This project will harness existing information to implement strategic and cost-effective data collections on the abundance of key species of reef fishes in Tasmania along gradients in environmental condition and fishing intensity. The outcomes are intended to improve current stock assessment approaches and to establish a fishery-independent monitoring program that will help ensure the long-term sustainability of some of the most productive commercial fisheries in the state. More specifically, the project aims to collate data on reef fish abundance and movements collected in the context of multiple previous research projects, and to collect new data that fill current gaps in knowledge about localised population depletion as well as population dynamics across different types of reef habitats. For Wrasse, our findings are expected to inform the appropriate scale of annual assessments of trends in catch, effort, and catch rates. The findings will further be used to define management units for data-poor stock assessment approaches, including “catch-only” methods. Importantly, for Banded Morwong, the study will be designed to address two critical sensitivities related to both the structure and parameterisation of the current stock assessment model, which is a fundamental tool in support of decisions on the Total Allowable Catch (TAC) for this species. Both model sensitives relate to current assumptions about the relative abundance and exchange of individuals among shallow and deep-water (>30 m) reef habitat, which are highly uncertain but have fundamental implications for management decisions on current and future TACs.