resilience.
In many cases (but not all), extensive information regarding marine climate change - including key risks to fisheries and aquaculture producers (at a high level) - is already available, along with information on how to develop adaptation plans. However, despite this, progress and uptake within most sectors in terms of planned adaptation responses has been very slow – although many individual operators are already making ‘autonomous’ changes to their day-to-day operations in response to climate change drivers. If these changes are being made without access to best available knowledge, then it is very likely that substantial portions of these responses are maladaptive in the longer term, or may be countervailing to planned government adaptations (see Pecl et al 2019, Ambio, https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s13280-019-01186-x). This is a pattern evident within many different industries around Australia and across the rest of the world. ‘What’ needs to happen has thus been outlined in general terms in many cases, but such information is not co-developed or provided in consultation with end-users in ways that resonate or are useful to them. This project will address this need for relevance and usefulness.
The project aims to develop reflexive, ongoing, and two-way knowledge exchange between industry representatives, operators and manager, and the marine climate change impacts and adaptation research sector, so that solutions are co-designed, usable, and adoptable.
Objectives: 1. Work with seafood industry leaders to establish two-way climate conversations that can strengthen and underpin Australian fishing and aquaculture’s resilience to a changing climate. This approach will facilitate co-design of pathways to increase agility and build capacity for climate change adaptation with a select number of fisheries and aquaculture operations. This process will also create a model that can be applicable to other RDC’s. 2. Create a climate conversations platform to facilitate knowledge exchange (including identifying ‘gaps’ and shared issues), and thus capture, disseminate, and showcase:a. How fishing and aquaculture sectors are already adapting and responding to recent changesb. What has facilitated these changes made, and what the barriers are to further adaptationc. The story of fishing and aquaculture’s efforts towards achieving climate resilience - using a dynamic ‘story map’ approach, and other multi-media, communicate progress to target audiences. 3. Identify a) key factors influencing the agility of fisheries and aquaculture to adapt to climate change, and b) which factors (e.g. opportunities) are most important for adaptation capacity-building for different types of operations - building on work underway across multiple domestic and international projects and working groups. 4. Co-develop pathways, with a select number of fisheries and aquaculture operations, to increase their agility and build sector capacity for climate change adaptation and resilience. 5. Support the development of communities of practice for groups of fisheries and/or aquaculture operations that have similar opportunities and pathways – to support increased agility and capacity building for climate change adaptation (determined in objective 3). Read moreRead less
Determination Of Spawning Areas For King George Whiting In South-eastern Australia Using Hydrodynamic Modelling
Funder
Fisheries Research and Development Corporation
Funding Amount
$152,830.00
Summary
Objectives: 1. To use spawning dates estimated from otoliths of post-larvae collected in bays and inlets of Victoria, and reverse modelling with the VIMS Bass Strait Model based on climatic conditions over the developmental period, to estimate spawning sites of King George whiting in Bass Strait or beyond.
RFIDS: National Recreational Fishing Education Program - “Establish Activities And Tools To Promote Recreational Fishing On A National Level”
Funder
Fisheries Research and Development Corporation
Funding Amount
$375,000.00
Summary
The need for RF promotion and education has been recognised in many sector strategies which is part of the need to:
•(A) Promote the key messages to existing Recreational fishers ;
"The National Code of Practice for Recreational and Sport Fishing" (Recfish Australia, 2010) identifies four main areas of fishing responsibility; - Treating fish humanely; - Looking after our fisheries; - Protecting the environment and - Respecting the rights of others. Th ....The need for RF promotion and education has been recognised in many sector strategies which is part of the need to:
•(A) Promote the key messages to existing Recreational fishers ;
"The National Code of Practice for Recreational and Sport Fishing" (Recfish Australia, 2010) identifies four main areas of fishing responsibility; - Treating fish humanely; - Looking after our fisheries; - Protecting the environment and - Respecting the rights of others. This also includes a communication strategy, noting its impact in angler education.
Past key national projects in RF education have sought to inform and change angler behaviour eg. Release Fish Survival Program, NSW Rock Fishing / Angel rings (Vict / NSW), and provision of Fishing line waste bins sites at the coast. These have been “from the ground up” RF initiatives.
Educational initiatives respond to requests from RF enthusiasts for fishing clinics and “learn to fish” classes". RF education has broadened to also include fishing safety issues and impacts on non-English speaking fishers (see"Recreational Fishing and Safety in Australia...", Pepperell, 2008). RF educational agencies need to position themselves in the merging realm of social media.
