An ecological-economic approach to fisheries investment where latent effort exists: sustainability implications for the Great Barrier Reef reef-line fishery (E2.1.16/1S)

Task leader: Mr Geoffrey Muldoon, CRC Reef and James Cook University.

Task associate: Mr Martin Russell, Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority .

While an understanding of the biological effects of fishing upon fish stocks is essential for managing fisheries, it is equally important to have a grasp of the socio-economic characteristics of fishery users to guide management decisions. The emergence of the 'high value-added' live reef-fish trade has stimulated significant changes in the reef-line fishery and highlighted the need to better understand socio-economic aspects of this fishery.

Interviews were conducted with both live and non-live commercial line fishers between Cairns and Gladstone to collect information on: the industry response to the live trade; factors influencing the decision to switch to live fishing or not; and financial characteristics of the different types of fishing operations.

Results indicate a substantial shift to live fishing made up of new and existing fishers some of which has been linked to increases in fishery-wide effort. The operational characteristics of ‘live’ operations differ significantly from the more traditional frozen operations (crew demographics, trip length, annual days fished, port affinity) although there are no regional (north and south) differences in the fleets of either operation type.

The determinants of investment in live technology are both economic (value of product, cost of conversion to live) and operational (size of vessel, number of tenders. They also show that the profitability of vessels targeting live product is significantly higher than that of vessels who fished solely for frozen product, but that the total catch of ‘live’ operations (frozen and live product) is considerably less than ‘frozen’ operations. These higher profits may provide an incentive for increased fishing effort by existing line fishers as well as those with line endorsements not presently participating in the fishery.

The presence of substantial 'latent effort' in the fishery has added to concerns over impacts these forces may have on the viability of the line fishing industry. This latter finding however, implies that ‘value-adding’ of existing target species and improved extraction per unit of resource may provide an opportunity for effort adjustment that enhances the biological sustainability of target species, while impinging less on social and economic goals.