Ecological assessment of the Queensland inshore ...

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Ecological assessment of the Queensland River and Inshore (Beam) Trawl Fishery A report to the Australian Government Department of Environment and Heritage on the ecologically sustainable management of a multi-species microscale fishery

Amy Kingston Department of Primary Industries and Fisheries With contributions from Brad Zeller, Jeffrey Bibby, Clare Bullock, Brooke Young, Shane Gaddes, Wez Norris, Mike Dredge and Tony Courtney

June 2004

Ecological Assessment of the River and Inshore (Beam) Trawl Fishery

Table of Contents Introduction ...............................................................................................................7 Description of the Fishery .........................................................................................8 Introduction ...............................................................................................................8 Species Targeted and Retained by the Fishery......................................................10 Fishery Sectors .......................................................................................................14 Management Arrangements For The Fishery .........................................................14 Queensland Government Legislation and Management.........................................14 The Trawl Plan........................................................................................................15 Licensing.................................................................................................................16 Fishing Method .......................................................................................................17 History of the Fishery ..............................................................................................17 Recreational Catch .................................................................................................18 Indigenous Catch ....................................................................................................18 Markets ...................................................................................................................19 The Environment Likely to be affected by the Fishery ............................................19 Assessment of the Management Regime for the Queensland River and Inshore (Beam) Trawl Fishery against General Requirements of the Ecological Assessment Guidelines ...............................................................................................................20 Take into account arrangements in other jurisdictions, and adhere to arrangements established under Australian Laws and International agreements .........................20 Be Documented, Publicly Available and Transparent.............................................21 Be Developed Through a Consultative Process Providing Opportunity to all Interested and Affected Parties, Including the General Public................................21 Ensure that a Range of Expertise and Community Interests are involved in Individual Fishery Management Committees and During the Stock Assessment Process ...................................................................................................................22 Be Strategic, Containing Objectives and Performance Criteria by Which the Effectiveness of the Management Arrangements are Measured............................22 Be Capable of Controlling the Level of Harvest in the Fishery Using Input and/or Output Controls.......................................................................................................23 Contain the Means of Enforcing Critical Aspects of the Management Arrangements ................................................................................................................................23 Compliance Levels ..............................................................................................24 Serious Fisheries Offences .................................................................................24 Emergencies Fisheries Declarations ...................................................................24 Provide for the Periodic Review of the Performance of the Fishery Management Arrangements and the Management Strategies, Objectives and Criteria...............25 Be Capable of Assessing, Monitoring and Avoiding, Remedying or Mitigating any Adverse Impacts on the Wider Marine Ecosystem in which the Target Species Lives and the Fishery Operates ..............................................................................25 Comply with Relevant Threat Abatement Plans, Recovery Plans, the National Policy on National Policy on Fisheries Bycatch, and Bycatch Action strategies Developed Under that Policy ..................................................................................26 Threat Abatement Plans......................................................................................26 Recovery Plans ...................................................................................................26 The National Policy on Fisheries Bycatch ...........................................................27 Ecological Assessment of the Fishery ....................................................................28 Assessment of the Management Regime against Principle 1.................................28 Management of Target (Principal) Species.............................................................28 Information Requirements.......................................................................................28 Guideline 1.1.1. ................................................................................................28 Fishery Information Collection Systems ..............................................................28

