Australian wild-catch fisheries are currently facing unprecedented pressures and challenges, including the impacts of climate change, the competition for marine space and interactions with other industry sectors (the “spatial squeeze”), decreasing data quality and availability for inputs to stock assessment. Dealing with these challenges is complex and many of these challenges require policy solutions but there is also a significant role for research both within fisheries agencies and others at whole-of-government approaches.
This presentation provides a brief overview of the broad research areas needed to address these challenges. It will cover approaches to inform multi-sector marine management such as Integrated Ecosystem Assessments recommended by the National Marine Science Committee which are seen as the global benchmark for informing the management of an increasingly crowded and contested marine estate. A key question is can we, and how do we move from single sector to integrated multisector research programs? Fisheries specific needs will be discussed including better understanding climate impacts and how to include in fishery management systems, fit-for-purpose harvest strategies, cost-effective and robust multi-species harvest strategies, implications of declining data quality and the role of new technologies.