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Fisheries Biology of the Greenback Flounder Rhombosolea Tapirina (Günther 1862) (Teleostei: Pleuronectidae) in South Australia

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Fisheries Biology of the Greenback Flounder Rhombosolea Tapirina (Günther 1862) (Teleostei: Pleuronectidae) in South Australia Fisheries biology of the greenback flounder Rhombosolea tapirina (Günther 1862) (Teleostei: Pleuronectidae) in South Australia Report for PIRSA Fisheries G Ferguson August 2006 SARDI Aquatic Sciences Publication No. RD06/0008-1 SARDI Research report Series No. 156 Fisheries biology of the greenback flounder Rhombosolea tapirina (Günther 1862) (Teleostei: Pleuronectidae) in South Australia Report for PIRSA Fisheries G Ferguson August 2006 SARDI Aquatic Sciences Publication No. RD06/0008-1 SARDI Research report Series No. 156 This report may be cited as: Ferguson G (2006). Fisheries biology of the greenback flounder Rhombosolea tapirina (Günther 1862) (Teleostei: Pleuronectidae) in South Australia. Report for PIRSA Fisheries. South Australian Research and Development Institute (Aquatic Sciences), Adelaide, RD06/0008-1. 18 pp. South Australian Research and Development Institute SARDI Aquatic Sciences 2 Hamra Avenue West Beach SA 5024 Telephone: (08) 8207 5400 Facsimile: (08) 8207 5481 http://www.sardi.sa.gov.au The authors do not warrant that the information in this report is free from errors or omissions. The authors do not accept any form of liability, be it contractual, tortuous or otherwise, for the contents of this report or for any consequences arising from its use or any reliance placed upon it. The information, opinions and advice contained in this report may not relate to, or be relevant to, a reader’s particular circumstances. Opinions expressed by the authors are the individual opinions of those persons and are not necessarily those of the publisher or research provider. © 2006 SARDI Aquatic Sciences This work is copyright. Apart from any use as permitted under the Copyright Act 1968, no part may be reproduced by any process without prior written permission from the author. Printed in Adelaide, August 2006. Author(s): G Ferguson Reviewers: Dr. D McNeil and S Leigh Approved by: Dr. A J Fowler Signed: Date: August 2006 Distribution: PIRSA Fisheries, Inland Fisheries management Committee, SARDI Aquatic Sciences Library Circulation: Public Domain TABLE OF CONTENTS 1 INTRODUCTION.........................................................................................................................3 2 TAXONOMY ................................................................................................................................3 3 GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION AND HABITAT............................................................3 4 STOCK STRUCTURE.................................................................................................................3 5 BIOLOGY .....................................................................................................................................4 5.1 Diet........................................................................................................................... 4 5.2 Growth ..................................................................................................................... 4 5.3 Size of maturity........................................................................................................ 5 5.4 Reproduction............................................................................................................ 6 5.5 Early Life History .................................................................................................... 6 6 THE FISHERY .............................................................................................................................7 6.1 Australia................................................................................................................... 7 6.2 South Australia......................................................................................................... 7 6.2.1 Commercial Fishery............................................................................................. 7 6.2.2 Recreational Fishery ............................................................................................ 8 6.2.3 Traditional Fishery............................................................................................... 8 6.2.4 Stock Assessment ................................................................................................ 8 6.2.5 Potential environmental influences on catches of greenback flounder.............. 10 7 MANAGEMENT OF THE FISHERY......................................................................................11 7.1 Commercial fishery................................................................................................ 