In 1985, CSIRO applied for funding from the Fishing Industry Research Trust Account to undertake a research program to investigate the commercial scallop (Pecten fumatus) in Bass Strait with the aim of providing resource assessments to guide and assist in the management of the scallop fishery.

It was proposed that in the three year period from 1 August 1985 to 30 July 1988, the program would, (1) examine and analyse all biological and commercial data currently available for the fishery, and (2) initiate a research program to provide the biological data required for the efficient management of the fishery.

Scampi, or species of clawed lobsters of the genus Metanephrops, occur on the continental slopes of many countries in the world, however, prior to 1985 were commercially fished only in deep water off south east Africa, Metanephrops andamanicus and experimentally in the western Atlantic Ocean and Caribbean Sea, Metanephrops binghami.

The presence of scampi on the north west slope of Australia was first reported by the survey steamer Investigator in 1891, but it was not until 1985 that a commercial fishery based on three species of scampi (Metanephrops andamanicus, M. australiensis and M. boschmai) was developed.

Thee scant scientific knowledge of these species used to establish initial management plans for the fishery prompted the initiation of a CSIRO research program. This three year research program, which commenced in January 1986, aimed to collect fundamental information on the fisheries biology of these animals in order that a rational long term management strategy for the fishery could be designed.