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A Review
and Synthesis
of Australian Fisheries Habitat Research
Non
Technical Summary
|
A Review and
Synthesis of Australian Fisheries Habitat Research
95/055
Mr Mike Cappo
Australian Institute of Marine Science
PMB 3, Townsville MC, Qld 4810
Telephone (07) 47 534 211
Fax: (07) 47 725 852
email: m.cappo@aims.gov.au
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Objectives
- To review and synthesise the
available knowledge on Australian fisheries
habitat research, in order to:
- describe and evaluate the
suitability and coverage of the areas of research
priority identified at a scientific workshop
convened by the FRDC in March 1994, and
- prepare a prospectus of
opportunities for the FRDC Ecosystem Protection
Program.
This project was commissioned by the
FRDC. The task was to review and synthesise the available
knowledge on Australian fisheries habitat research and on
this basis:
- describe and evaluate the
suitability and coverage of the areas of research
priority identified at a scientific workshop
convened by the FRDC in March 1994, and
- prepare a prospectus of
opportunities for the FRDC Ecosystem Protection
Program.
The priority issues and impacts
reviewed were:
- natural dynamics in fisheries
habitats and environmental variability
- changes to drainage and habitat
alteration
- nutrient and contaminant inputs
- effects of harvesting on
ecosystems and biodiversity
- introduced and translocated pests
and diseases.
To obtain this information we conducted
a formal literature search and interviews with informants
from key organisations in all States and Territories in
1995-96. The results have been prepared as a detailed
scoping review (Volume 2) describing the issues,
knowledge gaps and impacts, and proposing more than 60
R&D opportunities.
These R&D themes, issues have been
summarised as a prospectus here in Volume 1. Sources of
citations are provided in Volume 3, and the full
bibliography will be linked (HTML) with the scoping
review for access on the Internet.
There are five strategic questions
common to all issues and impacts:
- What are the major habitats of the
coastal fringe and Exclusive Economic Zone and
where are they located?
- What is the role of these habitats
in providing and maintaining fisheries
production?
- What is the role of these habitats
in maintaining ecosystem integrity and
biodiversity as a basis for long-term ecosystem
health, and what are suitable indicators and
monitors of this health?
- What are the natural dynamics of
the major marine habitats, and how are they
affected by the fishing and aquaculture
industries and other human activities?
- What linked mitigation,
monitoring, scientific assessment, and management
strategies will provide the habitat protection
necessary to achieve ecologically sustainable
development of fisheries and aquaculture?
In pursuing a ranking of R&D
priorities for the given issues and impacts we found
that:
- natural dynamics in fisheries and
habitats and environmental variability underpin
all the other human impacts in fisheries habitat
research. Without better understanding of this
issue, there are uncertainties in identifying
human-induced effects to help develop appropriate
management strategies
- the major threats and disturbances
are clearly specific to region and habitat type,
and must not be considered in isolation - they
are linked and interact with one another in
coastal zones to aggravate habitat degradation
- there are generally high risks
perceived for the anthropogenic disturbances, but
the effects and impacts, or hazards, are often
poorly documented-especially for introduced pests
and diseases
- ultimate causes of many
disturbances in the coastal zone are outside the
direct sphere of influence of the FRDC and its
stakeholders but there is much common interest
with many other agencies in addressing them
- the FRDC will have the lead role
in providing R&D for the various effects of
aquaculture and har vesting on fisheries
habitats-these are not limited to the widely
publicised bycatch and benthos damage in some
trawl fisheries.
The major anthropogenic disturbances to
fisheries habitats are clearly from urbanisation, land
and freshwater use, and introduced pests and diseases in
the coastal zone and from fishing in shelf and slope
waters. Many of these disturbances are relatively
localised and often amenable to mitigation or
rehabilitation. Introduced pests and diseases, however,
pose wider long-term threats because eradication is
unlikely and spread can be wide and rapid.
The causes and impacts on fisheries
habitats of several types of disturbance are relatively
well understood in some locations.These include some
downstream effects of land use and effluent disposal that
are beyond the immediate responsibility of the FRDC and
its stakeholders, including:
- effects of nutrients from
effluents and runoff on some temperate seagrass
and estuarine ecosystems
- effects of barriers on fish
migration in coastal rivers and of floodgates on
water quality and access by fish and tides in
NSW.
