1. To use independent spawning stock survey techniques to validate spawning stock indices derived from commercial fisheries data and to examine specific impacts of the current management package over its full term. Specific impacts include trends in egg production and measurement of effective effort creep by comparison of fishery independent and fishery dependent spawninf stock indices.

2. To undertake pre-season tagging of juveniles in the shallow water of the limited entry fishery to obtain more detailed information on the migration and growth of these lobsters to aid in the understanding of the effects of distributing catch more evenly throughout the season.