Major award for project to protect marine species

A Charles Darwin University (CDU) affiliated project aimed at gathering the knowledge of fishers for the conservation of threatened, endangered, and protected (TEPS) marine species has been recognised at a prestigious national award ceremony.

The project, Professional fishers’ knowledge to inform Research and Management of Sawfish and River Sharks, won the Research Development and Extension Award at the National Seafood Industry Awards recently held in Hobart.

The project was led by the Northern Territory Seafood Council in partnership with the Australian Institute of Marine Science and CDU and funded by an Australian Marine Parks grant from the Australian Government.

It focused on improving the current knowledge of Green Sawfish, Dwarf Sawfish, Largetooth Sawfish, Narrow Sawfish, Northern River Shark, and Speartooth Shark found in the fishing grounds of three NT commercial fishery sectors: barramundi, coastal net, and offshore net and line.

Project team member Professor Natasha Stacey, a marine social scientist from CDU’s Research Institute for the Environment and Livelihoods said the award recognised the importance collaborating with industry to create a sustainable commercial fishing industry.

“The award recognizes the benefits of collaboration between industry and multidisciplinary researchers to create knowledge and shared learnings, and establishing pathways for future collaborative participatory fisheries research and management in the NT,” Professor Stacey said.

The project used a combination of traditional scientific ecological data and fisher knowledge drawing on fishers extensive observations over extended periods collated through interviews with professional fishers to reveal insights into the locations of certain species and their behaviour.

The project highlighted the importance of integrating fisher knowledge with scientific research to effectively manage TEPS within coastal regions of Northern Australia. Fisher knowledge helped produce species-specific maps, identifying hotspots where species are found.

“This project, to the best of our knowledge is the first time consideration of commercial fishers knowledge about TEPS has been shared and documented,” Professor Stacey said.

“Fishers are traditionally wary of sharing catch information about their livelihoods that maybe used against them but implementing an open and clear consent process with fishers assisted in building trust for data sharing.”

The project was also recognised at the 2024 NT Seafood Industry Awards, receiving the Research, Development & Extension Award sponsored by the Fisheries Research and Development Corporation.

The project outputs was explored in a recent documentary titled Project Sawfish.

This story was originally published in CDU Uni News November 2024 edition