WEALTH FROM OCEANS www.csiro.au Informing the review of the Commonwealth Policy on Fisheries Bycatch through assessing trends in bycatch of key Commonwealth fisheries Tuck, G.N., Knuckey, I. and Klaer, N.L. FRDC 2012/046 May 2013 Department of Sustainability, Environment, Water, Population and Communities Informing the review of the Commonwealth Policy on Fisheries Bycatch through assessing trends in bycatch of key Commonwealth fisheries Tuck, G.N., Knuckey, I. and Klaer, N.L. Project No. 2012/046 Title: Informing the review of the Commonwealth Policy on Fisheries Bycatch through assessing trends in bycatch of key Commonwealth fisheries Authors: Tuck, G.N., Knuckey, I. and Klaer, N.L. FRDC Project: 2012/046 Date: May 2013 Copyright Fisheries Research and Development Corporation and CSIRO Marine and Atmospheric Research 2013 This work is copyright. 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The Fisheries Research and Development Corporation plans, invests in and manages fisheries research and development throughout Australia. It is a statutory authority within the portfolio of the federal Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry, jointly funded by the Australian Government and the fishing industry. Author: Tuck, Geoffrey N. (Geoffrey Neil), author. Title: Informing the review of the Commonwealth Policy on Fisheries Bycatch through assessing trends in bycatch of key Commonwealth fisheries / G.N. Tuck, I. Knuckey and N. L. Klaer. ISBN: 9781922173300 (paperback) Subjects: Bycatches (Fisheries)--Monitoring--Australia. Fisheries--Monitoring--Australia. Other Authors/Contributors: Knuckey, Ian, author. Klaer, N, author. CSIRO, issuing body Dewey Number: 639.20994 Preferred way to cite this report: Tuck G.N., Knuckey, I. and Klaer, N.L. 2013. Informing the review of the Commonwealth Policy on Fisheries Bycatch through assessing trends in bycatch of key Commonwealth fisheries. Fisheries Research and Development Corporation final report 2012/046. 240p. Cover photographs: Front cover photograph of shy and white-capped albatross, and back cover photograph of shy albatross kindly provided by Rachael Alderman (DPIPWE). Photographs of CTS trawl catch kindly provided by Ian Knuckey (Fishwell Consulting). FRDC 2012/046 – Review of bycatch in Commonwealth fisheries ii CONTENTS 1 Non-technical Summary .....................................................................................1 2 Acknowledgements ............................................................................................ 5 3 Background ........................................................................................................6 4 Need ..................................................................................................................7 5 Objectives ..........................................................................................................8 6 Methods .............................................................................................................9 7 Results/Discussion ........................................................................................... 10 7.1 Antarctic Fisheries ...................................................................................10 7.2 Coral Sea Fishery ....................................................................................10 7.3 Eastern Tuna and Billfish Fishery ............................................................ 11 7.4 Northern Prawn Fishery ........................................................................... 12 7.5 Small Pelagic Fishery .............................................................................. 12 7.6 Southern and Eastern Scalefish and Shark Fishery ................................ 13 8 Benefits ............................................................................................................15 9 Further Development .......................................................................................16 10 Planned Outcomes ........................................................................................... 17 11 Conclusion .......................................................................................................18 12 Appendix 1: Intellectual Property ...................................................................... 21 13 Appendix 2: Staff .............................................................................................. 22 14 Appendix 3: Antarctic Fisheries: Macquarie Island Patagonian toothfish ......... 23 15 Appendix 4: Antarctic Fisheries: Heard Island and McDonald Islands Patagonian toothfish and Mackerel Icefish Fisheries ....................................... 29 16 Appendix 5: Coral Sea Fishery ......................................................................... 42 17 Appendix 6: Eastern Tuna and Billfish Fishery ................................................. 83 18 Appendix 7: Northern Prawn Fishery ............................................................. 143 19 Appendix 8: Small Pelagic Fishery ................................................................. 161 20 Appendix 9: Southern and Eastern Scalefish and Shark Fishery ................... 188 FRDC 2012/046 – Review of bycatch in Commonwealth fisheries iii GLOSSARY These definitions have been taken from the Commonwealth Policy on Fisheries Bycatch (2000) unless stated otherwise in the chapters. Bycatch That part of a fisher’s catch which is returned to the sea either because it has no commercial value or because regulations preclude it being retained, and that part of the catch that does not reach the deck of the fishing vessel but is affected by interaction with the fishing gear. Discards That part of the unintended catch that is returned to the sea. Byproduct That part of the unintended catch that is kept or sold by the fisher Note that discards may include species of commercial value that have been discarded due to market reasons. FRDC 2012/046 – Review of bycatch in Commonwealth fisheries iv 1 NON-TECHNICAL SUMMARY 2012/046 Informing the review of the Commonwealth Policy on Fisheries Bycatch through assessing trends in bycatch of key Commonwealth fisheries PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR: Dr G.N. Tuck ADDRESS: CSIRO Marine Laboratories GPO Box 1538 Hobart, TAS 7001, Australia Telephone: 03 6232 5222 Fax: 03 6232 5053 OBJECTIVES: 1. Document changes in Commonwealth fisheries relevant to bycatch. 2. Collate and synthesise all available bycatch data for Commonwealth fisheries. 3. Analyse and report on trends in bycatch rate, total bycatch and catch composition. NON TECHNICAL SUMMARY: OUTCOMES ACHIEVED To provide a means of evaluating changes in bycatch over the last 10 years and inform the current review of the Commonwealth Policy on Fisheries Bycatch, an examination of the existing data is required, together with a description of the changes that have occurred in each fishery that specifically (or indirectly) relate to bycatch. This report provides background information on the existing data on bycatch from key Commonwealth fisheries. The fisheries considered are the Southern and Eastern Scalefish and Shark Fishery (SESSF), the Northern Prawn Fishery (NPF), Sub-Antarctic Fisheries, the Coral Sea Fishery (CSF), the Eastern Tuna and Billfish Fishery (ETBF) and the Small Pelagic Fishery (SPF). Outcomes achieved include the documentation of the data collected, the bycatch management processes that have been put in place and the temporal trends in observations of bycatch and bycatch composition. A number of measures have recently been introduced to reduce bycatch and discards from Australia’s Commonwealth fisheries – these include fishery closures to help protect Australian sea lions and Gulper sharks, seabird mitigation measures for longline and trawl fisheries, various seal, turtle and general bycatch reduction or exclusions devices, and gear changes to reduce fish bycatch. Data suggest that these measures have, to varying degrees, reduced bycatch and/or discards. In some cases data availability or precision are either insufficient to make reasonable judgments about the influence of measures on changes in bycatch, or it may simply be too early to quantify the effectiveness of bycatch measures. In addition, there are difficulties in estimating catches and bycatch rates for rarer species/groups when, for economic reasons, observer coverage has been set at levels optimised for information on commercial target species. Fortunately, this issue has reduced in recent years with a greater focus on obtaining better estimates of the catch of bycatch, TEP and high risk species. Statistical analyses will be necessary to ensure the data and results are interpreted