76 results
Adoption
PROJECT NUMBER • 2017-049
PROJECT STATUS:
COMPLETED

Monitoring abalone juvenile abundance following removal of Centrostephanus and translocation

A new system of Abalone recruitment modules (ARMs) have proven to be successful in collecting juvenile abalone in Tasmanian waters. This design was subsequently transferred to the Eastern Zone, Victoria, where IMAS staff and Eastern Zone Abalone Industry Association (EZIZA) members installed ARMs at...
ORGANISATION:
University of Tasmania (UTAS)

Assessment of broad-scale exploitation rates and biomass estimates for the Tasmanian southern rock lobster fishery

Project number: 1997-101
Project Status:
Completed
Budget expenditure: $468,370.00
Principal Investigator: Stewart Frusher
Organisation: University of Tasmania (UTAS)
Project start/end date: 22 Jun 1997 - 29 Apr 2003
Contact:
FRDC

Need

Traditionally, catch per unit of effort (CPUE) is used to monitor the health of the fishery and indicate the success or otherwise of management practices. Under current input controls CPUE is based on fishers maximising their total catch. In contrast, under output controls where catch is predetermined fishers will alter their catching scenarios to maximise the return (dollars per kilogram) from their catch. In southern rock lobster fisheries there is significant potential to alter fishing patterns to maximise economic return, especially through seasonal shifts in effort. As this change occurs, the value of using CPUE data to continue monitoring the fishery will be eroded. As such, both fisheries independant means of monitoring the fishery and new monitoring methods will become increasing important.
Both exploitation rates and biomass estimates are important stock assessment parameters and biological reference points in sustainable management of fisheries resources.
This project will evaluate fishery independant means of deriving these estimates and by determining the precision of derived estimates, demonstrate their suitability as biological reference points.
In a report to the Department of Industry, Technology and Commerce titled "Oceans of Wealth?", the Review Committee on Marine Industries, Science and Technology stated in their conclusion, 'The knowledge gained from scientific research into fish stocks and the impacts of the environmental and harvesting factors is a necessary but not sufficient element in the conservation of productive fish stocks. A vital element in both scientific assessments is the availability of reliable information about exploitation levels'. This project is aimed at addressing this need for southern rock lobster.

Objectives

1. To assess the precision of exploitation rates and biomass estimates derived from broad scale sampling using fisheries independant and fishery dependant sampling.
2. To evaluate both the precision and cost effectiveness of biomass estimation from fisheries dependant and fisheries independent derived exploitation rates and recommend future monitoring methodology for the rock lobster fishery.

Final report

ISBN: 1-86295-079-2
Author: Stewart Frusher
Final Report • 2003-03-25 • 2.06 MB
1997-101-DLD.pdf

Summary

Exploitation rate is an important fishery assessment parameter linking catch to legal-sized biomass, the portion of the stock available for harvest.  Relative change in legal-sized biomass is a crucial performance indicator for the fishery as it measures the success of management outcomes.  Under the recently introduced Individual Transferable Quota Management System (ITQMS) in the Tasmanian rock lobster fishery, rebuilding of legal-sized biomass is a key management objective.  The assessment model that produces biomass estimates for this fishery is primarily dependent on commercial catch and effort data. 

The use of commercial catch and effort data for stock assessment relies on its de facto relationship with stock abundance.  However, the relationship between catch and effort data and abundance is not always constant or linear.  Improvements in fishing gear and technology can result in greater catch for a given amount of effort, unrelated to changes in the biomass.  Management changes and fishers’ behaviour can also affect the relationship between catch rates and biomass.  Under the new ITQMS introduced in 1998, catch is fixed and improved profits can be made by improving the return per unit of fish caught rather than by increasing the amount of catch through increased effort.  Thus fishing during periods when catch rates are low but price is high can change the catch effort relationship independent of biomass change.

Fishery independent surveys, using established sampling protocols and standardised fishing gear are a way in which catch rates can be standardised irrespective of gear efficiencies or fisher’s behaviour.  If these surveys can also produce accurate estimates of exploitation rate then accurate estimates of biomass can be achieved, provided the exploitation rate estimates are representative of the fishing grounds.  Fishery independent estimates of exploitation rate are thus a valuable way of validating model biomass estimates especially with the introduction of an ITQMS where the relationship between catch rates and legal-sized biomass was likely to change pre- and post-quota.

This project aimed to trial change-in-ratio (CIR) and index-removal (IR) techniques to obtain estimates of exploitation rate and biomass from broad scale regions in the fishery.

Keywords: southern rock lobster, change-in-ratio, index-removal, exploitation rates, tagging.

Environment
PROJECT NUMBER • 2015-024
PROJECT STATUS:
CURRENT

Managing ecosystem interactions across differing environments: building flexibility and risk assurance into environmental management strategies

Summary The overarching aim of this research was to provide an improved understanding of the environmental interactions of Atlantic Salmon farming and to provide recommendations to both government and industry on monitoring and management strategies that are appropriate to the level of risk...
ORGANISATION:
University of Tasmania (UTAS)
Blank
PROJECT NUMBER • 2008-768
PROJECT STATUS:
COMPLETED

SCRC: PDRS - Seafood Molecular Biologist: Mapping Microbial Communities in Seafood Production and Processing Environments to Improve Targeting Intervention Strategies (Dr Shane Powell)

Until the 1990s, when it became possible to access and analyse DNA directly from the environment, the study of microbiology was limited to studying microbes that were able to be grown in artificial culture. The advent of DNA-based methods provided a way to access and study the enormous diversity of...
ORGANISATION:
University of Tasmania (UTAS)
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