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This edition of the “State of the fisheries” continues the tradition of annually reporting on the status of exploited fish and their habitats in Western Australia. Critically, the reports provide overviews of the science outcomes that underpin management of fishing across the state.

Scientifically assessing the status of fish resources and potential impacts on ecosystems is inherently challenging; I acknowledge and thank the dedicated fisheries science teams and various support staff for again producing outstanding, robust scientific results that are summarised herein. I similarly acknowledge (i) the fisheries management team who use the science outcomes in policy development and to adjust regulatory settings; and (ii) the compliance team for ensuring regulations are enforced.

While fisheries science is a highly-applied branch of science directed towards policy and regulation, maintaining close links to the academic world is paramount for ensuring our science is contemporary with global standards, and hence, the best it can be. In this regard, the DPIRD fisheries science team strives to maintain collaborative networks with other national and international experts around the world.

Additionally, they pursue publication of scientific work in independent, peer-reviewed science journals.

Meeting new challenges, such as climate change, better engaging with Aboriginal peoples, community projects (e.g., Fish Aggregating Devices) and contributing to marine spatial planning requires ongoing consideration of the balance between focussing just on the current business-as-usual assessments versus exploring innovative ways of working in the future. For example, better positioning ourselves to embrace new technologies and machine learning (“AI”) just doesn’t happen by itself. These new challenges/opportunities require considerable focussed effort.

Strategically, working towards future directions must occur at the same time as the core science tasks that deliver world-class science outcomes for management. In turn, this dictates that fisheries science in Western Australia needs to continually evolve to meet contemporary community expectations, that world-class management is based on world-class assessment of our state’s aquatic resources.

Dr Dan Gaughan
Chief Fisheries Scientist

ISSN

ISSN 2200-7849 (Print) ISSN 2200-7857 (Online)

Publication Date

11-2024

Publisher

Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development, Western Australia

City

Perth

Keywords

aquatic science, fisheries, fish stocks, western australia, dpird

Disciplines

Aquaculture and Fisheries | Environmental Monitoring

State of the fisheries: Status reports of the fisheries and aquatic resources of Western Australia 2023/24

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