Oral Presentation Australian Society for Fish Biology & Australian Freshwater Sciences Society Conference 2026

Fisheries enhancement has the potential to enhance natural productivity and long-term fishery sustainability beyond what is achievable by good harvest management alone. Enhancement strategies can expand the options available to fisheries managers beyond the use of traditional input-output controls, but their broad uptake across fisheries sectors in Australia has been limited.

So why are enhancement management options not more widely adopted by fisheries managers?

This presentation will explore the results from a national survey of fishery managers which evaluated their current knowledge levels, experience with, and attitudes towards using fisheries enhancement strategies. The survey explored the perceived knowledge gaps, types of data managers would like available, and the format which would be most useful to incorporate into the decision-making process.

The results indicated that enhancement strategies were used almost twice as commonly in recreational fisheries than the commercial sector. Stakeholder and political support are likely significant drivers behind this difference.

Several barriers to the application of fishery enhancement strategies were commonly cited, including:

• A perceived lack of quantitative data available on fisheries enhancement projects
• High implementation costs and resource limitations
• The lack of predictable economic return on the investment appeared to more important than the absolute investment required
• Access to specific decision support tools to better incorporate fisheries enhancement options into current fisheries management decision frameworks

A range of recommendations to improve understanding and application of potential fishery enhancement options were identified.