Moreton Bay bugs (Scyllarid lobsters) are a commercially important fished resource in northern Australian coastal waters. About 600 tonnes of bugs is reported in logbooks annually, valued at about $15 million (~$25/kg) nationally. About 90% of the catch is taken in the Queensland east coast otter trawl fishery (QECOTF) (https://www.fish.gov.au/report/154-MORETON-BAY-BUGS-2018).

Historically, Moreton Bay bugs were retained as byproduct of prawn and scallop trawling, but over time their popularity and price have increased and they have become increasingly targeted by fishers. In recent years in the Queensland scallop fishery, the scallop catch has declined and fishers have targeted bugs to such an extent that their catch value now exceeds that of the scallops.

Quantifying the fishing effort targeted at bugs and differentiating it from the prawn and scallop effort is challenging. This complicates the estimation of reliable catch rate time series that can be used as an index of abundance for each group (i.e. bugs, prawns, scallops).

Despite their high value, Queensland has not previously undertaken a stock assessment of Moreton Bay Bugs, beyond yield-per-recruit analyses. This is largely because the Bug catch is composed of two species, reef bugs (Thenus australiensis) and mud bugs (Thenus parindicus) which are not differentiated by fishers in the logbook data. Mud bugs are the smaller of the two species and generally occur in depths of 10–30 m, while the larger reef bug generally occurs in depths of 30–60 m. Although there is some spatial separation of the species it is not possible to breakdown the catch of each from the logbook data alone.

This project aims to examine and define the spatial distribution of the two bug species. By surveying and sampling bugs, and examining seafloor properties, we hope to predict and map the distribution of each species. Once clear distinctions are made, we plan to use all available data on catch rates and gear technology used by the fleet, to derive standardised catch rate time series for each species, which can be used as indices of abundance for improved management and assessment.

The Queensland Government Department of Agriculture and Fisheries (DAF) aims to manage fisheries utilising the best available science taking into account environmental, economic, social and cultural impacts.
Through the Government’s Sustainable Fisheries Strategy (SFS, 2018–2020), plans are actioned to establish regular stock assessments (ongoing annually or at least every two years) to provide the science for assessing key fishery stocks against reference points.
To conduct regular stock assessments of finfish, Fisheries Queensland and the SFS expert panel have directed DAF staff to investigate the use of off-the-shelf stock-assessment models. This recommendation is for delivery of recurring information to support fishery harvest strategies; and followed a review to support the use of common stock assessment methods and models (FRDC Research Code: 2014-039; http://www.frdc.com.au/media-and-publications/fish/fish-vol-26-3/skills-shortage-forecast-for-stock-assessments). This proposal is to progress Qld’s adoption of FRDC recommendations and research: project 2014-039.
DAF’s training needs are by 31st May 2019.
The aim for this training is to build stock assessment systems for DAF and help support similar national needs in Australia.

This EOI was developed to address the priority, listed by Queensland RAC in the November 2017 Call for Applications, "To Determine the Proportion of Queensland East Coast (Marine and Estuarine)
Wild Barramundi Catch that is of Hatchery Origin"

- Since 2010 at least 4 million barramundi fingerlings have been released into impounded waterways, coastal lagoons, rivers (and estuaries) of Queensland

- the number of barramundi released annually varies between ~330,000 (2010) and ~794,000 (2015)

- whilst stocked fingerlings may suffer high mortality rates, stocked barramundi do migrate downstream and are caught in the wild-harvest commercial net fishery

- the magnitude of the contribution of stocking to the Queensland east coast population of barramundi is unknown

- this problem has limited quantitative stock assessment of barramundi on the Qld east coast

- DNA parentage analyses is a way to unequivocally identify hatchery origin barramundi and has been developed and validated for barramundi at JCU but it relies on having genotypes of the hatchery broodstock and is expensive per fish

- to be useful for a stock assessment any method needs to be able to be applied over multiple years to provide a time series of data, preferably hind-casting using the historic otolith collections maintained by Fisheries Queensland

- the aim of this project is to develop a cheap and effective method to identify the contribution of stocked fish to current and historic catches (via the Fisheries Queenlsand's otolith collections) to support stock status reporting and quantitative stock assessment