Investigating options to improve bycatch reduction in tropical prawn trawl fisheries - a workshop for fishers

Funded Activity Summary

A major leap forward in bycatch reduction can be achieved through improved knowledge of factors that affect BRD performance. This can be very effectively achieved in a workshop, focussing on discussion of BRD performance. A workshop also provides fishers an opportunity to discuss new, innovative solutions to bycatch reduction, as well as future directions for related R & D.

The proposal meets the research priorities of the ComFRAB in the following ways:

Innovative approaches to fisheries management: Bringing fishers together provides a unique opportunity for accelerated learning (about successful BRDs) in the industry. Innovative BRD designs will also be a focus of the workshop to provide a basis for new thinking and solutions to bycatch reduction.

Economics of fisheries: Improved BRD performance may translate to reduced codend drag and fuel consumption, improved catch value (per litre of fuel consumed) and possibly increased prawn catches through improved swept-area performance.

People and industry development: This workshop aims to help change the culture of the industry re use of BRDs from ‘minimise their impact’ to maximise their performance’. This change in thinking has occurred for TEDs but the leap has not been made for BRDs. Effective BRDs (in conjunction with the already effective TEDs) will substantially reduce the ecological impact of prawn trawling and improve the reputation of prawn-trawl fisheries.

Cross-fishery issues: This workshop has application to all Australian prawn-trawl fisheries, especially the NPF, Qld ECTF and the Torres Strait fishery, and fishers, managers and researchers from each of these will be involved in the workshop.

This workshop also meets a (high) research priority of NORMAC and QFIRAC by contributing to the development of effective bycatch reduction devices.

Objectives:
1. Increase fishers knowledge of latest developments in bycatch reduction.
2. Assess a suite of innovative options to reduce bycatch and their potential application to the fishery.
3. Engage fishers and others in the identification and uptake of suitable BRDs for tropical prawn trawl fisheries.
4. Engage fishers and others in the development of a coordinated plan for future BRD R & D.

Funded Activity Details

Start Date: 30-09-2006

End Date: 16-11-2007

Funding Scheme: Funding Scheme not available

Funding Amount: $55,548.90

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

Food technology | Nutrition | Stakeholder | Workforce

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