Victoria's abalone Industry - background

Background

work boat under wayVictoria now provides over 12 % of the worlds production of wild caught abalone and is considered to have one of the few remaining sustainable fisheries. The main reason for this is the leadership, stewardship and commitment provided by the commercial abalone industry in ensuring that the abalone resources in Victoria remain sustainable.

The Abalone industry commenced in Victoria in 1962, growing through the 1960's, and involving up to 300 divers in 1968, it was characterised by instability, poor quality control, fluctuating markets and inconsistent catches.

Australian Seafood Diving technology was primitive, ineffective and in many instances extremely dangerous. Working with homemade compressors, from beaches using non-floating hoses, snorkelling from rocky shorelines and using inflated tractor tubes to fish the inside reefs of enclosed bays.
Screwdrivers and levers were used to pry the abalone from the reefs, filling up to six Potato sacks. The shore crew pulled the diver and his catch by the hose line, hand over hand, through the surf zone, to land the catches.
The catches were then man handled along the beaches and up high cliffs to open flat bed tray trucks for delivery to the factories for processing. All this made diving for abalone an exhausting and risky business.
The introduction of boats, new compressors hoses (and the overall improvement of the other types of diving equipment), and armed with a significantly better understanding of dive medicine and its effects on the body, has made commercial abalone diving considerably safer occupation today than it historically was.

In the early 1960's at the beginning of the abalone fishery, there was little understanding as to the principles of ESD (Ecological Sustainable Development), and EBFM (Eco-system Based Fisheries Management) but even with this lack of knowledge, the ability to see, touch and observe abalone in their natural environment, allowed the industry members to observe their impacts on the; resource. This saw the industry promoting and seeking regulated restrictions on effort and participation from as early as 1965 and by 1968 had introduced the first voluntary unregulated measures to protect abalone stocks.

This stewardship and commitment to protecting the sustainability of the abalone resources in Victoria, through voluntary measures over and above those regulated requirements has continued to the present day. These have included: closing of areas to fishing, to the introduction of catch limits to prevent the large footprint effects on reefs from daily harvesting activities, to larger voluntary size limits, to the moving of effort and controlling of the amounts of abalone harvested from each location or reef code.

Historically, as the voluntary measures have proved themselves, the abalone industry has worked with Government and the Fisheries Department to move the voluntary measures and initiatives to the more formalised structure of regulation.

Abalone is one of the most expensive seafood's in Australia and because it is of such high value, the Victorian abalone fishery is one of the most highly regulated fisheries in Australia. To date industry has promoted and encouraged these regulations in order to protect the long term viability of the fishery.

The abalone fishery is responsible for approximately $75,000,000 exports annually from Victoria. On top of this the abalone industry has returned approximately $45,000,000.00 to the Victorian community over the past 10 years, through the cost recovery process, of which approximately $20,000,000.00 has been over and above the costs for managing, researching and enforcement of the industry. In addition to the licence fees paid, the abalone industry has spent an additional amount of approximately $5,500,000.00 to further bolster research, workshops, management, communication and enforcement for the fishery over the same period.

With this considerable focus of effort and investment, VADA (with the rest of the Victorian abalone industry) is committed to ensuring the sustainability of the abalone fishery on behalf of its members and all Victorians. This will continue to see Victoria as having one of the last sustainable abalone fisheries in the world.

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Victorian Abalone Divers Assoc Inc (VADA)

The Victorian Abalone Divers Association Incorporated (VADA) was first formed in the early 1970's and Incorporated in October 1987. VADA's was first established to represent the interests of the catching sector for the whole of commercial abalone Industry.
Over time and with the changing nature of the abalone fishery VADA has developed to represent a wide range of members with broad areas of interest. VADA also now welcomes membership from Associated industry sectors as well as Ordinary members of the community with an interest in the sustainability and stewardship of Victoria's abalone resources.

Workshop 2006 VADA operates through an executive Board of Management which is appointed from within the members of the Association. Currently there is the requirement that there are 8 board members of which a minimum of 2 must be owners of an Abalone Fishery Access Licence (AFAL) or quota owners and a minimum of 2 abalone divers.

