Bass Strait Central Zone Scallop Fishery
Resource Assessment Group
(ScallopRAG)
MINutes
Scalloprag 20
6 & 7 february 2014
Chair Bill Talbot c/- A/g Executive Officer Kylie Tonon, AFMA, Box 7051, Canberra BC, ACT 2610
Tel: (02) 6225 5373 Fax: (02) 6225 5400 Email
Contents
ScallopRAG MEETING 20 3
Attendance 3
OUTCOMES 4
Actions arising 4
Recommendations 4
PRELIMINARIES 5
Introduction and apologies 5
Adoption of agenda 5
Records of previous meetings 5
Declaration of interest 5
Correspondence 6
DISCUSSION ITEMS 6
Research Expression Of Interest (EOI) 6
Harvest Strategy Proposal 6
Size Limit 10
Source of Recruits and Clarity and Predictability 11
Other Items 11
RAG DAY 2 11
Introduction 11
Research EOI 13
Meeting Closure 15
ATTACHMENT 1 – ScallopRAG 20 Agenda 16
ATTACHMENT 2 – ScallopRAG 20 Conflicts of Interest 18
ATTACHMENT 3 – AFMA Harvest Strategy Proposal 19
ATTACHMENT 4 – ScallopRAG Harvest Strategy Proposal 25
ScallopRAG MEETING 20
Chair Mr Bill Talbot
Date 6 and 7 February 2014
Location AFMA Canberra Office
73 Northbourne Avenue, Canberra
Attendance
Members
Bill Talbot Chair
Dr Semmens Scientific Member (IMAS)
Nic Marton (day 1 only) Scientific Member (ABARES)
Allan Barnett Industry Member
Steve Shanks AFMA Member
Kylie Tonon A/g Executive Officer
Invited participants
David Jarvis Tasmanian Government (DPIPWE)
Observers
Darren Fearnley Industry
Andy Watts Industry
George Day AFMA SPF Senior Manager
Diarmid Mather AFMA Economist
Stuart Richey ScallopMAC Member (Day 2)
Steve Mantzaris ScallopMAC Member (Day 2)
John Hammond ScallopMAC Member (Day 2)
John Pollock ScallopMAC Chair (Day 2)
Apologies
Ian Knuckey Scientific Member
Jon Bryan Environment/Conservation member
Nic Marton (day two)
OUTCOMES
Actions arising
- ScallopRAG to finalise outstanding minutes from previous meetings out of session.
2. Dr Semmens to work with the BSCZSF industry throughout the 2014 fishing season to develop a sampling strategy for finding and analyzing potential 500t beds of mature, dense scallops.
Recommendations
- ScallopRAG recommended that fishing cannot commence until a 500t bed of dense 85mm scallops is found, verified by a report by IMAS at the time of survey.
- That future ScallopRAG and ScallopMAC meetings either be combined or held on the same day with the RAG occurring in the morning and MAC in afternoon.
- That AFMA Research Committee request IMAS to provide stock assessment services for the BSCZSF at a cost of no more than the cost of the last project, allowing for a CPI increase.
PRELIMINARIES
Introduction and apologies
The Chair opened the meeting at 10:20am and welcomed members, invited participants and observers to the meeting. ScallopRAG noted apologies from Dr Knuckey and Mr Bryan.
Mr Shanks explained that the purpose of the ScallopRAG meeting was to develop and recommend a revised draft Harvest Strategy proposal. The ScallopMAC meeting would take into account the RAG advice and form their recommendation on the proposal to the AFMA Commission for their meeting on 24 February. Mr Shanks explained that he will ask the Commission to sign off on the proposal and AFMA would proceed with the development of a full Harvest Strategy for the 2014 BSCZSF fishing season for the Commission’s endorsement out of session.
Mr Barnett raised concerns that he did not see the value in holding separate RAG and MAC meetings and suggested a better use of time and resources would be to combine these meetings.
Adoption of agenda
The RAG adopted the agenda at Attachment 1.
Records of previous meetings
ScallopRAG agreed to finalise any outstanding minutes from previous meetings out of session.
ACTION ITEM: ScallopRAG to finalise outstanding minutes from previous meetings out of session.
Declaration of interest
ScallopRAG noted the conflicts of interests declared by Members as shown in Attachment 2. Those members declaring a conflict left the room individually as the RAG reviewed their conflict against the agenda items. The RAG agreed that there were no agenda items where a member would be required to leave the room based on their declared conflict.