11 7.2 Recreational Fishery .............................................................................................. 12 7.3 Traditional Fishery................................................................................................. 12 8 DISCUSSION..............................................................................................................................13 9 REFERENCES............................................................................................................................15 1 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Research presented in this report was commissioned by PIRSA Fisheries using funds obtained from licence fees paid by participants in the Lakes and Coorong Fishery. SARDI Aquatic Sciences provided substantial financial and in-kind support. Suzanne Bennett and Kelly Harris assisted by locating references for updating the literature review and Annette Doonan provided high quality mapping. Craig Noell (PIRSA) provided a valuable summary of the literature relating to larval flounder. The report was formally reviewed by Sandra Leigh and Dale McNeil (SARDI Aquatic Sciences) and Alice Fistr (PIRSA Fisheries Policy) and was approved for release by Dr. Anthony Fowler (SARDI Aquatic Sciences). 2 1 INTRODUCTION This report provides a synopsis of the information available for management of the greenback flounder fishery. This includes (i) taxonomy, (ii) distribution and habitat, (iii) stock structure, and (iv) fisheries biology. Further information is provided on the fishery for greenback flounder and management of the fishery. 2 TAXONOMY The greenback flounder (Rhombosolea tapirina Günther, 1862) belongs to the family Pleuronectidae, commonly known as the right-eye flounders (Last et al. 1983). Of the four species in the temperate Australasian genus Rhombosolea, R. tapirina is the only species that occurs in Australia (Gomon et al. 1994). The key diagnostic features for identification of R. tapirina are; (i) the absence of ventral fins on the lower body surface, and (ii) a distinctive, pointed snout (Last et al. 1983). 3 GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION AND HABITAT Rhombosolea tapirina occur in Australia from southern New South Wales and Tasmania, to Western Australia (Last et al. 1983; Kailola et al. 1993; Gomon et al. 1994). They also occur in New Zealand, around the Auckland and Campbell Islands (Gomon et al. 1994). Adult R. tapirina prefer sand, silt and muddy substrates in sheltered bays, estuaries, and inshore coastal waters (Last et al. 1983; Kailola et al. 1993; Gomon et al. 1994). They may also be found in the deeper channels of estuaries and to depths of 100 m (Last et al. 1983; Edgar 2000). Adults sexually partition habitat, with females more abundant in shallow water (5-10 m depth), and males more abundant in deeper water (10-25 m depth) (Kurth 1957; Crawford 1984a). Post-settlement and juvenile R. tapirina tend to be found in shallower water and prefer unvegetated sand and mudflat habitat where they are well camouflaged (<1 m) (Connolly 1994b; Connolly 1994a; Edgar and Shaw 1995; Jenkins et al. 1997; Jenkins and Wheatley 1998). Juveniles tolerate a wide range of changes in salinity and are often found in the upper reaches of estuaries and occasionally upstream in rivers (Last et al. 1983). 4 STOCK STRUCTURE Significant genetic differences exist between the Australian and New Zealand populations of R. tapirina based on polymorphic allozyme loci (van den Enden et al. 2000). Within 3 Australia, R. tapirina, from western Tasmania are genetically isolated from the population in Victoria, and northern and south-eastern Tasmania, although to a much lesser extent than from the population in New Zealand. The separation of western and eastern Tasmanian populations is supported by morphometric data, and has been suggested to have occurred as a consequence of the closure of Bass Strait during the last ice age (Kurth 1957). The stock structure of Western Australian and South Australian populations of R. tapirina is not known. R. tapirina are rarely found in marine waters adjacent to the Coorong lagoons and it has been suggested that the Coorong population is estuarine-resident and completes it’s life cycle within the Coorong (Hall 1984). 5 BIOLOGY 5.1 Diet Larval R. tapirina prefer to feed during daylight hours (Chen et al. 1999; Cox and Pankhurst 2000) and feed mainly on bivalve veligers, tintinnids, invertebrate eggs, and copepod nauplii (Jenkins 1987b). As the larvae grow, larvaceans, cladocerans, and harpacticoid nauplii become increasingly important prey items (Jenkins 1987a). Newly metamorphosed juveniles are also daytime feeders and eat mostly amphipods, harpacticoid copepods and polychaetes (Crawford 1984a). Older juveniles consume epibenthic harpacticoids, harpacticoid nauplii, and gammaridean amphipods and polychaetes (Crawford 1984a; Shaw and Jenkins 1992). Adult R. tapirina feed nocturnally, as the tide rises, by digging for benthic crustaceans and polychaetes
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