The VADA board members are appointed for a period of 2 years at the Annual General Meetings, with 50 % of the positions standing for appointment each year. This ensures that there is continuity in the structure and management of the Association. The Board of Management is committed to open and transparent processes and structures within the organisation and in order to facilitate this they have developed significant policies and delegations structures which are reviewed regularly.

Throughout the history of the Victorian abalone industry, members have worked hard to protect the abalone resources and ensure their sustainability. This stewardship was developed through the intimate contact divers have with the marine environment when they harvest abalone.
This process of consultation and implementation with Government and the Department of Primary Industry (Fisheries Department) has also seen the development and ongoing revision of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) that directs and controls the fishing activity for abalone, along large areas of the Victorian coast

Recent years has seen VADA more actively involved in Resource development and research and development. The investment in design and construction of data loggers has given us the ability record the time, date, location and structure of abalone catches, establishment of Resource Development workshops, has assisted us to further empower all stakeholders in resource management strategies. VADA's commitment of significant resources has enabled us to fill areas of identified gaps in the research areas.

VADA also works closely with Seafood Industry Victoria (SIV), VADA is a member body of the fishing industries peak body and is actively involved in SIV's Abalone Committee. Through this involvement, VADA has seen through significant changes such as bin sealing and beach weighing of abalone catches. Recently developing a significant investment in abalone resource sustainability and stewardship through developing of the resource development levy paid for by the abalone industry.

VADA is committed to maintaining the Victorian Abalone Fishery as the most valuable sustainable fishery in the state of Victoria. To do this VADA has developed a 5 year plan to develop and enhance the industries capacity through training and education of all stakeholders and industry participants to boost understanding, and to further encourage the commitment to the stewardship roles industry plays.

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Beach Scene

Abalone Industry Summary

Abalone Fishery Access Licences (AFAL)

Management Zones

Total Allowable Catch (TAC)

Diver

Historical Changes within the Industry

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Victorian Abalone Processors

Historically there has been as many as 42 abalone processors at one time. At this time the processing of abalone, made up a small proportion of total seafood production, with only 3 or 4 processors specialising in abalone production. In approximately 1992 after representation to the DPI by the specialist processors, FV implemented a $20,000 fee to become a licensed abalone processor. This forced businesses to consider the amount of profitability to be obtained from processing abalone. This saw the total numbers of licensed abalone processors drop from approximately 42 to approximately 14 over night.

It is a condition of holding an AFAL that all abalone caught in Victoria are sold to a Victorian Abalone Processor. There is currently 19 Victorian abalone processors in Victoria, with over 90 % of the Victorian TAC processed by 7 of these.

Current Legislative Restrictions for Victorian Abalone Industry

Victorian Abalone Fishery Management Plan (VAFMP)

Cost Recovery and Royalty

The abalone industry is the only fishery in Victoria that pays 100 % of the Fisheries Departments attributable costs for managing the fishery. As well as paying 100 % of the attributable costs, the abalone industry has paid a Royalty payment back to the community for over 15 years. This royalty payment is paid as a percentage of GVP on each kilogram harvested by the industry.

The abalone industry has made royalty Payments of over $25,000,000.00 to the community over the last 10 years, as well as paying all its attributable costs.

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Need for Resource Development

Introduction

The abalone industry has always been progressive and tried to ensure the sustainability of the resources. In 1999 - 2000 it was recognised that managing the abalone resource on a wide scale whole of zone basis was not working. This coupled with external pressure from abalone thieves and traffickers. Early signs of serial depletion were beginning to appear. Whilst there had been a long standing effort to try and get extra resources into stopping the illegal trafficking of abalone products, the industry decided to look at itself to try and address the effects that were occuring.

Serial Depletion

The abalone fishery depends on the appropriate distribution of fishing pressure or effort over the whole of the abalone producing reef areas within each of the management zones. If this effort is not distributed correctly, then the sustainability of the abalone resources and fishery are placed under enormous pressure.

This distribution of effort is called rotation, and the time taken for individual abalone reefs to recover from the effects of harvesting, vary from 6 to 24 months. Broadly reefs can be interpreted as slow, medium and fast recovery reefs.