There has been less focus on:
• (B) promoting the benefits of RF to the general populace;(both encouraging people to go fishing and lessening criticisms of RF- often through ingorance)
In the Recfishing Research Business Plan 2010/11 one of five strategic priorities is educational - ”... social, health and economic benefits of recreational fishing are recognised and valued by communities and governments...”. How can this be achieved?
RF education has gained minimal entry into the formal schools education system, and into non-formal education (sports/ recreation). A fuller nationally coordinated promotion and education approach is needed in this non-government voluntary sport sector. This is why the project, and the approach we propose, is needed. Objectives: 1. Review and summarise education activities relating to recreational fishing occurring around Australia. Identify common themes, key messages, target audiences, success stories and gaps. 2. Develop a national network of all those involved in the education of recreational fishers nationally, to facilitate sharing of experiences, knowledge and resources and promote consistent delivery of messages at a national scale. 3. Develop strategies and tools to engage with audiences not currently reached through fisheries education activities, and to deliver key messages to target audiences not currently being communicated with (to be identified through objective 1). 4. Encourage recreational fishers to be involved in research, community monitoring and habitat enhancement programs. Read moreRead less
Development Of A Temperature Monitoring Framework For Tasmania's Seafood Industry During Marine Heatwaves
Funder
Fisheries Research and Development Corporation
Funding Amount
$48,585.67
Summary
MHWs can have a devastating impact on marine ecosystems, with a strong El Nino event currently underway in Australia. Forecasts by CSIRO indicate sustained increases in water temperatures down the east coast of Tasmania for this summer, with potential to significantly impact on fisheries, aquaculture, and marine habitat. Improved forecasting by CSIRO has provided industry and government with the opportunity to be better prepared, with the monitoring of ambient temperature is a key component of t ....MHWs can have a devastating impact on marine ecosystems, with a strong El Nino event currently underway in Australia. Forecasts by CSIRO indicate sustained increases in water temperatures down the east coast of Tasmania for this summer, with potential to significantly impact on fisheries, aquaculture, and marine habitat. Improved forecasting by CSIRO has provided industry and government with the opportunity to be better prepared, with the monitoring of ambient temperature is a key component of this. While sea surface temperature (SST) models from BOM and NOAA can provide information regarding broadscale patterns, missing is fine-scale, near-coastal and below surface information that is highly relevant to fisheries, aquaculture and marine coastal environments. While some industries monitor temperature as part of operations (e.g. salmon, oyster aquaculture), other industries are missing any fine scale information that may be of relevance to their operations. This project has two main components: 1. To support and integrate existing infrastructure that collects temperature data across the summer along the east-coast of Tasmania. This includes data collected by IMAS research projects, both long and short-term, where QAQC on data is high and there is confidence the data is robust both spatially and temporally. This data will be used to understand broadscale trends at depth across a predicted MHW event. 2. To implement a pilot industry deployment of temperature loggers across the seafood supply chain. The two industries targeted for pilot deployments will be the octopus fishery and the rock lobster fishery, with loggers mounted on pots and in holding wells of boats. This pilot program will aim to develop industry-relevant temperature monitoring methods for industry for future MHW events. Data from objective one will be used to ground-truth results and validate methods used in the pilot program. Overall, the data will be used by government and industry to aid in the fisheries management in MHW conditions into the future.
Objectives: 1. To develop a framework for collection of robust temperature data from depth along the east coast of Tasmania 2. To validate the approach of rapid industry deployment of loggers to monitor temperature in MHW conditions for providing fine-scale variation in temperature. 3. Use the combined data to better understand how temperature data can inform fisheries management for future MHW events Read moreRead less
Guidance On Adaptation Of Commonwealth Fisheries Management To Climate Change
Funder
Fisheries Research and Development Corporation
Funding Amount
$271,499.78
Summary
The existing research predicts that climate change will have both positive and negative impacts on reproduction, recruitment and distribution of biomass of Australia’s commercially important marine species. Many fishery stakeholders acknowledge that the issue of climate change should be a high priority issue for fisheries management. Current research highlights the potentially significant impacts of climate change on fisheries and fisheries management, but to date strategies for fisheries manag ....The existing research predicts that climate change will have both positive and negative impacts on reproduction, recruitment and distribution of biomass of Australia’s commercially important marine species. Many fishery stakeholders acknowledge that the issue of climate change should be a high priority issue for fisheries management. Current research highlights the potentially significant impacts of climate change on fisheries and fisheries management, but to date strategies for fisheries management to address climate change have been lacking. The current ability of fisheries management to cope with these changes is unknown and therefore must be assessed to test its resilience, ability to adapt and the changes that may be required. AFMA is a prime candidate for leading this assessment since it has substantive responsibility for those areas of the Australian fishing zone that are expected to be hot-spots for climate change effects, such as SE Australia, one of the fastest warming areas in the ocean. In addition, the issues of climate change are canvassed in draft government policies for fisheries and this project could form part of the response to those policy needs.