There is evidence that habitats recover
and fisheries production is improved after the sources of
such stress are removed or reduced. In such cases, the
challenge lies in providing R&D that can achieve
better outcomes for fisheries by:
- extending the results of fisheries
R&D into the local planning and management of
development and wastewater disposal
- developing, implementing and
monitoring the success of rehabilitation and
restoration of key degraded habitats.
Resolution of these problems requires
multi-disciplinary R&D and extension outside the
suite of ecological expertise usually invested in by the
FRDC to translate research into action. We believe that
this will be best achieved in close coalition with the
R&D Corporations and Cooperative Research Centres who
supply R&D to the users of land and water resources.
All forms of commercial and
recreational fishing and aquaculture have some risk of
affecting surrounding habitats, often including those
that sustain them. The FRDC Effects of Trawling
sub-program is addressing some of the major concerns, but
the FRDC will also provide the lead role in identifying,
assessing and minimising the effects of all other forms
of harvesting and aquaculture. These include a poorly
acknowledged role of industry in the introduction and
spread of pests and diseases.
Key uncertainties exist concerning both
the relative values of fisheries habitats and the effects
of human disturbances at both regional and local scales.
Strategic R&D is needed to overcome the poor ability
to predict and manage such impacts, including:
- collection, integration,
interrogation and extension of new and existing
fisheries and habitat data at scales useful to
management-what habitats and links should be
conserved and rehabilitated, where are they
located, and what are the key threats on a
regional scale?
- proactive incorporation of this
information in plans for regional development
- comprehensive research on life
histories of important aquatic plants, benthic
communities and fished species
- identifying the effects on
fisheries of key pests and diseases, and
developing vigilance to avoid new introductions
- strategic linkages of the FRDC
research with major landscape-scale environmental
studies to add fisheries value to
multi-disciplinary research on processes
determining structure, function and variability
in key habitats
- helping develop question-driven
monitoring of estuaries and coasts to distinguish
the effects of past or unavoidable habitat
changes and disturbances on fisheries values at
long time scales - an emphasis on monitors that
help identify sources of stress is needed.
For the impacts that are well known,
tactical R&D is required to mitigate and manage the
effects, including:
- development and maintenance of
inventories of key threatening structures and
processes to determine priorities for action and
educate other coastal resource users
- application of adaptive research
and management of rehabilitation techniques and
approaches
- monitoring and publicising
fisheries performance of management interventions
and rehabilitation
- development of surveillance and
management techniques for pests (eg.
dinoflagellate blooms), diseases and contaminants
that assure quality of harvests
- development of environmentally
friendly fishing gear and practices, including
programs aimed at reducing spread of pests and
diseases.
To extend the FRDC sphere of influence
beyond fisheries stake holders there is a strategic need
for the FRDC Ecosystem Protection program to strengthen
existing links with the habitat research and protection
activities of Environment Australia, the Land and Water
Resources R&D Corporation, the Dairy, Sugar and
Grazing R&D Corporations, and the Australian
Quarantine Inspection Service. There is also a need to
align R&D priorities with those of the various
networks that advise on regional research priorities,
such as the Fisheries and Environment Health Committee
and the Centre for Research on Introduced Marine Pests.
Because of the inter-connected nature
of fisheries habitats, the need to take a regional and
ecosystem or landscape-based approach to fisheries
habitat research is critical.
Environment Australia’s Interim
Marine and Coastal Regionalisation for Australia (IMCRA)
provides a good starting point for integrating
information on the relevant boundaries of coastal
fisheries ecosystems, fisheries production and key
anthropogenic disturbances.
Marine parks, reserves and
spatially-based management plans in general, provide both
a challenge and an opportunity for fisheries R&D. If
the appropriate knowledge of fisheries habitats and
dynamics is available and is part of the planning
process, protected areas could potentially provide a
strong basis for fisheries habitat protection. If the
data and relevant research are not available or not
included in planning processes, it will be difficult to
optimise the fisheries value of marine protected areas
and Multiple Use Management plans in cases where there is
conflict with the goals of other users.
Keywords
Ecosystem Protection Program,
environmental impacts, fisheries habitats
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