If harvesting is not rotated correctly, this puts pressure on the abalone stocks left behind (if any) and the reef starts to suffer a slow grinding down effect to the abalone stocks on the reef. If the divers continue to put pressure on the stocks by continually picking away at the remaining abalone, this will lead to serial depletion.

Abalone on reefs suffering from serial depletion, have insufficient time to grow, mature or breed, so they can contribute to the replenishment of abalone stocks to the reefs.

Serial depletion occurs in areas where divers or abalone thieves continually go back to harvest abalone on a particular reef or location on a regular basis, with little regard to stock levels or harvesting pressure or the effects of not rotating the fishing effort. If this fishing effort continues unabated, the abalone stocks on the reef collapse, and the reef is no longer able to support any fishing effort.

Once a reef is unable to support effort, divers then move on to the next closest reef or most protected reef (from weather conditions) and place / transfer the additional pressure on these reefs, this means that the reef is now supporting the additional effort as well as the fishing effort that it already had. This then leads to the collapse of this reef, and so on as the cycle continues and spiral downwards as each area successively collapses through the displacement of fishing pressure.

In 2001 in recognition of these developing issues and with concerns for ensuring the sustainability of the Victorian Abalone resources, VADA began a resource development strategy to try to identify indicators and causes of serial depletion. Identify avoidable fishing practises that may lead to, or contribute to serial depletion.This led to the first Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between VADA and Fisheries Victoria to cap the maximum catches of abalone that could be taken from Port Phillip Bay.

A short time after implementation it was realised that the effort displaced out of Port Phillip Bay was being pushed onto a number of closer reefs with adverse effects. The MOU was expanded to take in 7 areas in the Central Zone, it has since been expanded to take in 12 areas, and it is likely that it will have to be expanded to make up 15 areas in the Central Zone by the beginning of the 2006 season.

The effects of serial depletion not only effect the abalone industry, the sustainability of Victoria's abalone resources but also threatened the amount of return or royalty the abalone industry pays back to the community. To help try and address these concerns of sustainability, industry in co-operation with Fisheries Victoria commenced a process of identification of as many of the risks to the abalone resource as possible, and then develop methods to address these risks over time. Part of the process was also to ensure that the major risks to sustainability are dealt with as quickly as possible.

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Identified Contributing Causes

Research Needs

As a result of reviews of abalone stocks and biology it became apparent that a number of keystones that the abalone industry used such as Legal Minimum Lengths (LML) and spatial management of the abalone harvested, were not providing the levels of protection that was assumed by industry. As such, these keystones of managing the fishery were / are in serious needs of review. The industry was able to identify a number of key research areas that needed to be reviewed, these included

Spatial Management

In 1970 the Victorian abalone fishery was divided into 3 management zones, since that period of time each of the zones have been managed as one whole area with the abalone stocks treated as one fishery within the zone. One or 2 size limits were set, with little information as to the suitability of the LML to the abalone stocks they were applied.

Recently it has been realised that rather than being one large amorphous stock, that acts and reproduces over large areas of Victoria as fin fish species do. Abalone populations are very localised, separate and reproduce over tens of metres, rather than tens or hundreds of kilometres. (Dr. J. Prince ) This means that within a kilometre of coast or reef area there are many different individual abalone populations, with vastly different needs, growth rates and rotational cycles

Because each individual abalone stock is operating on a much smaller scale of reproduction and biology than was first recognised, the Victorian abalone industry in cooperation with the Fisheries Victoria as well as researches from PIRVic and Melbourne University have focused on trying to develop new methods of fisheries management than previously used.

These new methods of management are still being developed, focused on ensuring that the decisions to make sure the abalone stocks are sustainable, are made at the biological level of the individual abalone stocks. This is currently referred to as fine scale spatial management.

Fine scale spatial management take management of the abalone resource from a zone scale of hundreds of square kilometres of reef, to significantly smaller areas. This development was seen as such an important issue from the Fisheries Research and Development Corporation (FRDC) that they are currently financing a project at confirming and transferring the current information. This 3 year project involves 3 abalone producing States, and is likely to involve the other 2 abalone producing States in the near future.