Ecological Assessment of the River and Inshore (Beam) Trawl Fishery

Fishery Dependent Data......................................................................................29 Fishery Independent Data ...................................................................................30 Assessments...........................................................................................................31 Guideline 1.1.2. ................................................................................................31 Statewide Condition and Trend Reporting...........................................................31 Stock Status and Dynamics.................................................................................31 Guideline 1.1.3 . ...............................................................................................34 Distribution and Spatial Structure of Target Stocks ................................................34 Guideline 1.1.4. ................................................................................................34 Estimates of Fishery Removals ..............................................................................34 Guideline 1.1.5. ................................................................................................36 Management Responses ........................................................................................37 Guideline 1.1.6 .................................................................................................37 Guideline 1.1.7. ................................................................................................39 Management Controls.............................................................................................39 Effort Capping and Reduction.................................................................................39 Closures..................................................................................................................40 Recreational Fishery ...............................................................................................41 Management of Non-target (By-product) Species ..................................................41 Guideline 1.1.8 . ...............................................................................................41 Information Requirements ......................................................................................41 Assessments ..........................................................................................................43 Management Responses ........................................................................................45 Management Controls ............................................................................................46 Guideline 1.1.9. ................................................................................................47 Evaluation of Management Measures ....................................................................47 Precautionary Recovery Strategies ........................................................................49 Guideline 1.2.1. ................................................................................................49 Guideline 1.2.2. ................................................................................................49 Assessment of the Management Regime Against Principle 2 ................................51 Threats to Bycatch Species ....................................................................................51 Information Requirements ......................................................................................51 Guideline 2.1.1. ................................................................................................51 Bycatch Composition ..............................................................................................51 Fishery Dependent Information...............................................................................51 Fishery Independent Information ............................................................................52 A Synopsis of RITF Bycatch Research Findings .................................................52 Assessments ..........................................................................................................54 Guideline 2.1.2. ................................................................................................54 Management Responses ........................................................................................55 Guideline 2.1.3 .................................................................................................55 Legislated Measures...............................................................................................55 Bycatch Reduction Target ...................................................................................55 Trawl Closures.....................................................................................................55 Effort Reduction...................................................................................................56 Bycatch Reduction Devices.................................................................................56 BRD Compliance .................................................................................................56 Adoption of Other Measures ...................................................................................56 Enforcement............................................................................................................57 Guideline 2.1.4 .................................................................................................57 Monitoring and Indicator Species............................................................................57 Guideline 2.1.6 .................................................................................................58 Evaluation of Management Measures ....................................................................58 Protected Species and Communities......................................................................59 Information Requirements ......................................................................................59 Guideline 2.2.1 .................................................................................................59 Final Submission

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Ecological Assessment of the River and Inshore (Beam) Trawl Fishery

Assessments ..........................................................................................................59 Guideline 2.2.2. ................................................................................................59 Sea Turtles ..........................................................................................................59 Guideline 2.2.3. ................................................................................................63 Management Responses ........................................................................................63 Guideline 2.2.4 .................................................................................................63 Sea Snakes .........................................................................................................63 Guideline 2.2.5 .................................................................................................64 Guideline 2.2.6 .................................................................................................64 Evaluation of Management Measures ....................................................................64 Ecosystem Impacts.................................................................................................65 Information Requirements ......................................................................................65 Information Sources................................................................................................65 Assessment ............................................................................................................66 Guideline 2.3.2 .................................................................................................66 Impacts on Ecological Communities .......................................................................66 Impacts on Food Chains .........................................................................................66 Impacts on the Physical Environment.....................................................................66 Management Responses ........................................................................................67 Guideline 2.3.3 .................................................................................................67 Minimisation and Mitigation of Impacts ...................................................................67 Guideline 2.3.4 .................................................................................................68 Guideline 2.3.5. ................................................................................................68 References .............................................................................................................69 Abbreviations and Acronyms ..................................................................................74 Appendix 1 - OT07 and OT08.................................................................................75 Appendix 2 - Australian distribution of species taken in the fishery ........................83 Appendix 3 - Review Events under the Trawl Plan.................................................84 Appendix 4 - Maps of each fishery symbol in the RITF: T5–T9 ..............................86 Appendix 5 - Criteria for Removal of Permitted Fish...............................................92 Appendix 6 – Criteria for initial assessment of a proposal to retain species not currently retained or increase current exploitation rates of Permitted species (including upgrading to principal fish.......................................................................93 Appendix 7 Maps of Closed Waters in the RITF.....................................................94

Final Submission

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Ecological Assessment of the River and Inshore (Beam) Trawl Fishery

