In the recent “Status of Key Australian Fish Stocks Reports 2012” the status of snapper on the east coast was not defined because the stock was given a different status in each jurisdiction based on different assessment approaches and criteria for defining status. The need for a single, robust, consensus approach was identified as a priority in a FRDC funded national workshop on snapper held at SARDI in March 2013. In particular it was noted that, underpinning a unified approach to assessment and management, there is a need for: a better understanding of stock structure, a better understanding of the utility of fishery independent data sources, and better engagement with stakeholders. The project explicitly addresses a key Program 2 – Industry Priority identified as relevant to the FRABs in Queensland, NSW and Victoria. The systems and approaches developed as a result of this research will serve as a model in other fisheries where different jurisdictions share a common stock but lack a consistent assessment and management decision making framework.

Increased formalisation of harvest strategies for snapper across Australia’s four main jurisdictions (East Coast, Western Victoria, South Australia and Western Australia) was identified as a national priority (at the National Strategic Planning Workshop for Snapper Research – 1st March 2013). Two key processes were recognised as being fundamental to achieving this: 1. development of a snapper-specific integrated fishery model; and 2. integration of a fishery-independent estimate of abundance. Each jurisdiction is currently at a different level of advancement in their assessment and management capability, with WA leading the way. A snapper model is currently used to underpin the assessment of South Australia’s snapper resource, whereas Western Victoria is in the process of developing their own and the East Coast is yet to develop one. South Australia and Western Victoria are at a level where the development and integration of a DEPM, that would provide a fishery-independent estimate of biomass, would considerably enhance their respective stock assessment programs.

The need for a DEPM is more urgent for South Australia, as recent structural changes in the snapper fishery have compromised the integrity of the time series of fishery-dependent statistics that have been relied on to assess the resource in the past. Fishery-independent estimates of snapper biomass are required to feed into the existing stock assessment model to ensure that future assessments and harvest strategies are developed from unbiased information. This research direction has been unanimously supported by the relevant stakeholders in South Australia’s Snapper Fishery. The Western Victorian fishery is likely to encounter similar issues to South Australia, particularly as their fishery is dominated by the recreational sector where the routine collection of catch and effort data to integrate into the assessment process is often challenging.