2007 Program Highlights

2007 proved to be a fairly massive year for OceanWatch Australia. Looking at our key programs, alot has progressed over this time and here are some of the highlights:

SeaNet - further expansion, better coverage

We got two new faces into the team during 2007 and regained one not so new face. Fiona Ewing (Fe) joined the crew and took up the position as the brand new Tasmanian SeaNet Officer. Fe has many years experience working with various parts of the Tasmanian fishing industry and was able to hit the ground running as she was already known and trusted by many Tassie fishermen.

Michael Wooden (AKA Woody) also joined us in 2007. He took on the new role of South East Queensland SeaNet Officer based in Brisbane. This position complimented our northern Queensland Officer and veteran SeaNetter Denis Ballam. Woody gained instant 'cred' with the fishermen in SEQ as he spent alot of his time fishing as part of his Masters research in NSW and could 'walk the talk' so to speak.

Having a long-established SeaNet Officer in the north of Queensland and a new officer in the south, we quickly realised that the big bit of coastline in the middle, still wasn't getting alot of attention, and there were great numbers of fishers in that area, so we restructured Dave Kreutz's role to cover not only the Eastern Tuna and Billfish Fishery, but also the Queensland coast from Bundaberg to Bowen. This happened late in 2007.

Claire van der Geest, who had previously been the South Australian SeaNet Officer, came back to us in 2007. Claire had gone to work in a position with the South Australian Fishing Industry Council (SAFIC), and we somehow convinced her to come back to the SeaNet role. Claire's passion for the position 'overfloweth' and i'm sure the South Australian fishing industry is glad to see her, and her energy, return.

Some of the big SeaNet achievements for the year have included:

• Following three years development, the Marine Scalefish Fishery in SA, a multi method, multi species fishery, implemented an Environmental Management System (EMS). Claire van der Geest our SA SeaNet Officer has been facilitating this process for the fishers and will continue to support and guide the sector into the future.
• The SA Southern Fishermen’s Association is a well known leader, being the first fishery to implement an EMS in the world. Again they are leading small multi method, multi species fisheries through the third party assessment through the Marine Stewardship Council. With Assistance from WWF, the Southern Fishermen’s Association operating as the Lakes and Coorong Fishery is in the final stages of assessment. SeaNet Claire has assisted the group develop their 5 year action plan and carried out negotiations with research providers on their behalf.
• Dave Cranston our NSW SeaNet Officer spent much of 2007 (as well as 2006) travelling up and down the NSW coastline helping fishermen and oyster farmers develop small EMSs and subsequently the Commonwealth Government's EMS Incentives Scheme funding. Overall he assisted over 150 fishers and oyster farmers access around half a million dollars collectively. The funding was spent mainly assisting fishers and farmers to change over their 2 stroke outboard engines to 4 stroke engines which are not only more fuel efficient, but emit far less oil pollution into the water and reduce air pollution. Oyster farmers also used the funding to change over from using tarred oyster poles to plastic baskets, again benefiting estuarine water quality.
• SeaNet Dave was also a catalyst for bringing together a group of oyster farmers on the NSW Clyde River and the Southern Rivers Catchment Management Authority in the development of their 'whole of estuary' EMS. This relationship is now being replicated with other oyster farmers and NRM groups along the NSW coast and the recent NRM Envirofund funding saw many oyster farmers successful in gaining funding to change over from using tarred oyster poles to plastics.
• Our Victorian SeaNet Officer Kate Milner worked with the Victorian Abalone Industry and together they updated their Code of Practice and proactively developed bio-security kits for all commercial divers in Victoria and eastern South Australia. Kits contained items that enabled ease of reporting further spread of the Abalone Viral Ganglioneuritis (AVG) and also details on decontamination and mitigation.
• The West Coast Rock Lobster Managed Fishery Code of Practice for reducing whale entanglements - DVD. The Western Australian Environment Minister David Templeman launched the 15 Minute whale entanglement DVD believed to be a world first, in May this year. This was a collaborative project between the Department of Environment and Conservation, Western Rock Lobster Council, Western Australian Fishing Industry Council and our WA SeaNet Officer Carl Bevilacqua.
• In July 2007 a group of five volunteers led by SeaNet Carl, set out for Dirk Hartog Island to remove accumulated rubbish on the same two beaches visited in 2005. The objective of the project was to assess the recruitment of debris back to this site two years after our initial effort. Carl and the volunteers involved from the 2005 effort, were recipients of the Western Australian Department of Fisheries Reward and Recognition Program 2005/06 in the category of Community and Industry Awards, Community Stewardship Award. The $3500 award received was used to fund the 2007 project.