Length of First Maturity (LOFM)

One of the first steps to managing abalone stocks at a finer scale is to identify the differences in each of each individual stock. This involved identifying stocks with similar growth patterns and characteristics, sampling them to find the average length of first maturity for abalone in each of these stocks.

This information was then used to develop a suggested ideal length that the abalone should be harvested at. In most cases this identified that the Legal Minimum Length was under the suggested length. Whilst the LOFM studies started in 2001 there are still significant areas to be completed. It is expected to take up to 5 more years to obtain sufficient adequate information and coverage.

Growth Rates

As abalone mature at different lengths, they also grow at different rates at each location. Greater research is currently being undertaken to try and identify the rates of growth of the individual stocks as well as the time taken from when an abalone is first deemed to be mature to when it is harvested.

Part of this research shows that if abalone are tagged to try and record growth rates onboard the research vessel (as historically done) rather than in-situ on the reef, that the growth rate may be retarded by as much as 35 %.

To further complicate this issue early research appears to show that the response from abalone left on a reef after harvesting is to grow faster without actually becoming more mature. This relationship is now undergoing further review. (Dr. Robert Day see attached information)

All 3 management zones in the abalone industry have voluntarily increase the size of the abalone they harvest above the LML. Whilst it is recognised that these VML for harvesting abalone will eventually have to be regulated, as they are in flux and generally increasing, it has been agreed with Fisheries Victoria to try and maintain a voluntary code as long as possible to try and bed down a number of initiatives, whilst still maintaining a viable abalone industry.

Education and Training

It has been recognised that there was little understanding by a lot of industry participants as to the effects of fishing activity on the abalone stocks. VADA has developed a series of training and education Resource Development Workshops to try and build the capacity of the abalone industry participants as well as other interested stakeholders.

This process is ongoing, and as part of the finer Spatial Management project sponsored by FRDC a training package and assessment methods are being developed to assist current and future industry participants.

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Resource Development Strategies to Address Sustainability

VADA developed a number of strategies to try and address the sustainability concerns that start to emerge over the last few years. One of the corner stones of developing these strategies was the implementation of Resource Development Workshops.

Resource Development Workshops are conducted in an open and transparent forum at which all industry participants and stakeholders including members and non-members of VADA meet to discuss and tackle issues surrounding the sustainability of the abalone resources. The workshops are open to interested person at no cost,(all costs are met by VADA from membership subscriptions).

There is a great variety of participants including, fishery researchers and biologists, fishery managers, recreational fishers with input and participation actively encouraged.

The format of the workshop generally follows a number of different presentations from different researchers and fishery managers, who raise issues and research outcomes for discussion and consideration. The overall focus is to educate participants as the things that can affect sustainable fishing, new developments in research, and implications of fishing pressure and methods, progress in fishery management issues.

The workshops consider a large number of issues and data to try and assess the status of the abalone resource at any particular time. The data that is considered includes;

The workshop also allows industry and other participants to raise areas and issues of concern in an open manner to encourage collective resolution or planning of new research to provide solutions. This active involvement allows participants to take ownership of the proceedings, but also provide creative solutions to problems.

An example of how this worked was after research was presented as to the depletion of abalone reefs predominantly visited by recreational fishers, the abalone industry agreed to not harvest from those reefs for a period of 2 years. Whilst this has had only a minimal impact on commercial harvesting of abalone, it has allowed these abalone beds the ability to recuperate without pressure from the Commercial sector.

A similar example was the harvesting of greenlip abalone, after a request from DPI Fisheries Victoria, to not harvest greenlip for a period of 2 years, (Historically 3 to 4 ton has been caught annually), industry included in its Code of Practise, a raised VML from 130 mm to 150 mm and a request not to harvest abalone as an incidental catch. This saw catches drop to just over 1 ton in the 1st year and zero in the 2nd.

The workshops are focused at increasing the capacity of industry through, education, awareness and training.The result of the workshops is the development of an "Abalone Handling Code of Practise" which is amended as required.

The Code of Practise is a summary of the results of the resource development workshops into good fishing methods, procedures and practises.

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The Victorian Abalone Divers Association Inc.

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