Correspondence
ScallopRAG noted correspondence from Dr Ian Knuckey and agreed to address his concerns during the discussions on the draft Harvest Strategy Proposal.
DISCUSSION ITEMS
Research Expression of Interest (EOI)
Dr Semmens explained that he had submitted an EOI as part of the AFMA call for research for 2014-15. The two budgets provided were developed based on the amount of information required under the proposed Harvest Strategy.
The cost of measuring boards was not included in the proposal as it was not known how many were needed. The Tasmanian Representative highlighted the need for sharing boards between Tasmania and the Commonwealth. There are currently four Commonwealth and four Tasmanian owned boards available amongst a fleet of approximately 10-15 boats.
ScallopRAG discussed Dr Knuckey’s email in the context of the proposed harvest strategy and proposed research. Dr Semmens understood that Dr Knuckey’s concerns lay with the lack of information required to demonstrate that the co-efficients of variation (CV) for using the logbook/measuring board data was acceptable under the lower tier option. ScallopRAG recognized that measuring board and logbook data would have a different CVs compared to structured biomass surveys. Dr Semmens explained that the “higher tier” of the current research proposal includes a robust analysis of data and therefore a higher CV. Dr Semmens explained that it is difficult to discuss the data requirements and level of risk the RAG is willing to accept as a Harvest Strategy had not been agreed. Noting this, the RAG agreed to discuss this EOI after the draft harvest strategy proposal was agreed.
Harvest Strategy Proposal
Mr Shanks introduced the AFMA Harvest Strategy proposal at Attachment 3 and explained that the AFMA proposal is a way of simplifying the current arrangements and reducing the management costs. He also explained that once the proposal was agreed by the RAG and MAC, the proposal would go to the Commission for endorsement. Should the Commission agree to the proposal, a full harvest strategy would be developed and implemented for the 2014 season.
Mr Shanks explained that there are three components under the proposed Harvest Strategy model:
Tier 3 - Fishery is closed due to no commercially viable beds found or cases of Paralytic Shellfish Toxin (PST).
Tier 2 - Operators can fish anywhere within the fishery under a low TAC of 1000t (figure TBC), except for a bed of 500t (figure TBC) to allow for ongoing recruitment in the fishery. The TAC can increase throughout the season up to a maximum of 2,500t
Tier 1 – This allows for a TAC higher than 2,500t in a good season. Operators can search for scallops throughout the area of the fishery, then when a potential bed is found, the area is transected in order to get a biomass estimate of the stock, then close a proportion of the estimated biomass.
Mr Shanks explained that the RAG and MAC would meet at the beginning of the season to assess the scientific information available and make a decision on what tier the fishery should operate at, which would subsequently determine the research costs incurred.
Mr Jarvis, the Tasmanian representative, explained that it would be good to try to keep the fisheries across the three jurisdictions as similar as possible to assist both industry and management. Mr Shanks agreed, but suggested that a “most open, little closed” approach was much less management intensive than implementing lines on the water, as applies in the Tasmanian model. In addition, Mr Day explained that the Commonwealth and Tasmanian scallop fisheries differ because of the large commitment for operators to fish Bass Strait due to the higher costs than fishing off the coast of Tasmania, therefore implies less risk to the stock of over-exploitation.
After a brief discussion, ScallopRAG agreed to revise the AFMA proposal in order to better incorporate their concerns with the current strategy in an alternative RAG proposal. A copy of the RAG proposal is at Attachment 4.
Mr Marton noted that there needed to be a balance between getting management costs to an acceptable level and ensuring among other things that there is sufficient data to monitor the fishery.
Industry members explained that they did not agree with “locking up” 500 tonnes as they felt that closing areas has not helped the fishery in the past. Dr Semmens was of the view that the Harvest Strategy should move away from closing areas of a certain biomass tonnage per se, and move towards the ability to maintain density through closing beds of highly dense scallops. The basis for this position was research on scallops and other bivalves has shown that the denser scallops are, the better conditions were for recruitment. Dr Marton questioned the basis for closing 500 tonnes to fishing and also questioned the application of the dredge efficiency factor when surveying and setting TACs for the fishery. In order to keep costs down, there was discussion about doing two-yearly surveys, however industry suggested that any closed area needs to be surveyed every year as the scallops condition and abundance is so variable.
