The spatial management of scallop fisheries elsewhere in the world has demonstrated the ability of this method to reduce recruitment variation, while increasing production. The implementation of detailed, spatially explicit management regimes in Tasmania offers a greater prospect for sustainability and continuity of the scallop fishery, but as yet there is insufficient information on the ability of the method to ensure adequate recruitment. The long-term continuity and sustainability of the commercial scallop resource is dependant on refining spatial management strategies, such that they are buffered against the impacts of recruitment variation.

Spatial harvest strategies applied within one jurisdiction may be influencing recruitment and harvesting ability within other jurisdictions. Such cross-jurisdictional effects are more probable if the scallop resource constitutes one stock. At finer spatial scales, there have been observations of localised recruitment, which implies regional/bed level self-recruitment. Therefore, detailed spatial management harvest strategies applied to a scallop bed/region may influence scallop recruitment processes. Additionally, research has identified the importance of maintaining high densities of spawner biomass for promoting recruitment over all spatial scales.

Broad- and fine-scale scallop stock structure, spawner biomass density/recruitment relationships, and an understanding of impacts of intensive fishing on scallop communities are needed to refine detailed spatial management/industry fine-scale management harvest strategies, such that they promote recruitment and minimise impacts on the broader environment. This will allow a move towards uniformity of sustainable spatial harvest strategies across the fishery, and simplification of the jurisdictional arrangements between Victoria, Tasmania and the Commonwealth (OCS).