Funding has been awarded to a number of projects aimed at creating a truly sustainable fisheries industry for Australia.

Three separate initiatives from the University of Tasmania have received the support of the Australian Government, which has committed over $700,000 to projects planned by the Tasmanian Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies (IMAS).

Researchers from UTAS will also collaborate on a further four projects funded in the Fisheries Research and Development Corporation’s Open Call round, according to an announcement by the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Agriculture, Senator Richard Colbeck.

The three IMAS projects will be:

The Atlantic Salmon Subprogram; a $339,528 initiative to predict marine currents, nutrients and plankton in coastal waters while monitoring their response to changing weather patterns.

Tasmania's Coastal Reefs; a $237,199 academic look at the state’s deep reef habitats and significance for finfish production and biodiversity.

Understanding East Coast Recruitment Collapse; a project to investigate development of pre-recruitment monitoring, simulation of recruitment variation and prediction of climate variation impacts. The project will cost $141,764.

“Global food security depends on sustainable fisheries, and that sustainability can only be ensured through good science-based management such as that being explored by IMAS,” Executive Director of IMAS Professor Mike Coffin said.