Royal Society of South Australia August Meeting and Scientific Presentation

Hello members,

We are now almost in August which means that our next Royal Society meeting is coming up quick. In our next meeting we are diving deep into South Australian waters with our guest speaker Associate Professor Tony Fowler (SARDI/PIRSA) presenting on South Australia's Snapper Fishery collapse. 

The meeting, held on Thursday the 8th of August will begin at 6:30 pm, with nibble and refreshments, as well as opportunities for pre-meeting discussions and networking beginning at 6:00 pm. A small donation to the RSSA is greatly appreciated to partake in this and support the RSSA in continuing to provide these pre-meeting treats.

This event will be held in-person in the Royal Society rooms, but we will simultaneously live-stream the meeting via Zoom for those not able to attend on the night.

To attend either in person, or online, you must register here. The zoom link will be sent to you on registration. Please feel free to share this event with your institution or networks.

If in-person tickets are sold out, please be aware that we are unable to admit more people than our room capacity. If online tickets are sold out, please contact admin@rssa.org.au and we can supply the zoom link to you.

For more information on the location of the RSSA rooms, please visit https://www.rssa.org.au/contact/

Associate Professor Tony Fowler

Talk title: Collapse of South Australia’s Snapper fishery – what went wrong?

Abstract: Snapper (Chrysophrys auratus) is an important teleost fish species in Australia that supports significant fisheries across a broad range. Declines in national catches over the past decade led to Snapper becoming the focus of one of Australia’s most significant fishery management issues. The recent declines primarily relate to a downturn in catches from South Australia’s fisheries. In 2019, this culminated in the drastic action of extensive closures to Snapper fishing being imposed in South Australia. This talk addresses the question as to why the biomass of several populations of this large, iconic, visible, and valuable species of fish could decline so quickly to an extent that such significant management action was required. Addressing this question is essential to the remedial process of recovery before fisheries can be reopened. Three objectives are addressed. First, the historic development of the fishery is considered, to place the modern fishery in a broad historical context. The second objective considers the general population biology of Snapper in the south-eastern geographic region of Australia, identifying the influences that drive the population dynamics. The third objective describes the specific trends in population dynamics and demographic processes as they occurred during the 2000s, when the biomass declined and led to the fishery closures.

Bio: Throughout his career as a fish biologist and fishery scientist, Associate Professor Tony Fowler has made significant contributions across the broad scientific fields of fish ecology, evolution, and fisheries science. Tony started his research career focussing on the ecology of coral reef fishes on the Great Barrier Reef and now works as a Research Scientist with SARDI Aquatic Sciences in South Australia where he focusses on the population biology and dynamics of fish such as King George Whiting, Southern Garfish and Snapper. He is recognised as an authority on these primary finfish fishery species, with his research fundamentally underpinning their management. Tony was resultantly inducted into the Australian Society for Fish Biology's Hall of Fame in 2021.