There was also discussion about issuing a low TAC during a survey period where operators fish their own quota within zones, with real time monitoring, as is done in Tasmania. Under this model, once the TAC is caught, the area is closed and a structured survey is conducted in order to set the TAC for the rest of the season. This is largely self-managed by industry. However Mr Shanks explained that as long as there are lines on the water management costs will remain high.
The ScallopRAG discussed the appropriateness of the 2,500t trigger limit for the proposed transition from Tier 2 to Tier 1 in the AFMA proposal. Dr Semmens explained that 2,500t not actually been caught in the fishery in recent times (the last time was in 1997) and that Tier 1 arrangements should be able to be accessed at a more achievable trigger level. The industry participants agreed, explaining that during productive seasons, the economics restrict fishing at very high levels. The RAG agreed that an upper limit of 2,000t is a more realistic figure to trigger Tier 1 arrangements. The RAG also agreed to adopt the starting TAC at 1,000t under Tier 2 arrangements under the revised RAG proposal.
The RAG also agreed that the 500t of mature scallops protected by closures could be split between two beds as the closure of a number of small dense beds was preferred to the closure of one large bed of lower density. It was identified that this arrangement would spread the risk of a die-off event in a protected bed. Industry participants accepted the 500t closed area under Tier 2 arrangements as long as the criteria was worded as “500t of mature scallops that are greater than 85mm” and the 20% discard rule did not apply. Dr Semmens also suggested the addition of density in the criteria.
The ScallopRAG moved to discussing the density paper. Dr Semmens explained that in his paper he recommended a density of one scallop per m2 but acknowledged this would be rare based on current knowledge. Dr Semmens explained that to work out density, an abundance survey is required which can be undertaken when surveying for biomass. Dr Semmens agreed to provide some guidance on defining density requirements in the RAG proposal. Dr Semmens also noted that in Tasmania, some surveys are undertaken without scientists, and it could be possible for the BSCZSF industry to conduct surveys themselves. Mr Jarvis explained that Bob Lister coordinates the vessels and records catches for surveys in the Tasmanian Scallop Fishery.
Dr Semmens and Mr Jarvis explained that in the Tasmanian model the industry is able to search for potential beds while fishing in zoned areas under a 50t TAC under a research permit. Industry then implement a voluntary closure once the 50t TAC has been reached in each area. The Scallop Fishery Advisory Committee identifies beds for IMAS to survey using industry vessels. Most of the area is then closed apart from the surveyed beds.
The RAG liked the Tasmanian model for searching for the bed under an initial low TAC but some members preferred the ‘most open, little closed’ approach following the identification of scallop beds available to close to fishing. Industry members also suggested implementing a competitive TAC and research quota across different zones during the research period in order to spread effort. The RAG suggested that issuing research quota under a competitive TAC would not be management intensive and would provide incentive for operators to search for beds. AFMA would send out an EOI for the ability to fish under the competitive TAC and operators who sign up will be able to fish the research quota under a permit. Mr Shanks recommended a TAC of 20 tonnes per area as it is precautionary enough not to affect a bed, but high enough to provide incentive to fish. It was also suggested that higher TACs be set for the western zones as this area is particularly data poor and a higher TAC would provide more incentive to fish these areas.
Industry recommended the BSCZSF be divided into five zones based on fishing effort, and potential beds. The zones and research TACs that were agreed by the RAG are outlined in Attachment 4.
The RAG suggested a one month survey period from 1 April which could be extended if needed. An earlier survey start date was discussed however this was a busy time for crayfish fishing and the scallops are generally not in good condition early in the season so the RAG agreed on April as a start.
The approximate time frame that was recommended was:
· 1 April – survey period starts (can be expanded past one month if needed).
· May (first 2-3 weeks) – Dr Semmens analyses data (Note that, based on industry advice, surveying can start as soon as a bed is identified to confirm if there will be a season)
· RAG/MAC meeting to agree to open season – end of May
· Decision to open fishery – mid to late June (or earlier if survey results in earlier)
The RAG agreed that under the RAG proposal once the season was open, a 1,000t TAC would apply to the fishery that could be increased when 80% was reached. The RAG and MAC would decide on how much to increase the TAC by, to a maximum of 2000t, based on the length of season remaining and expected catches.