Modelling to explore management strategies to optimise the value of the rock lobster fishery of Western Australia

Funded Activity Summary

It is recognised by industry that the yield currently obtained from the western rock lobster fishery cannot be enhanced by increasing exploitation without also reducing the breeding stock to an unacceptable level. The value of the fishery can only be increased by reducing costs or by increasing the value of the catch. Modelling of the fishery is required to investigate the potential improvement in value that might be obtained from an optimal set of management controls designed to improve market prices through controlling the supply of lobsters to the market both within and among fishing seasons. The ability to predict future catches based on puerulus settlement indices offers the rock lobster industry in Western Australia a unique opportunity to improve prices by varying the exploitation rate between seasons in order to more closely match market demand.

A modelling project to address this need will require the development of a more statistically sound model of the lobster fishery than was provided by the descriptive model developed by Walters et al. (1993). This will benefit the participants in the fishery by providing an understanding of the uncertainties associated with model predictions, and the validity of the new model when applied to different sectors of the fishery. The earlier model used information from only a small subset of the data available from the fishery, and the new model will utilise far more of the available data, thus providing a more robust description of the rock lobster fishery.

Development of the proposed model is seen as an essential and strategic element of the research programme for this fishery.

Objectives:
1. To develop a statistically sound biological model to represent the fish stock and its interaction with fishers within the constraints of management strategies;
2. To incorporate marketing data into the model to allow the prediction of changes in product value with different management scenarios;
3. To determine the time-dependent set of management controls (size, catch, and effort) that would optimise the value of the landed product, and to identify alternative locally optimum sets of controls producing similar (but reduced) value.

Funded Activity Details

Start Date: 27-06-1997

End Date: 29-11-2000

Funding Scheme: Funding Scheme not available

Funding Amount: $140,183.00

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

Biology | Economic | Fisheries Management | Fishing Effort | Life History | Marketing | Modelling | Price & quality | Stock Assessment | Survey

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