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Communities
PROJECT NUMBER • 2014-226
PROJECT STATUS:
COMPLETED

Indigenous Fishing Subprogram: Improving the recognition and integration of traditional owner customary fishing and ecological knowledge in the management of Victoria’s fisheries

With growing recognition of Traditional Owner groups across Victoria as native title claims are being resolved. There is a strong interest from within Victorian Traditional Owner community to actively participate in the management of Victoria’s fisheries. However, despite these strongly held...
ORGANISATION:
Agriculture Victoria

Movement and re-aggregation of blacklip abalone in response to intensive fishing

Project number: 1995-165
Project Status:
Completed
Budget expenditure: $116,068.00
Principal Investigator: Harry Gorfine
Organisation: Agriculture Victoria
Project start/end date: 28 Jun 1996 - 29 Sep 1998
Contact:
FRDC

Objectives

1. To determine the extent of migration and re-aggregation of a blacklip abalone population in response to fishing
2. To describe differences between pre and post-fishing spatial distribution patterns in blacklip abalone population
3. To determine the growth rates of a "stunted" abalone sub-stock

Final report

ISBN: 0 7311 4207 1
Author: H.K. Gorfine R.A. Officer C.D. Dixon
Final Report • 1998-09-10 • 2.09 MB
1995-165-DLD.pdf

Summary

Typically abalone are found clustered into aggregations of many individuals along gutters and ledges that dissect the surfaces of the reefs they inhabit. Commercial abalone divers take advantage of this clustering behaviour and specifically target aggregations to minimise the time spent searching for abalone and maximise their catch rates. This approach to abalone harvesting would be expected to progressively reduce the number and size of the aggregations to produce a less clustered pattern of distribution. Most methods used to detect changes in abalone abundance that result from fishing assume that abalone movement will have minimal effect on post-fishing patterns of distribution.

Abalone are generally viewed as relatively inactive organisms that occupy specific homesites from which they seldom move. Evidence for this lack of movement includes the oval shaped 'scars' of bare rock, free of algae and other immobile invertebrates, that remain after abalone are harvested. However there are many anecdotes describing the tendency for abalone to reform aggregations after fishing and during spawning periods. Presumably the latter promotes fertilisation success by increasing the quantities of sperm and eggs that mix in the water. It is unclear why abalone may aggregate into clusters outside spawning periods. If re-aggregation does occur after fishing, it is also unclear where these 'replacement' abalone come from. There is some speculation that small abalone may emerge from crevices and cryptic habitat. Other hypotheses include small-scale movements within aggregations or migration from unfished areas. An understanding of how re-aggregation occurs after fishing and to what extent it occurs, is essential to determine its effect on estimates of abalone abundance and to estimate important population characteristics such as rates of natural mortality.

Keywords: Haliotis rubra, abalone, dispersal, movement, aggregation, natural mortality, tag-loss, tag-recapture, stunted, growth.

Environment
People
PROJECT NUMBER • 2008-326.38
PROJECT STATUS:
COMPLETED

People development program: FRDC Indigenous development scholarship - Angela Jeffery

The aim of this project was to develop a better understanding of Aboriginal fishing practices (past and present) through the development of educational materials. This was to be undertaken as on-the-job training while working at Fisheries Victoria’s Marine and Freshwater Discovery Centre...
ORGANISATION:
Agriculture Victoria

Victorian abalone stock assessment

Project number: 1985-016
Project Status:
Completed
Budget expenditure: $0.00
Organisation: Agriculture Victoria
Project start/end date: 28 Dec 1989 - 31 Dec 1989
Contact:
FRDC

Objectives

1. Analyse historical trends in catch-effort data, & significance of changes in fishing practices
2. Major changes in density & average size?
3. & all existing information on density, growth, mortality, movement & reproduction. Assess recruitment relative to stock density & mortality
Environment
PROJECT NUMBER • 1993-100
PROJECT STATUS:
COMPLETED

Evaluation of methods to assess abalone abundance

The issue of how best to survey abalone populations to obtain estimates of abundance has been the subject of debate among fisheries biologists for many years. In an attempt to resolve this issue we compared and evaluated abalone abundance estimated by the following methods: Transect survey,...
ORGANISATION:
Agriculture Victoria

Eastern Victorian trawl fish biology and stock assessment

Project number: 1981-076
Project Status:
Completed
Budget expenditure: $0.00
Organisation: Agriculture Victoria
Project start/end date: 28 Dec 1986 - 31 Dec 1986
Contact:
FRDC

Objectives

1. Determine exploitation of jackass morwong, tiger flathead & school whiting in E Vic fishery
2. effect of different net mesh sizes & levels of fishing
strategy for monitoring state of trawl stocks using market sampling
3. effects Danish seine on otter trawl fishery
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