NSW Ocean Trawl Fishery TACC Determinations 2020-21
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NSW Total Allowable Fishing Committee Report and Determinations for the 2020–21 Fishing Period NSW Ocean Trawl Fishery: Blue-spotted Flathead, Tiger Flathead, Silver Trevally, and Eastern School Whiting and Stout Whiting. 16 March 2020 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Preamble The NSW Total Allowable Fishing Committee (the Committee) has responsibility under the NSW Fisheries Act (1994, No. 38) as amended in 2018 to determine the Total Allowable Commercial Catch (TACC) of four species or species groups taken in the NSW Ocean Trawl Fishery (OTF): blue-spotted flathead (Platycephalus caeruleopunctatus), tiger flathead (Neoplatycephalus richardsoni), silver trevally (Pseudocaranx georgianus), and eastern school whiting (Sillago flindersi) and stout whiting (Sillago robusta). The flathead and trevally species have species-specific TACCs whilst the two whiting species share a ‘basket’ TACC at this stage. The Determinations in this report are for the period 1 May 2020 to 30 April 2021, hereafter the 2020–21 Fishing Period. The determinations are based on information available about the relevant stocks and their harvest in NSW and other jurisdictions over a long history, the most up-to-date assessments of stock status and likely future trends, reports from fishery managers, comments from fishers, and input at a public forum in Sydney on January 22nd 2020. The species considered here are landed from multiple NSW commercial fisheries by various methods and to various extents by recreational fishers operating either independently or on charter fishing trips. Each of the species also is subject to species-specific or basket TACCs in neighbouring jurisdictions: stout whiting in Queensland, and eastern school whiting, blue-spotted and tiger flathead, and silver trevally in the Commonwealth Southern and Eastern Scalefish and Shark Fishery (SESSF). The TACCs set here, however, apply only to the OTF. The NSW OTF is a multi-method, share-managed fishery that includes four endorsement categories: Inshore Prawn trawl, Offshore Prawn trawl, Deepwater Prawn trawl, and Northern Fish Trawl and Purse Seine. All endorsement categories are regulated by specific input and output controls and all restrict fishing to occur only in areas north of Barrenjoey Headland, near Sydney. The Determinations set here apply across all endorsements in the OTF. Trawl- fishery catches from the Southern Fish Trawl Restricted Fishery operating south of Barrenjoey Headland are not part of these TACCs. Determination The Committee has determined that: 1. The Total Allowable Commercial Catch of blue-spotted flathead by commercial fishers in the Ocean Trawl Fishery during the 2020–21 Fishing Period should not exceed 108.1 tonnes (t); 2. The Total Allowable Commercial Catch of tiger flathead by commercial fishers in the Ocean Trawl Fishery during the 2020–21 Fishing Period should not exceed 166.9 t; 3. The Total Allowable Commercial Catch of silver trevally by commercial fishers in the Ocean Trawl Fishery during the 2020–21 Fishing Period should not exceed 26.8 t; and 4. The Total Allowable Commercial Catch of trawl whiting, comprising catches of eastern school whiting and stout whiting combined, by commercial fishers in the Ocean Trawl Fishery during the 2020–21 Fishing Period should not exceed 898.1 t. Recommendations The Committee provides the following recommendations to the Minister, the Department of Primary Industries (the Department), and the OTF industry (Industry), in addition to the above Determination components, towards improving performance of the fishery. Recommendation 1: Resolution of formal catch-sharing and joint or reciprocal management arrangements between NSW and the Commonwealth for tiger flathead, silver trevally, and eastern school whiting be pursued as a matter of urgency. Recommendation 2: Resolution of formal catch-sharing and joint or reciprocal management arrangements between NSW and Queensland for stout whiting be pursued as a matter of urgency. Recommendation 3: The Department and Industry work together to resolve appropriate mechanisms to control catches of all quota species across all NSW fisheries, including recreational sectors. Recommendation 4: The Department and Industry work together to improve immediately the accuracy of species-specific catch reporting for eastern school whiting and stout whiting in the interests of progressing to future setting of species-specific TACCs for these species. Recommendation 5: The Department, preferably in collaboration with neighbouring jurisdictions, do research to understand the implications of recent persistent declines in catches and reported declining sizes of silver trevally to inform more robust stock assessments. i Recommendation 