Project number: 1998-121
Project Status:
Completed
Budget expenditure: $300,250.00
Principal Investigator: Roy Melville-Smith
Organisation: Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development (DPIRD) WA
Project start/end date: 21 Jun 1998 - 31 Oct 2002
Contact:
FRDC
TAGS
Wild Catch
Population Dynamics
Mortality
Management
Fishing Gear
SPECIES
Blue Swimmer Crab

Need

This project is essential to the provision of fisheries data for the effective management of blue swimmer crab. The FRDC has realised the urgent need for research into the W.A. blue swimmer crab fishery and have approved funding for relevant biological research (FRDC project 97/137). This current proposal, together with FRDC project 97/137 and project proposals that have been submitted under the umbrella of the National Collaborative Blue Swimmer Crab Research Programme (Kumar 1997), will provide the vital link that will allow W.A. researchers to provide appropriate management advice for the fishery in the future.

Reference
Kumar, M.S., 1997. Draft strategy for collaborative research programs on the blue swimmer crab, Portunus pelagicus - a national approach. Unpub. doc., SARDI, South Australia: 11 pp.

Objectives

1. To establish a log book and catch monitoring programme for the fishery.
2. To establish the effect of trap selectivity/efficiency on the size composition, sex ratio and moult stage of the catch in the two major regions.
3. To establish discard mortality for recreational and commercial fishing methods. Gear methods will include recreational drop netting, commercial trap fishing, tangle netting and trawling.
4. To establish conversion factors for relating the effort for traps to that of the historical tangle nets.
5. To assess the status of the various Western Australian fisheries for blue swimmer crabs, integrating information derived from this and other concurrent FRDC projects.

Final report

ISBN: 07309-8470-2
Author: Roy Melville-Smith
Final Report • 2002-03-11 • 454.64 KB
1998-121-DLD.pdf

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