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Australia's fisheries have experience in responding individually to specific shocks to stock levels (for example, marine heatwaves, floods) and markets (for example, global financial crisis, food safety access barriers). The COVID-19 pandemic was, however, novel in triggering a series of systemic shocks and disruptions to the activities and operating conditions for all Australia's commercial fisheries sectors including those of the research agencies that provide the information needed for their sustainable management. While these disruptions have a single root cause—the public health impacts and containment responses to the COVID-19 pandemic—their transmission and effects have been varied. We examine both the impacts on Australian fisheries triggered by measures introduced by governments both internationally and domestically in response to the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak, and the countermeasures introduced to support continuity in fisheries and aquaculture production and supply chains. Impacts on fisheries production are identified by comparing annual and monthly catch data for Australia's commercial fisheries in 2020 with averages for the last 4–5 years. We combine this with a survey of the short-term disruption to and impacts on research organisations engaged in fisheries monitoring and assessment and the adaptive measures they deployed. The dominant impact identified was triggered by containment measures both within Australia and in export receiving countries which led to loss of export markets and domestic dine-in markets for live or fresh seafood. The most heavily impact fisheries included lobster and abalone (exported live) and specific finfishes (exported fresh or sold live domestically), which experienced short-term reductions in both production and price. At the same time, improved prices and demand for seafood sold into domestic retail channels were observed. The impacts observed were both a function of the disruptions due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the countermeasures and support programs introduced by various national and state-level governments across Australia to at least partly mitigate negative impacts on harvesting activities and supply chains. These included protecting fisheries activities from specific restrictive COVID-19 containment measures, pro-actively re-establishing freight links, supporting quota roll-overs, and introducing wage and businesses support packages. Fisheries research organisations were impacted to various degrees, largely determined by the extent to which their field monitoring activities were protected from specific restrictive COVID-19 containment measures by their state-level governments. Responses of these organisations included reducing fisheries dependent and independent data collection as required while developing strategies to continue to provide assessment services, including opportunistic innovations to harvest data from new data sources. Observed short run impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak has emphasised both the vulnerability of fisheries dependent on export markets, live or fresh markets, and long supply chains and the resilience of fisheries research programs. We suggest that further and more comprehensive analysis over a longer time period of the long-run impacts of subsequent waves of variants, extended pandemic containment measures, autonomous and planned adaptive responses would be beneficial for the development of more effective counter measures for when the next major external shock affects Australian fisheries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Understanding behavioral responses of recreational fishers to management changes is fundamental for effective policy making. However, given the diverse motivations and nonmarket nature of recreational fishing, evaluating fishers' preferences is nontrivial. This study examined fishers' management preferences toward different management tools (i.e., a new measure or a change in the setting for an existing measure) in a highly consumptive recreational fishery. A combination of a discrete choice experiment and an opinion-based survey explored the potential heterogeneity in management preferences in the Tasmanian Rock Lobster fishery. Although the fishery has extensive management in place, further restrictions are required to limit recreational harvest in support of a strategy to achieve a stock rebuilding target. As a diverse fishery, with various fishing methods and a range of activity levels, it is expected that the perceptions of management changes vary across fisher subgroups. A phone survey was used to ask fishers' opinions on how effective different management tools are at restricting catch and if they supported or opposed the tool. Additionally, a discrete choice experiment was used to assess if fishers' utility is associated with a management tool and to what extent fishers are willing to trade a change in one management tool for a change in another. Results show that there are both homogenous and heterogeneous management preferences in the fishery across fisher subgroups. There was consensual aversion by all fisher subgroups toward changes in management settings that directly limit the catch of lobster, including a reduction in daily bag limit and shortened season length. Other changes to management settings, such as an increase in the minimum size limit, have less consensus in preference between fisher groups, and any changes in these tools could differentially impact fisher subgroups. The results from this research can support managers in identifying whether and to what extent intra-sector separation for the purposes of designing and implementing new management measures and settings is warranted, on the basis that it can increase effectiveness of achieving management and the likelihood of maximizing net utility within a fishery. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]