There are two distinct needs in fisheries management training in Australia today :
1) Short course training for Fishing Industry representatives and non-governmental representatives in fisheries management.
2) Training for fisheries administrators and managers on an in-service basis through the provision of interactive residential schools in Fisheries Management at AMC.
These two needs are addressed in this proposal as:
1) FISHERIES MANAGEMENT TRAINING FOR COMMITTEE MEMBERS and 2) TRAINING FOR PROFESSIONAL FISHERIES MANAGERS.
1) FISHERIES MANAGEMENT TRAINING FOR COMMITTEE MEMBERS: The increasing involvement of the fishing industry in the fisheries management process has resulted in a need for short courses in fisheries management for fishing industry representatives and other non-government participants in the fisheries management process. This has been afforded a high priority by the fishing industry and by the O'Brien (1996) report.
The industry representatives are from Commonwealth and State Management Advisory Committees (MACs). This does not preclude the training of other committes such as ZAC's (Zonal Advisory Committees) in the Queensland system.
In the first project we estimated that in the 1994-1997 period we would train 120 MAC members. This was a conservative estimate and it should be met and possibly exceed by the end of the current project in June 1997. In the next three years we foresee that 180 MAC members can be trained through a combination of in-state and AMC based MAC courses. The project seeks to gain interaction among the participants without falling into "local issues". Attendance at AMC will be desirable for some MAC members who wish to get a greater national perspective.
2) TRAINING FOR PROFESSIONAL FISHERIES MANAGERS
Many of the fisheries administrators and policy-makers currently working in Australian fisheries have little formal training in fisheries management. The quality of fisheries management must be influenced by this, and the lack of appropriate training opportunities.
Administrators have found that the opportunity of participating in residential schools in fisheries management, with a limited amount of time away from work, is an acceptable solution. Given the content of the training this must lead to improved fisheries management with benefits for industry.
Past experience has shown that the residential schools increase networking among fisheries managers who are often facing the same problems as colleagues indifferent states. In the 1994-1997 period the project met this need with the FDRC A course - a 10 day program covering all the basic issues in fisheries management. This course has been strongly supported by all Australian fisheries departments. The FRDC B course follows a workshop format where participants prepare case studies and present these to their professional colleagues. It is also envisaged that young industry leaders could attend both of these programs (O'Brien, 1996).
