2006/220 - Spatial management of Southern Rocklobster fisheries to improve yield, value and sustainability

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Spatial Management of Southern Rocklobster
Fisheries to Improve Yield, Value and Sustainability

Project Number - 2006/220 (adopted project)

Start Date - 18th August 2006

End Date - 31st March 2010

Principal Investigator - Dr Caleb Gardner

Research Provider - University of Tasmania

CRC Research End User - University of Tasmania and SARDI

About the Project

Adjusting harvest strategies to take account of spatial patterns in the biology of lobsters and patterns in the fleet has the potential to substantially increase yield, value and sustainability of the fishery. Shifting effort into deeper water by means such as specific deep-water quota would be expected ro increase yield given that these stocks are currently under exploited. Translocating lobsters from slow to high growth leads to increased productivity and also higher beach price per lobster due to improved colour.

Project Objectives

1. To conduct field experiments and sampling to provide additional data required for alernative harvest strategy evaluation (fisher catch sampling, translocation release survival, release movement, translocation growth transition, effects of translocation on maturity and egg production parameters and density dependent growth).

2. To conduct field experiments on translocation to provide additional data required for economic evaluation (change in colour, tail width, condition and ability to survive transport).

3. To determine the extent of ecological community change in deep water reef habitats in response to increased harvest rates of lobsters.

4. To enable assessment reporting of trends in biomass and egg production by depth (model fitting).

5. To evaluate alternative spatial management options (deep-water quota, translocation, size limits) in respect to yield and egg production (biological projection).

6. To evaluate alternative spatial management options (deep-water quota, translocation, size limits) by economic analysis.

7. To develop functional management and monitoring recommendations to apply outcomes.

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