Research Priorities for Understanding Movements of Cross-Jurisdictional Species

Environmental Management

Babcock, Russ ; Pillans, Richard ; Bruce, Barry ; Bradford, Russ

CSIRO Marine and Atmospheric Research

DOI  :  10.4225/08/58557d55e2709
RP-ID  :  EP115651

学科分类：地球科学(综合)

澳大利亚|英语

来源: CSIRO Research Publications Repository

【 摘 要 】

Recent developments in the acoustic tracking of marine species and the deployment of national tracking infrastructure through IMOS/AATAMShas provided an unprecedented opportunity to provide movement information, and to achieve synergies and efficiencies between fisheries research and management organizations across jurisdictions. AATAMS infrastructure includes hundreds of acoustic receivers place around Australia in order to detect the location and movements of fish and sharks implanted with coded acoustic tags,These tags are inexpensive relative to satellite tags, and do not have to be detected from the surface.Development of a coordinated research program by fisheries management agencies also presents synergies and efficiencies for AATAMS, therefore developing a national strategy for tagging an monitoring the movement of key marine species presents a mutually beneficial opportunity. The broad goal of this proposal was to explore and facilitate a national-scale coordinated approach among Australia’s fishery management organizations regarding the key species that should be targeted for research effort in the area of movements of cross-jurisdictional species.This was accomplished through a workshop attended by jurisdictional representatives from all Australian States as well as Commonwealth agencies. The workshop donsidered what the highest priority species for acoutstic tagging and movement information were, based on their biology and overall stock status, as well as the potential risks posed by inconsistent jurisdictional management approaches. It also considered the opportunities presented by acoustic tracking infrastructure, and the potential to further leverage this capability, by assessing the extent to which key species might also match the priorities of AATAMS.While a level of consensus was achieved on what the highest priority species were, based on information need and risk, it was also recognised that there was a mismatch between the highest priority species and available AATAMS infrastructure.High priority species in terms of fisheries management need were often located in areas with poor coverage by infrastructure, and while a number of potential species were common on areas with good infrastructure coverage, there was relatively low management need for many of these species.It was agreed to try to further investigate the potential use ofacoustic tagging and tracking of cross-jurisdictional species by the following approach; first establish whether a clear need and path for uptake of acoustic tagging based movement data could be demonstrated, and based on this develop a clear case to influence the placement of IMOS infrastructure.If both of these objectives can be achieved there would then be a sound basis for developing research programs based on acoustic tagging and tracking of high priority cross jurisdictional species.