Abstract
The Torres Strait tropical rock lobster Panulirus ornatus (TRL) fishery is of immense social, cultural and economic importance to the region’s Indigenous fishers from both Australia and Papua New Guinea (PNG). During 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic indirectly impacted this fishery as well as a number of other fisheries reliant on international export markets. The TRL fishery is managed using an empirical (data-based) Harvest Control Rule (eHCR) to rapidly provide a recommended biological catch (RBC), based on catch, fishery-independent survey indices and catch-per-unit-effort (CPUE). Here, we summarize the impacts of COVID-19 on each of these critical data inputs and discuss whether the eHCR was considered adequately resilient to this unprecedented disruption to the system. Next, we use a quantitative supply chain index to analyze the impact of disruptions to the supply chain, and inform on potential adaptation strategies. The catch and CPUE data were impacted to varying degrees by external constraints influencing fishing effort, but the fishery-independent survey wasn’t affected and hence there remains an unbroken survey time-series for the fishery extending back to 1989. The eHCR was shown to be reasonably robust because it incorporates longer-term trends over a 5-year period, and accords substantially more weighting (80%) to the fishery-independent survey rather than CPUE data which can be affected by trade and other disruptions. Despite the eHCR not having been tested for scenarios such as a global pandemic, this robustness is a positive given the types of disruptions we will likely face in future climate. The weak links identified in the supply chain were the same as those previously highlighted as sensitive to climate change disruptions. Our supply chain analysis quantifies the impact on system resilience of alternative paths connecting producers to consumers and reinforces that supply chains may be particularly vulnerable to external disruptions if they are not sufficiently diverse.
Highlights
The COVID-19 pandemic (Hui et al, 2020) has indirectly led to severe economic impacts on global and Australian seafood industries (Bennett et al, 2020)
There has been a major impact on scientific data collection in some areas of the world, such as in the United States where scientists were forced to cancel most of their major research cruises and surveys in 2020 (Link et al, 2021)
In response to COVID-19, the last regular live tropical lobster shipment to China left on 26 January 2020, just before the ban on live markets took effect and there was a considerable pause in international exports of lobster from both Australia and Papua New Guinea (PNG)
Summary
The COVID-19 pandemic (Hui et al, 2020) has indirectly led to severe economic impacts on global and Australian seafood industries (Bennett et al, 2020). This has included disruptions in shipping activity (Huveneers et al, 2021; Notteboom et al, 2021), global markets (Knight et al, 2020), food security (Steenbergen et al, 2020) and negatively impacted on commercial fisher’s health and COVID-19 Impacts on Lobster Fishery wellbeing as well as added to the challenges of protecting workers on fishing vessels (Sorensen et al, 2020). Australia was impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, localized outbreaks were contained relatively quickly, resulting in only a brief core “lockdown” (Huveneers et al, 2021) and activities such as fishing and surveys were impacted less than was the case for many other countries
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
