Feed aggregator

Migingo Island is a tiny island in Lake Victoria, about half the size of a football pitch. It’s also one of the last places where numbers of Nile perch remain high; overfishing and pollution have led to dwindling stocks in the rest of the lake. This is one of the reasons why Uganda and Kenya continue to battle over its ownership. But a growing commercial interest in fish farming around the Lake could help ease tensions.

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St Dominic, Tamar Valley Golden light burnishes withered leaves, reflects on the glossy green of ash and enhances the redness of prolific haws

The brilliance of the constellation Orion fades with the onset of dawn. Tawny owl calls echo from the gloom of Radland Valley and the A388 (a mile away) carries the sound of commuting traffic speeding across Viverdon Down.

In the field adjoining home, a rabbit scuttles across dewy grass to the burrowed hedgebank; sheep huddle in a corner, awaiting more light before fanning out to graze the lush aftermath of a hay cut.

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Under the new agreement, developed nations will reduce HFCs 85% below current levels by 2036. How will it work?

AEMO report into blackout suggests fall in wind output, caused by an easily fixed "self protect" mechanism, was main cause of blackout. But wind industry says catastrophic fall in voltage as transmission lines fell was biggest culprit. And everyone wonders why AEMO had no plan B.

Many of the iconic coastal villages of Australia have a close association with professional fishing. In New South Wales, towns up and down the coast historically supported fishing fleets which supplied the seafood needs of locals, Sydney and the broader state community.

But the NSW fishing industry has changed significantly in the past 30 years, in response to a range of environmental and community concerns. People are more worried about the number of fish, habitat impacts, and how access to fish should be allocated.

There have been changes and restrictions on licences and fishing gear, quotas for some species and fisheries, and a substantial reduction in fishing areas through the expansion of marine parks and the creation of recreational fishing havens (where all professional fishing is banned). The number of current fishing licences in NSW is just a quarter of what it was during the industry’s peak in the 1970s and ‘80s.

Estimated NSW fishing licence holders 1881-2016 Wilkinson, 2013, Wilkinson, 1997 and NSW Department of Primary Industries

The industry is currently going through more management changes and an expansion of existing marine reserves into Commonwealth waters.

There will be more challenges in the future. As populations grow, there will be more competition for resources, and pressure from recreational fishers to close more of the ocean to professional fishing. Similar campaigns in Queensland and Victoria have prompted changes to the professional fishing industry, with unknown impacts on local communities. This has led to serious concerns about the ongoing viability of the industry in some regional centres.

How much is fishing worth?

We recently carried out a two-year assessment of the ways professional fishing contributes to the social and economic lives of NSW coastal communities. We assessed how the industry contributes to seven key dimensions of community well-being.

We traversed the NSW coast speaking to the breadth of the community, through interviews and surveys. We found that the industry remains a vital ingredient for maintaining the economic, social and cultural richness of coastal communities.

In particular our approach highlighted the importance of considering both social and economic factors, and the interdependence between sectors, when judging the value of professional fishing to communities.

The economic assessment revealed that the industry contributes more than A$436 million in revenue annually to the NSW economy and accounts for about 3,290 full-time jobs. This includes the fishers, service industries, sales and marketing.

This is a significant increase over previous estimates of the industry’s value, which did not include the “flow on” economic impacts to other businesses that rely on the fishing industry. These contributions are especially valued in smaller, regional communities where fishing still plays a central role in local economies.

For instance, Kari Esplin, secretary of the Eden Chamber of Commerce and a local business owner, told us:

Economically I see the fishing industry as a baseline in our community … it’s something that’s been there for a hundred years providing a steady economic benefit to the town and the region … It also has the benefit of being a sustainable fishery, not only from the point of view of its fishing practices, but also from a family point of view. So it’s the type of business that can be handed down through families if they choose, which builds a sense of tradition in the town, and also gives those families a feeling of self-worth that they’re a second, third or even fifth generation family business.

Looking beyond economic data gave us an insight into role the industry plays in other areas of community life. Professional fishers, for example, regularly participate in search and rescue.

Seafood is central to many cultural celebrations such as Christmas and the Lunar New Year. And fishing and long standing fishing families are part of the cultural heritage of many communities.

Seafood tourism

The research also revealed sometimes hidden or unrecognised relationships between different sectors. In particular, professional fishing and tourism support and sustain each other in NSW coastal communities.

We found that 89% of NSW residents expect to eat local seafood when they visit the coast and 64% indicated they would be interested in watching professional fishers at work while on holidays.