Tide to Table - expands out of Sydney up the NSW Coast and even heads to Queensland.

Tide to Table was a bit of an experiment a few years ago not only for OceanWatch Australia but for the National Landcare Programme which funds it and the Sydney Metropolitan Catchment Management Authority, who came up with the idea. But the experiment was obviously worthwhile, as Tide to Table has now expanded out of the Sydney region into two new regions in NSW and two regions in Queensland.

The Hawkesbury Nepean Catchment Management Authority and the Hunter Central Rivers Catchment Management Authority now have Tide to Table running in their regions and these projects kicked off this year.

Not to be outdone by NSW, Queensland has also decided to support Tide to Table and so now we also have the program running in the Burnett Mary NRM Region and the Burdekin Dry Tropics NRM Region.

All this new expansion has brought us some dynamic new staff to the team and we are delighted to welcome Bec Nicoll and Carla Wegscheidl to the fold. We have also adopted Scott Machar, who is working for NSW DPI but running the Hunter/Hawkesbury Tide to Table program. He's not really ours but we love him as if he's one of our own!

Carla - Burdekin Dry Tropics NRM	Bec - Burnett Mary Regional Group	Scott - Hawkesbury Nepean / Hunter Central Rivers CMAs

Fish Aid - new name for a veteran program

OceanWatch Australia was established by the NSW fishing industry in 1989 to deal with the issue of sewage ocean outfalls off Sydney. Since that time, OceanWatch Australia has done an enormous amount of work defending fish habitat and clean water for fisheries. This year, we decided to give that part of our work a name and so "Fish Aid - Defending Fish Habitat" was born.

The big achievements for Fish Aid in 2007 have been the development of the Our Valuable Estuaries teaching resource for NSW High Schools which is due for release in 2008. Monique Needham our Fish Aid Program Manager has also been busy this year commenting on various proposals and developments that have great potential to damage fish habitat and water quality including:

• The proposal to dam the Clarence River in northern NSW
• The Pulp Mill in the Tamar Valley, Tasmania
• Sydney Water Corporation's proposed Western Sydney Recycled Initiative: Replacement Flows Project.

Comments have also been made on various government policies including:

• Bycatch Action Plans
• EPBC amendments
• Commonwealth Harvest Strategy
• Review of GBRMPA
• New Marine Parks in NSW
• NSW Maritime’s Draft Land Owner’s Consent Policy
• Review of the National Strategy for the Conservation of Australia's Biological Diversity

TAngler Bins - coming to a boat ramp near you!

The TAngler Bin project really found its feet this year and fishers travelling the NSW coastline can now dispose of their fishing line in the TAngler Bins, knowing that the line will have a second life as recycled fencing posts (see story below for more details).

TAngler Bins can now be found on the coast of the following areas:

• Tweed Local Government Area (LGA)
• Byron LGA
• Clarence LGA
• Wooli (adopted by Wooli Public School)
• Diggers Beach (adopted by National Marine Science Centre)
• Kempsey LGA
• Great Lakes LGA
• East Point (Hawkesbury)
• Hornsby LGA
• Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park
• Pittwater LGA
• Manly LGA
• Rockdale LGA
• Kogara LGA
• Taren Point (adopted by the Sutherland Rec Fishing Club)
• Wollongong LGA
• Lake Illawarra (adopted by the Lake Illawarra Authority)
• Kiama LGA
• Shoalhaven LGA
• Ben Boyd National Park

Other Achievements - helping industry become more sustainable

Sydney fishermen and their bags of old nets and line.

Fishing for Waste - a small trial was held this year in a small number of fishing ports in NSW and Queensland to see if we could organise the logistics of a fishing line and net recycling program. The trial was a success and fishing line and net was picked up from those ports and trucked to Melbourne where it was recycled by Australian Composite Technology into recycled plastic fence posts. 2008 will see the expansion of this initiative which has the potential to save many tonnes of old nets and fishing line from ending up as landfill.

Introduced Marine Pests - OceanWatch Australia was engaged by the Commonwealth Government to develop the communication strategy and communication materials relating to introduced marine pests that will be rolled out to the commercial fishing industry. 2007 saw the development of those materials and the planning of their distribution to industry.

And finally we were delighted this year to welcome a new corporate partner Bluebottle Beer. The guys at Fushion Brewing have created a beer specifically suited to be consumed with seafood and luckily for us, they were also passionate about the sustainability of seafood. So now whenever someone drinks a bottle of Bluebottle Beer, OceanWatch Australia will receive a donation to assist us to further sustainable fishing practices in our oceans and fisheries.