Stewardship Action Plan for the Marine Aquarium Supply Industry in Queensland
The Stewardship Action Plan was developed for and funded by Pro-vision Reef. It aimed to mitigate ecological risk from the fisheries, promote reef resilience in the face of global climate change, and enhance the conservation of biological diversity. The initiative involves two key components:
- industry prescribed collection standards specifically for species that are identified in fishery Ecological Risk Assessments plus fish species with limited functional redundancy and coral species that contribute to structural complexity on coral reefs that were identified in the Climate Change Vulnerability Assessment; and
- an integrated climate change response that obliges industry to conduct site assessments according to a specified protocol; modify collection practices accordingly; and contribute survey data to underpin management responses. The initiative integrates with a management response framework developed by Fisheries Queensland and uses the early warning and reef monitoring resources of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority.
The first edition of the Stewardship Action Plan included voluntary modification of practices in response to events linked to climate change and this was considered to a world's first for a commercial fishery at the time. The second edition is targeted specifically at fishery risk mitigation and is a significant step toward co-management of these fisheries.
Click here to read the final report.