Grahame Lewis, the Nelson Bay Co-Op manager, told us:

People love watching – they come down and watch the boats unload, they see what sort of fish are coming in, they see it getting wheeled over to the shops and they know there’s stuff going in there from the local fishermen. It’s a drawcard really. People love going to seaside ports and just watching – not only here but everywhere along the coast.

Recreational fishers were much more likely to be interested in both buying fish from local professional fishers and watching professional fishing. This seems at odds with the messages of conflict between recreational and professional fishers commonly seen in public debate. Likewise 78% of recreational fishers across the state prefer bait caught by NSW professional fishers.

Professional fishing is also economically and culturally important in many coastal Indigenous communities. Indigenous fishers have a long history in the industry. Fishing still plays an important role in providing income, employment, a nutritious food source, independence and pride. This extends into the broader Indigenous community with fishers sharing a proportion of the catch and important cultural knowledge with kin.

Efforts to improve the environmental sustainability of the industry have been largely successful, and this is continuing to improve. Studies like ours give us an insight into how we can also ensure the economic and social sustainability of the industry, given its integral role in many coastal communities.

Nearly all (94%) of NSW coastal residents believe the fishing industry should be maintained in NSW. Our research gives us insights into how we can achieve this. And what we stand to lose if we don’t get it right.

This article was also co-authored by Nicole Mazur, visiting fellow in the Crawford School of Public Policy at the Australian National University.

Michelle Voyer has been involved in a number of projects that have received funding from the Commonwealth Fisheries Research and Development Corporation, the NSW Recreational Fishing Trust and the NSW Department of Primary Industries. This project was funded by the Fisheries Research and Development Corporation.

Alistair McIlgorm has received funding from The Commonwealth Fisheries Research and Development Corporation and The Department of Primary Industries, NSW for commercial and recreational fishing research. He is Director of Dominion Consulting Pty Ltd.

Kate Barclay receives funding from the Australian Commonwealth Fisheries Research and Development Corporation and the David and Lucile Packard Foundation. She has previously received research funding from a range of organizations including Greenpeace, TRAFFIC, the World Bank, the European Parliament Committee on Fisheries and the United Nations Development Programme. She is affiliated with the International Pole and Line Foundation.

September 2016 ends a streak of 16 consecutive record-setting hot months in NOAA’s dataset. The run of planetary heat has rewritten the record books.

The two big myths about wind energy, cited by critics as the cause of the South Australia blackout, have been blown away by AEMO report.

Global Wind Energy Outlook report released this week outlines scenarios which show how wind energy could supply 20% of global electricity by 2030.

Grant King takes parting shot at state-based renewable energy targets at Origin Energy AGM, repeating Coalition line that they make transition harder, more expensive.

AGL's new fixed price offer to Victorian households suggests it expects much higher wholesale prices over the next two years.

CEFC CEO Oliver Yates to retire after overseeing $2.3bn in investments and steering Australia's renewables industry through extended periods of policy uncertainty.

A pair of astronauts have entered China's Tiangong 2 space station as they begin the country's longest manned space mission.

Europe’s Schiaparelli robot will soon attempt the risky descent to the surface of Mars, after a 500 million km journey from Earth.

Two Chinese astronauts have docked with the Tiangong 2 space lab, where they will live for the next 30 days conducting experiments.

A little over six months after I moved into a new home I have installed a combination of rooftop solar and battery storage. It's amazing what a little bit of storage can achieve.

While politicians question renewables reliability after South Australia's blackout, consumer interest in solar and battery storage has spiked.

Energy market operator says nine of 13 windfarms ‘tripped’ because their settings disconnected them from the grid after transmission lines were blown over

Several windfarm operators in South Australia have already revised their settings to allow them to ride through larger network disruptions, following the storm in September that caused a statewide blackout, according to an update by the Australian Energy Market Operator (Aemo).

New information released by Aemo on Wednesday morning reveals nine of 13 windfarms in the state “tripped” after freak winds blew over several major transmission lines in the state.

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BBC science reporter Victoria Gill explains what the European mission to Mars is hoping to find out.

An orangutan pictured climbing high into a tree to reach some figs has taken the top honour in the 2016 Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition.

American photographer Tim Laman was named winner of the prestigious annual competition for his image Entwined Lives, showing a critically endangered Bornean orangutan in the Indonesian rainforest. The award is given for a story told in just six images, which are judged on their story-telling power as a whole as well as their individual quality.

The images will go on display at the Natural History Museum in London from 21 October, before touring internationally

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