abare.gov.au - research report 08.10

6	Commercial fishing and regional communities

This chapter uses data on employment by industry derived from the 2001 and 2006 Australian Bureau of Statistics Census (ABS 2002; ABS 2007), ABARE estimates, and AFMA fishing logbooks and catch disposal records, to provide an indication of the reliance of various regional communities on fishing. In the following section, home ports and unloading ports are identified for many Commonwealth fisheries. Employment in fishing and processing in Australia, and the proportion of the workforce employed in commercial fishing in important ports for Commonwealth fisheries, is then discussed.

Landing ports of Commonwealth fisheries

AFMA logbook and catch disposal records give the landing ports of many Commonwealth fisheries. Table 48 presents a summary of the main landing ports of various Commonwealth fisheries based on AFMA data, except where noted otherwise. Ports are included if one or more vessels listed it as a home or unloading port.

48	Main landing ports for selected Commonwealth fisheries

Coral Sea

East coast deepwater sector (SESS)

Brisbane

Bundaberg

Cairns

Darwin

Gladstone

Townsville

Eastern tuna and billfish

Great Australian Bight sector (SESS)

Cairns

Adelaide

Coffs Harbour

Albany

Mooloolaba

Ceduna

Nelson Bay

Esperance

Southport

Port Adelaide

Sydney

Port Lincoln

Ulladulla

Portland

plus 17 others

Thevenard

Gillnet, hook and trap sector (SESS)

Heard Island and McDonald Island

Cape Jervis

Port Welshpool

Albany

Devonport

Robe

Devonport

Hobart

San Remo

Port Louis

Lakes Entrance

St Helens

Port FairyTriabunna

Port Lincoln

plus 40 others

Macquarie Island

Northern Prawn

Port Louis

Darwin

North West Slope

Southern Bluefin tuna

Broome

Bermagui

Darwin

Eden

Point Samson

Mooloolaba

Nelson Bay

Sydney

Ulladulla

Commonwealth trawl sector

Small Pelagics

Bermagui

Queenscliffe

Eden

San Remo

Port Lincoln

Greenwell Point

Sydney

Triabunna

Hobart

Ulladulla

Lakes Entrance

Wollongong

Port Welshpool

plus 14 others

Portland

South Tasman Rise

Southern squid jig

Hobart

Apollo Bay

Nubeena

Portland

Queenscliffe

Sorrento

Triabunna

Western tuna and billfish

Fremantle

Geraldton

Employment in commercial fishing, seafood processing and seafood wholesaling

ABS census data from 2006 (ABS 2007) show commercial fishing directly employs nearly 9700 people in Australia (table 49) out of a total Australian workforce of around 9.1 million. This gives the commercial fishing industry a rank of 54^th among other industries in terms of total employment. A further 6224 people work in wholesaling and processing of fisheries products, mostly in fish wholesaling. Since the previous ABS census in 2001, more than 3700 people have left the fishing industry.

Several points should be noted about the ABS employment data. First, employment in commercial fishing covers not only Commonwealth fishing employment but also state fisheries and aquaculture. Second, employment data do not give a strong indication of where the incomes of those employed in commercial fishing are spent.

It should also be noted that the Fisheries Research and Development Corporation (FRDC) has stated that ‘data collected by the Australian Bureau of Statistics is not disaggregated in sufficient detail to be useful, and tends to under record employees by allocating them to other industries such as transport and generalised processing’ (FRDC 2004). While it may be the case that those involved in transporting seafood are not strictly engaged in the commercial fishing industry, some of the categories in table 49 are likely to overlap considerably.

To provide additional information on employment, ABARE has collected available data from its fishery surveys program and from the states and territories. To obtain information on employment in the seafood processing sector, ABARE carried out a survey of the sector in January 2005. Information from all these sources is presented in table 50.

Differences in definitions of employment between the states and sectors mean the total number of employees cannot be estimated (see ABARE 2007a for more details). However, estimates of the minimum number of employees can be derived. ABARE estimates employment in commercial fishing is more than 17 000 people (compared with just less than 9700 people in table 49). Estimates of the workforce in the seafood processing industry across Australia are also different; ABARE estimates nearly 2700 people employed in seafood processing, while the ABS Census estimates a total of 2001 people.

49	ABS estimates of employment in the Australian fishing industry

2001

2006

Commercial fishing

Marine fishing, undefined

1 611

Rock lobster fishing

1 459

1 154

Prawn fishing

1 040

648

Finfish trawling

288

278

Line fishing

Squid jigging

Commercial fishing, undefined

3 152

Aquaculture

4 221

3 628

Other fishing

3 941

Total commercial fishing

11 874

9 735

Wholesaling and processing

Fish wholesaling

5 540

4 202

Seafood processing

2 213

2 001

Total wholesaling and processing

7 753

6 203

Total

19 627

15 938

Source: ABS Census data 2001 and 2006 (ABS 2002; ABS 2007). Note: State employment totals can be found in ABARE (2007a) and ABARE (2008). na Not available.

50	ABARE estimates of employment in Australian fishing industries, 2006

C’wealth

NSW

Vic.

Qld

Tas.

total
minimum
employment

Commercial fishing

Wildcaught

2 035

2 868

2 101

2 389

3 892

482

13 767

Aquaculture

286

584

1 614

676

297

3 457

Minimum employment

2 035

286

3 452

3 715

2 389

4 568

779

17 224

Processing

Full time

125

113

165

125

176

786

Part time

176

210

302

174

627

419

1 908

Minimum employment

301

292

415

339

752

595

2 694

Total minimum employment

2 035

301

578

3 867

4 054

3 141

5 163

779

19 918

na Not available.