6: The Department work with industry and other jurisdictions to develop shared or complementary harvest strategies to guide management decisions, including TACC setting, for all harvests of quota species and including agreed fishery objectives and stock reference points. Recommendation 7: The Department work with industry to consider what, if any, mechanisms for managing incidental over-quota catches are possible or desirable in the OTF. Recommendation 8: The Department continue to refine regular recreational fishing surveys to estimate total recreational catches, including those by licence-exempt NSW residents and visitors to NSW. Recommendation 9: The Department do research to estimate likely mortality rates of discarded catches of quota species, including those discarded from other commercial and recreational fisheries. Stock Status Four of the five stocks considered here have been assessed as being below what would be considered appropriate target status for sustainable harvest (40–48% of unfished biomass1), though none are considered likely to be below the widely accepted lower limit of 20% of unfished biomass. The best available information indicates that stocks of blue-spotted flathead, tiger flathead, and eastern school whiting are at about 34–35% of their unfished biomass, stout whiting is at about 42% of unfished biomass, and silver trevally has a very uncertain status but likely to be at less than 35%. The allowable catch that is biologically appropriate should consider, and preferably limit, all fishing mortality to which a stock is subjected. It ideally also should be applied at the level of an entire stock subject to harvest, rather than across multiple stocks or for only part of a stock. Neither of these desirable conditions exist for TACC setting in the OTF. All the species considered in this report are caught in varying amounts outside of the OTF, in other fisheries within NSW and in other jurisdictions. The Committee is concerned, for example, that a TACC for blue-spotted flathead might not manage stock status effectively whilst recreational fishing causes about as much, possibly more, fishing mortality as does the OTF. Sharing of stocks of tiger flathead, silver trevally, and eastern school whiting with Commonwealth fisheries and of stout whiting with Queensland fisheries means that sustainability benefits of TACC adjustments in the OTF will depend on TACC settings in those other jurisdictions. The Committee also is concerned about the very disparate results from alternative assessments of silver trevally. Improved understanding of stock structure and connectivity would provide clarity in the degree to which CPUE is an indicator of abundance, and more assurance about whether the stock is being harvested sustainably or is in as poor a status as the most pessimistic assessments suggest. The basket TACC of trawl whiting raises different issues. The combined TACC does not manage directly the amount of either species landed and cannot control the prospect of shifting allowable catch between the two species, which likely have very different stock status. Economic Considerations The five species considered here form part of the catch of a multi-species, multi-sector fishery. The importance of these species varies among different sectors. These species contribute almost two thirds of the value of production in the OTF fish trawl sector but only around 10% of the value of production in the prawn trawl sectors. The species also are caught in a number of other fisheries not subject to quota control, as well as a number of other fisheries subject to different quota controls. The species mostly are caught jointly, with catch history being an important indicator of their technical and economic interactions in the fishery and their prevailing stock conditions. The basis for the initial setting of TACCs, however, differed among the species, despite their joint catch in the same fishing events. The initial set of TACCs therefore were inconsistent with the technical interactions in the fishery and fisher behaviour, given the economic incentives in the fishery. TACC-ITQ management is new to the OTF and the quota trading market has not yet developed to a level of efficiency that favours sensible autonomous fishery adjustments, either within years through quota leasing or longer-term though quota share transfer. Difficulty accessing unused quota has been reported as a major issue in this first year of quota management. This will improve over time, but improved information (e.g. “real-time” reporting of quota uptake) will assist in that process. Greater promotion of the “buy and sell” features of FishOnLine also may help fishers find quota. The newness of the system also means that information on the economic performance of the fleet cannot be determined from quota trading and leasing