1. The primary objective of this proposal is to carry out a trawl survey which will provide an index of abundance of spawning eastern gemfish. This index will be compared directly to earlier data allowing current assessments to be updated. This survey and the index it derives may form a central part in an ongoing gemfish monitoring programme. The survey should be practical, cost-effective, have wide industry acceptance, and be capable of implementation during the 1996 winter spawning season.

2. A subsidiary and minor objective of this proposal is to collect calibrated digital acoustic data concurrently with the surveys. These acoustic data will be provided to Tony Koslow of CSIRO to assist in the design of a feasibility study of acoustic surveys of the gemfish run. If the research approach recommended by the workshop on gemfish research and stock assessment, held at AFMA during April 1996, is successful, these acoustic data may eventually be analysed to become the first in a new time series of acoustic indices of gemfish stock abundance. This second objective adds $26,694 to the cost of the project. It is not central to the proposal and funding bodies could choose to delete this segment of the proposal without threatening the integrity of the first objective. The aim of this second objective is to cost effectively support CSIRO in developing a proposal to investigate the feasibility of developing acoustic surveying techniques for gemfish.