A main aim of the Hub’s Off-Reserve Management Program is to develop and test approaches to influence the spatial distribution of fishing effort without complete closures.

These approaches will be necessary if we are to achieve the often conflicting aims of sustainable commercial fisheries and the conservation of high-risk or threatened species. Alternative (or additional) management approaches to marine closures (ie MPAs) were tested for their likelihood of minimising capture of threatened species with minimal loss of access to target species. A major part of the project was to develop methods for predicting the costs of marine spatial management, through an understanding of the spatial redistribution of fishing effort in response to incentives such as decrementing the effort quota by more than one hook per actual hook set in certain areas. The notion is that fishers are discouraged, but not prohibited, from entering an area where there is a high probability of encountering high-risk species. To achieve this, an understanding of fisher decision making is critically important. Hub researchers are working with Marc Mangel, (Distinguished Professor at the University of California, Santa Cruz and a world leader in quantitative ecological modelling), to describe the fleet dynamics of the Eastern Tuna and Billfish Fishery, the case study fishery for the project. This model has been successfully used to predict the economic costs and biodiversity benefits of incentives to reduce the number of hooks fished versus entirely closing areas to the fishery.

Natalie Dowling and Chris Wilcox CSIRO – CERF Off Reserve Management Program