Employment in ports servicing Commonwealth fisheries

The communities surrounding ports servicing Commonwealth fisheries can be vulnerable to changes in the profitability of fishing caused by movements in fuel and fish prices, among other factors. Of the communities identified in table 51, some rely more heavily than others on commercial fishing, and are therefore more vulnerable to these changes.

Table 51 gives the proportion of the workforce in each town or city employed in commercial fishing, according to the 2006 ABS Census (ABS 2007). Communities are presented in state or territory order, and then in descending order of the proportion of the workforce engaged in commercial fishing. It also shows which fisheries these ports service.

In figure 58, a series of charts shows the top five ranked industries in terms of employment in each of the communities given in table 51, along with the level of employment and associated industry rank of commercial fishing if this industry lies outside the top five industries in the community.

Of course, there are likely to be other jobs in affiliated industries, such as transport, food processing, mechanical services and retailing, which are also affected by the profitability of commercial fishers. This will be more or less the case in all communities, so it does not detract from using commercial fishing as a simple proxy for reliance when comparing one community to another.

Among the regional communities used as ports for Commonwealth fisheries, Port Lincoln in South Australia relies most heavily on commercial fishing in terms of employment. More than 10 per cent of the workforce is employed in the commercial fishing industry (table 51). It is the home port or unloading port for many vessels in various Commonwealth fisheries, and is also where southern bluefin tuna is farmed. Figure 58 shows other major industries providing employment in Port Lincoln are education and personal and household goods retailing. Robe in South Australia and Triabunna in Tasmania are also relatively reliant on commercial fishing for employment. Figure 58 shows agriculture is also an important industry in terms of employment in both these communities.

51	Employment in Commonwealth fisheries serviced by important fishing locations 2006

employment

location a

commercial fishing

aquaculture

other

proportion in
commercial fishing
%

fisheries serviced

New South Wales

Eden

1 199

4.67

ETBF SBT CT sector and small pelagic fishery

Bermagui

617

3.89

ETBF SBT and CT sector

Greenwell Point

405

3.7

CT sector

Ulladulla

1 966

1.98

ETBF SBT and CT sector

Nelson Bay

1 557

0.83

ETBF and SBT

Coffs Harbour

25 671

0.23

ETBF

Wollongong

40 140

0.05

ETBF and CT sector

Sydney

187

1 903 525

0.01

ETBF SBT and CT sector

Northern Territory

Darwin

156

54 236

0.15

Coral Sea NP fishery NWS fishery

Queensland

Cairns

3 986

0.3

Coral Sea fishery ETBF

Mooloolaba

3 728

0.3

ETBF GHT sector SBT and CT sector

Bundaberg

17 087

0.28

Coral Sea fishery ETBF

Gladstone

14 113

0.16

Coral Sea fishery ETBF

Southport

10 446

0.07

ETBF GHT sector

Brisbane

251

862 350

0.03

Coral Sea fishery ECDWT ETBF

Townsville

1 894

Coral Sea fishery

South Australia

Port Lincoln

312

315

6 081

5.13

GAB sector GHT sector CT sector and small pelagic

Cape Jervis

117

4.27

GHT sector

Robe

658

3.8

GHT sector

Thevenard

386

1.81

GAB sector and GHT sector

Port Adelaide

491

0.81

GAB sector GHT sector

Ceduna

1 627

0.74

GAB sector

Adelaide

7 751

GAB sector GHT sector

Tasmania

Triabunna

412

12.62

GHT sector CT sector Small Pelagic fishery and SSJ fishery

Nubeena

9.68

SSJ fishery

St Helens

673

3.57

GHT sector and CT sector

Hobart

23 775

0.27

GHT sector CT sector South Tasman Rise fishery

Devonport

9 547

0.03

GHT sector HIMI

Victoria

Port Welshpool

9.84

GHT sector and CT sector

Lakes Entrance

1 312

4.12

GHT sector and CT sector

San Remo

361

1.94

GHT sector CT sector

Apollo Bay

875

1.6

GHT sector CT sector SSJ fishery

Port Fairy

1 157

1.21

GHT sector

Portland

4 535

0.99

GAB sector GHT sector CT sector and SSJ fishery

Queenscliffe

1 086

0.28

CT sector and SSJ fishery

Sorrento

551

SSJ fishery

Western Australia

Point Samson

148

2.03

NWS fishery

Geraldton

109

7 585

1.44

WTBF

Broome

5 965

0.7

NWS fishery

Esperance

5 998

0.47

GAB sector

Albany

6 664

0.32

GAB sector and HIMI fishery

Fremantle

332

ETBF and WTBF

Australia

5 875

3 792

9 104 187

0.06

BSCZ scallop

Bass Strait Central Zone scallop fishery

CS fishery

Coral Sea fishery

CT sector

Commonwealth trawl sector of the southern and scalefish fishery

ECDWT sector

east coast deepwater trawl sector of the southern and eastern

ETB fishery

Eastern tuna and billfish fishery

GABT sector

Great Australian Bight trawl sector of the southern and eastern scalefish and shark fishery

GHT sector

gillnet, hook and trap sector of the southern and eastern scalefish and shark fishery

HIMI fishery

Heard Island and McDonald Island fishery

MI fishery

Macquarie Island fishery

NP fishery

northern prawn fishery

SBT fishery

southern bluefin tuna fishery

STR fishery

South Tasman Rise fishery

VIT sector

Victorian inshore trawl sector of the Commonwealth trawl sector

WTB fishery

western tuna and billfish fishery

a Some small ports have been aggregated to the nearest town.