List of Tables Table 2.1 Fishery performance indicators for the RITF from 1988 to 2002. Source data – CFISH database. ......................................................................................11 Table 2.2 Active licences in the RITF as of the 2003-11-25 ......................................16 Table 3.1 Compliance data for the RITF 2002/2003 (Source: QFBP) .......................24 Table 4.1. Management responses appropriate to the spatial structure of principal species. ...............................................................................................................35 Table 4.2 Harvest of Principal species in the RITF 1988-2002 (kg)...........................37 Table 4.3 By-product harvested in the RITF in 2002. ...............................................42 Table 4.4 Management responses appropriate to the spatial structure of by-product species ................................................................................................................46 Table 5.1 Compliance data for the RITF 2002/2003 (Source: QFBP) .......................57 Table 5.2 Risk Assessment for seabirds in the RITF .................................................61

List of Figures Figure 2.1 Distribution of the River and Inshore (Beam) Trawl Fishery (T5-T9). (For more detailed maps of each RITF area see Appendix 4). ........................................ 9 Figure 2.2 Primary School prawn distribution (Source: Coastal Habitat Resource Information System (CHRIS)). ..................................................................................... 12 Figure 2.3 Primary Greasyback prawn distribution (Source: Coastal Habitat Resource Information System (CHRIS)). ..................................................................................... 13 Figure 2.4 Beam trawl apparatus (DPI&F)........................................................................ 17 Figure 4.1 Number of fishery symbols issued per year for the RITF. ........................... 40

Final Submission

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Ecological Assessment of the River and Inshore (Beam) Trawl Fishery

1. Introduction Under the Commonwealth’s Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999, to be exempt from export controls for native species harvested in a fishery, management agencies must demonstrate that the fishery is managed in an ecologically sustainable way. The Department of the Environment and Heritage (DEH) has prepared publicly available guidelines, ‘Guidelines for the Ecologically Sustainable Management of Fisheries’ (The Guidelines) on which management agencies are required to base their submissions. This document is the Queensland Government’s submission to Department of Environment and Heritage for the River and Inshore (Beam) Trawl Fishery (RITF). It has been prepared by the Department of Primary Industries and Fisheries (DPI&F). The DPI&F manages the fishery in Queensland waters under the Fisheries Act 1994. The document is divided into sections based on these guidelines, preceded by an introductory description of the fishery. For the purposes of ecological assessment of Queensland-managed trawl fisheries, the Queensland East Coast Trawl Fishery (QECTF) has been divided into four components: The East Coast Otter Trawl Fishery (ECOTF) The River and Inshore (Beam) Trawl Fishery (RITF) The Moreton Bay Trawl Fishery The Finfish (Stout Whiting) Trawl Fishery Unless otherwise indicated this document relates to the RITF. The assessment of the RITF deals with the operations of ‘T5’, ‘T6’, ‘T7’, ‘T8’ and ‘T9’ fishing vessel licences endorsed to use beam trawling gear. This document should be read in conjunction with relevant Queensland fisheries legislation in order that all management arrangements applied to the fishery are fully considered. Specific mention of the following terms: ‘Fisheries Act’, ‘Regulations’ and ‘Trawl Plan’ make reference to the following respective Queensland Government legislation: Fisheries Act 1994 Fisheries Regulation 1995 Fisheries (East Coast Trawl) Management Plan 1999 and its amendments.

Final Submission

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Ecological Assessment of the River and Inshore (Beam) Trawl Fishery

2. Description of the Fishery Introduction The River and Inshore (Beam) Trawl Fishery (RITF) is a relatively small yet important component of the Queensland East Coast Trawl Fishery (QECTF) harvesting 5% of QECTF’s total catch. Trawling occurs in rivers and inshore waters of the Queensland east coast between the Townsville region (19qS) and Moreton Bay (27q 30’S) producing an average annual catch of approximately 400 tonnes of prawns and approximately 10 tonnes of by-product. The fishery is defined by the use of beam trawl gear within prescribed geographic boundaries (see Figure 2.1, for more detail see Appendix 4). Boats used in the fishery in 2003 are set up as day boats. They vary between small (