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

Results from an annual, statewide survey of the Queensland mud crab, Scylla serrata.

Eddie Jebreen¹, Sue Helmke², Chad Lunow², Clare Bullock³, Stuart Hyland² and Neil Gribble².

¹ Queensland Fisheries Service, Department of Primary Industries, Southern Fisheries Centre, PO Box 76 Deception Bay 4508, Australia.
² Northern Fisheries Centre, Queensland Department of Primary Industries, PO Box 5396 Portsmith 4870, Australia.
³ Queensland Department of Primary Industries, Queensland Fisheries Service, GPO Box 46, Brisbane 4001, Australia.
Email: eddie.jebreen@dpi.qld.gov.au

The Queensland Department of Primary Industries, Queensland Fisheries Service Long Term Monitoring Program undertakes annual surveys, monitoring mud crab, Scylla serrata populations in 17 estuaries around the entire Queensland coastline. The survey uses commercially available “safety pots” to record catch rates, population size structure and sex ratio in conjunction with several abiotic parameters. This enables the comparison of standardised catch rates between four locations within each estuary, and between different estuaries. In contrast to an overall, increasing trend in commercial total catch and total effort state wide, standardised catch rates generated from survey data are variable and trends are inconsistent between estuaries. Variation in population sex ratios, and standardised catch rates of females, sub-legal (< 15 cm carapace width (CW) and legal (>15 cm CW) males between estuaries appears correlated with proximity to major urban centres. A majority of estuaries show a negative correlation between carapace width and distance from the river or estuary mouth. Significant differences in mean carapace width between locations within each estuary are not consistent between estuaries. Differences in mean carapace width between years and between sexes, although significant are inconsistent and small compared to absolute carapace width measures.

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