AUSTRALIAN WILDCATCH FISHING'S COMMITMENT:

Australian Wildcatch Fishing strives to reduce the impact of fishing activities on the environment.
We work alongside the South East Trawl Fishing Industry Association (SETFIA) towards a more sustainable future within the fishing industry.

For us this is more than just a statement, this is what we do,

We:

1.      Help obtain the best available data by ensuring that all our vessels fully report retained and discarded catch, effort and TEP (threatened, endangered and protected species) interactions - this data will inform science making it the best it can be.

2.      Take a leading role within industry to develop behaviours and devices to reduce trawling's impacts on fish stocks, TEPs and the seafloor.

3.      Abide by SETFIA codes of conduct.

4.      Train crew in ways that will be improve our environmental performance.

5.      Through SETFIA, be fearless within resource assessment groups (RAGs), management advisory committees (MACs) and regulator-industry co-management agreements, tell the truth and make hard decisions where they are required
To find out more please click on the link to SETFIA www.setfia.org.au<http://www.setfia.org.au> SETFIA is a not-for-profit Industry Association representing quota owners, fisherman and sellers in the South East Trawl Fishery.
How the fishery is managed:
The fishery is managed by quotas or Total Allowable Catches (TACs).  A harvest strategy is a pre-determined statement of the biomass level, or sometimes risk, at which fish stocks will be maintained.  Stock assessments tell managers where a fish stock is sitting relative to the harvest strategy's goals. These stock assessments are completed by independent researchers operating under contract to AFMA.  A group called the Resource Assessment Groups (RAG) guides this work and then gives scientific advice to the Fisheries Commission.

Another group called the South East Management Advisory Committee (SEMAC) gives "management" advice to the Commission.

Both the RAG and the SEMAC are composed of fisheries scientists, assessment scientists, Government Agencies and commercial fishing industry conservation representatives.
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Ultimately the Fisheries Commission makes management decisions based on this advice including the setting of TACs.
Stocks that are caught and not assessed by specific stock assessments are managed via something called an ecological risk assessments (ERAs). An ERA is a risk management process that considers a stocks life history, the level of catch and how available to fishing it is (closures).
TEPs are managed in a variety of ways.  Species like seabirds are managed using mitigation devices.  All TEP interactions must be reported and are declared publicly on the Department of the Environment website.​

VISIT THE SETFIA WEBSITE

HISTORY OF SCIENTIFIC SURVEYS PROUDLY UNDERTAKEN BY AUSTRALIAN WILDCATCH FISHING.

History of surveys:
Australian Wildcatch Fishing has conducted a variety of research surveys for AFMA, MAFRI, FRDC
and SETFIA.
Research surveys ranged from East/West stock assessments for quoted species, bycatch and
byproduct species to SESSF Fishery Independent Survey which provide abundance indices for
recovering species which have a Bycatch TAC.
 
Research surveys conducted:
MAFRI Port Phillip Bay Anchovy Survey
SESSF Fishery Independent Survey both Summer and Winter
FRDC Mackeral and Egg Survey
SETFIA East Coast Orange Roughy Stock Survey