The need for targeted research to support management of the NE QLD lobster fishery has arisen as a result of the recent and dramatic increase in catch and concern that the increase is unsustainable. In response to this concern the Queensland Fisheries Service (QFS) issued an investment warning for the fishery on 31 May 2001. Also, the NE QLD lobster population is likely part of a wider distributed stock, shared by Australian and PNG fishers in Torres Strait and now these fisheries are over-exploited and managers are taking measures to ensure sustainability. In NE QLD, there is an urgent need to gain biological and fishery information to allow implementation of management measures that will ensure catches are sustainable. The commercial catch is monitored by the QFS with a logbook program but no formal stock assessment has been undertaken using this data. However, effort and catch has doubled over the past three years, whilst CPUE has tended to decline. There is also a need to collate existing and new information on the biology of the NE QLD lobster population to assess current impacts of fishing on the stock and so that future research can be prioritised and properly designed to ensure its cost-effectiveness. Future research would likely include field studies to assist stock assessment, breeding population studies, targeted oceanographic studies and efficient observer programs. A critical need is knowledge of the extent of the breeding population and the fate of larval recruits on the NE QLD coast. There is currently pressure from the industry to open areas south of 14°S. However, for informed management decisions it is important to establish how well stocks are connected. Existing allozyme genetic data could not detect stock structure in this species. However, due to the slow mutation rates of allozymes and low variability especially in lobsters, this is not sufficient to conclude that the NE QLD fishery operates on the same genetic stock as the Torres Strait population. It is likely, given the long larval life of lobsters (6 months) that the NE QLD coast, Torres Strait and the eastern Gulf of Papua are source areas and larvae spawned there mix in the NW Coral Sea gyre and provide recruitment to these regions as well as to sink areas south of 14°S. If this is true, fishing occurs in the source area but not on the sink population; biological and genetic information is required to resolve this contrary situation.