ASFB Home > 2003 > Biological Invasions: Consequences for Parasites, Pathogens, Emerging Diseases, and Fisheries in the Marine Environment.

TAC-based management of the snapper, Pagrus auratus, fishery in the inner gulfs of Shark Bay, Western Australia

G. Jackson

Department of Fisheries, Western Australia, Western Australian Marine Research Laboratories, PO Box 20, North Beach, WA, 6920, Australia
Email: gjackson@fish.wa.gov.au

Anecdotal or preliminary scientific data are rarely sufficient to achieve the necessary community/political support for proposed management changes aimed at protecting highly vulnerable finfish stocks. Such was the case until recently with snapper (Pagrus auratus) in the inner gulfs of Shark Bay, Western Australia, historically the key target for large numbers of visiting recreational fishers during the most popular winter season. Although concern over the level of recreational exploitation was first raised in the 1970s, and more loudly in the early 1990s, the necessary management action did not transpire because data on population biology, stock abundance and recreational catches were inadequate. Research since 1997 has provided annual estimates of spawning stock size from daily egg production method surveys, and of recreational catches from bus-route method creel surveys. These data have been incorporated into the management process and various measures introduced since 1996/97 aimed at protecting the region’s snapper stocks. Difficulties have arisen because (i) snapper stock structure is complex, (ii) fish aggregate to spawn in well known locations and (iii) recreational catches are large in relation to current stock sizes. More recently stock assessments have been based on age-structured models using data obtained since 1997 which explored likely trajectories of mature biomass for various levels of catch based on a biological reference point of 40% of virgin spawning biomass. TACs for the three separate recognised stocks have been set for the 2003 fishing year, an approach rarely possible with such marine recreational finfish fisheries.

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