Provision of Economic Research to the South Australian Fisheries

The major fisheries that will be part of the contract are:

• Southern and Northern rock lobster fisheries;
• Spencer Gulf, West Coast and Gulf St Vincent prawn fisheries;
• Abalone fishery;
• Pilchard fishery;
• Marine Scalefish fishery;
• Blue crab fishery;
• Inland waters fishery; and
• Lakes and Coorong fishery.

Each fishery currently operates within a Scheme of Management or a Fishery Management Plan that provides the strategic directions and management measures used to meet the objectives of management. Annual performance indicators, including economic and social indicators, are an essential feature of the management plans.

For the Minister for Agriculture, Food and Fisheries to meet the requirements of section 20 of the Fisheries Act 1982, an annual writen report on each of the above fisheries must include economic indicators. Further, the Fishery Management Committees for each of the above fisheries requires economic indicators to report on the economic performance of the fishery.

The contractor will be required to negotiate with each FMC at the start of the contract and subsequently when required, the following:

• An FMC Reference Group to support the contractor;
• The specific core data and fishery specific date requirements of the FMC that matches the management cycle of the FMC;
• The process for collection of core data and fishery specific data requirements of the FMC and the role of the FMC in ensuring that the economic services contract inputs, processes and outputs are owned by the FMC and industry;
• The reporting schedule of interim report(s) for management planning processes to be based on the explicit timing requirements for each fishery. (For example, before and after a fishing season, matching the timing of stock assessment and stock status reports and meeting the demands of cost recovery, etc).

The contents and timing of the final report will be negotiated with PIRSA and set at the commencement of each financial year in consultation with FMC.