Spatial scales of exploitation among populations of demersal scalefish: implications for wetline management

Funded Activity Summary

To address the urgent issue of impending over-exploitation of reef-fish resources, the WA Minister for Fisheries has recently approved the Wetline Review to bring WA’s wetline fisheries under more effective management, beginning with the West Coast Bio-region. The West Coast Bio-region supports 56% of WA’s wetline fishing fleet (valued at ~ $4 million dollars), 76% of recreational boat-based line-fishers and most of the charter boat fishery. The issues at stake here are commercial and charter fishing viability, enjoyment of recreational fishing by the majority of WA’s population, provision of local world-class table fish for the non-fishing public and equitable allocation of resources among all sectors. The key needs for management of the west coast demersal scalefish fishery are -
* A better understanding of the spatial scales of the two major fish populations along the West Coast Bio-region to determine their appropriate geographical scales for management.
* Knowledge of the regional variation in the biology of snapper and WA dhufish along the West Coast Bio-region. Age and growth of temperate snapper has not been studied in WA.
* Estimating the exploitation status of the stocks of the major species, snapper and WA dhufish.
* To ensure that sustainability of the resource is the foundation of all management options by educating the stakeholders about the biology and the exploitation of the finfish resources and by involving them in the management process.

Objectives:
1. To examine the level of intermixing among populations of both pink snapper and WA dhufish along the West Coast to determine the appropriate geographical scales for management.
2. To determine whether there are regional differences in the biology of pink snapper and dhufish populations along the West Coast, particularly in growth and reproduction (timing of /size at maturity).
3. To evaluate the spatial variation in the exploitation status of pink snapper and dhufish within the West Coast Bio-region.
4. To develop a suite of alternative management scenarios to assist the multiple fishing sectors of the Bio-region to select and adopt an optimal management strategy.

Funded Activity Details

Start Date: 30-06-2003

End Date: 01-10-2007

Funding Scheme: Funding Scheme not available

Funding Amount: $514,378.00

Funder: Fisheries Research and Development Corporation

Research Topics

ANZSRC Field of Research (FoR)

There are no FoR codes available for this funding activity

ANZSRC Socio-Economic Objective (SEO)

There are no SEO codes available for this funding activity

Other Keywords

Ageing | Biology | Fisheries Management | Habitat | Laboratory Procedures | Otolith | Reproduction | Stakeholder | Stock Assessment

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