To-date no jurisdiction in Australia has assessed the resilience of its management system to these anticipated impacts and it is likely to break some new ground in what may need to be done for management systems to effectively adapt to climate change and the options that may be available. Engagement with and participation from key fishery stakeholders is essential for this project to be a success and to assist in any subsequent fisheries management change processes. Overall, this project has the potential to benefit the marine ecosystem and fisheries stakeholders with a vested interest in climate change adaptation, to increase the benefits and reduce the risks. While the production end of the supply chain is often the focus, this project will also consider the supply chain risks, following approaches developed in recent FRDC projects (Hobday et al. 2015; Fleming et al. 2014; Lim-Camacho et al. 2015; Plaganyi et al. 2014; van Putten et al. 2015)
Objectives: 1. To assess how well the existing Commonwealth fisheries management framework will cope with climate change impacts. 2. To develop a methodology and approach for AFMA and other fisheries to adapt their regulatory environment to climate change impacts on Commonwealth fisheries. 3. To develop strategies and priorities to account for effects of climate change in the management of Commonwealth fisheries Read moreRead less
SCRC: PhD : The Effect Of Temperature On Reproductive Development In Maiden And Repeat Spawning Farmed Atlantic Salmon: Understanding The Molecular Basis For Improved Egg Quality And Survival
Funder
Fisheries Research and Development Corporation
Summary
The economic viability of sea cage farming of Atlantic salmon is strongly influenced by the cost of production of smolts. Understanding the mechanisms that contribute to, or cause reproductive failure in spawning fish is an essential component of reducing those industry production costs, and at a broader level, ensuring that there are sufficient smolts produced each year to maintain industry production. The issue has been identified as an industry priority with the stated SALTAS ....The economic viability of sea cage farming of Atlantic salmon is strongly influenced by the cost of production of smolts. Understanding the mechanisms that contribute to, or cause reproductive failure in spawning fish is an essential component of reducing those industry production costs, and at a broader level, ensuring that there are sufficient smolts produced each year to maintain industry production. The issue has been identified as an industry priority with the stated SALTAS aim of reducing the reliance on repeat spawning fish for egg production. The potential cost of failing to solve the problem is high. The survival of eggs to the eyed embryo stage can be as low as 30-50%, compared with 80% for eggs from best performing fish (SALTAS data). Modelling of this cost gives direct increases in smolt production costs of $225,000 per annum, but a potential industry shortfall in production terms of $15-20 million per annum.
The knowledge gained through this research will be applied in a real life context to the Atlantic salmon industry in Australia to overcome a real and immediate industry bottleneck, and provide information to assist in large scale production procedures. It will provide important new information regarding the endocrine regulation of egg quality, information that could be highly relevant to other finfish industries, such as tuna and kingfish.
In addition to the direct benefit of this research to the Salmon industry, the investigation of the impact of temperature on reproductive process in fish is relevant to environmental studies concerning the impact of global warming on biological processes, with the Atlantic salmon being an example of a fish that has been translocated from a colder environment (Europe) to the warmer Tasmania.Read moreRead less
Effects Of Seasonal And Interannual Variability Of The Ocean Environment On Recruitment To The Fisheries Of Western Australia
Funder
Fisheries Research and Development Corporation
Funding Amount
$233,603.00
Summary
Objectives: 1. Establish a monthly climatology of sea-surface temperatures around WA from 1982 to 1997 using NOAA-AVHRR satellite data 2. Develop appropriate monthly indicies of ocean variability and create a historical database of oceanic variables at selected sites, including coastal sea-level, seasurface temperature, salinity and wind 3. Study relationships between oceanic processes and seasonal/interannual fluctuations in recruitment to the rock lobster, scallop, Australian s ....Objectives: 1. Establish a monthly climatology of sea-surface temperatures around WA from 1982 to 1997 using NOAA-AVHRR satellite data 2. Develop appropriate monthly indicies of ocean variability and create a historical database of oceanic variables at selected sites, including coastal sea-level, seasurface temperature, salinity and wind 3. Study relationships between oceanic processes and seasonal/interannual fluctuations in recruitment to the rock lobster, scallop, Australian salmon, pilchard and shark fisheries of WA Read moreRead less