Southern Garfish (Hyporhamphus Melanochir) Fishery MA Steer, R
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Southern Garfish (Hyporhamphus melanochir) Fishery MA Steer, R McGarvey, J Carroll, WB Jackson, MT Lloyd and JE Feenstra SARDI Publication No. F2007/000720-4 SARDI Research Report Series No. 891 SARDI Aquatics Sciences PO Box 120 Henley Beach SA 5022 March 2016 Fishery Assessment Report to PIRSA Fisheries and Aquaculture Steer, M. et al. (2016) Garfish Assessment Southern Garfish (Hyporhamphus melanochir) Fishery Fishery Assessment Report to PIRSA Fisheries and Aquaculture MA Steer, R McGarvey, J Carroll, WB Jackson, MT Lloyd and JE Feenstra SARDI Publication No. F2007/000720-4 SARDI Research Report Series No. 891 March 2016 II Steer, M. et al. (2016) Garfish Assessment This publication may be cited as: Steer, M.A., McGarvey, R., Carroll, J., Jackson, W. B., Lloyd, M. T. and Feenstra, J. E. (2016). Southern Garfish (Hyporhamphus melanochir) Fishery. Fishery Assessment Report to PIRSA Fisheries and Aquaculture. South Australian Research and Development Institute (Aquatic Sciences), Adelaide. SARDI Publication No. F2007/000720-4. SARDI Research Report Series No. 891. 75pp. South Australian Research and Development Institute SARDI Aquatic Sciences 2 Hamra Avenue West Beach SA 5024 Telephone: (08) 8207 5400 Facsimile: (08) 8207 5406 http://www.pir.sa.gov.au/research DISCLAIMER The authors warrant that they have taken all reasonable care in producing this report. The report has been through the SARDI internal review process, and has been formally approved for release by the Research Chief, Aquatic Sciences. Although all reasonable efforts have been made to ensure quality, SARDI does not warrant that the information in this report is free from errors or omissions. SARDI does not accept any liability for the contents of this report or for any consequences arising from its use or any reliance placed upon it. The SARDI Report Series is an Administrative Report Series which has not been reviewed outside the department and is not considered peer-reviewed literature. Material presented in these Administrative Reports may later be published in formal peer-reviewed scientific literature. © 2016 SARDI This work is copyright. Apart from any use as permitted under the Copyright Act 1968 (Cth), no part may be reproduced by any process, electronic or otherwise, without the specific written permission of the copyright owner. Neither may information be stored electronically in any form whatsoever without such permission. Printed in Adelaide: March 2016 SARDI Publication No. F2007/000720-4 SARDI Research Report Series No. 891 Author(s): MA Steer, R McGarvey, J Carroll, WB Jackson, MT Lloyd and JE Feenstra Reviewer(s): TM Ward, S Mayfield (SARDI) and A Fistr (PIRSA) Approved by: S Mayfield Science Leader - Fisheries Signed: Date: 24 March 2016 Distribution: PIRSA Fisheries & Aquaculture. SAASC Library, University of Adelaide Library, Parliamentary Library, State Library and National Library Circulation: Public Domain III Steer, M. et al. (2016) Garfish Assessment TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS .............................................................................................................. IX EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ................................................................................................................ 1 1. INTRODUCTION ..................................................................................................................... 3 1.1. Overview ........................................................................................................................... 3 1.2. Description of the fishery ................................................................................................. 3 1.3. Biology of Southern Garfish ............................................................................................. 7 1.4. Research program ........................................................................................................... 9 1.5. Information sources used for assessment ....................................................................... 9 1.6. Harvest strategy ............................................................................................................. 11 1.7. Stock status classification .............................................................................................. 13 2. METHODS ............................................................................................................................. 15 2.1. Commercial catch and effort statistics ........................................................................... 15 2.2. Recreational catch and effort statistics .......................................................................... 15 2.3. Biological sampling ........................................................................................................ 16 2.4. Integrated stock assessment model .............................................................................. 16 2.5. Assessment of fishery performance .............................................................................. 18 2.6. Quality assurance of data .............................................................................................. 19 3. RESULTS .............................................................................................................................. 20 3.1. State-wide ....................................................................................................................... 20 3.2. Stocks ............................................................................................................................. 26 3.3. Fishery performance ...................................................................................................... 38 4. DISCUSSION ........................................................................................................................ 41 4.1. Stock status .................................................................................................................... 41 4.2. Management implications .............................................................................................. 46 4.3. Current performance indicators and reference points ................................................... 47 4.4. Future directions ............................................................................................................. 48 5. REFERENCES ...................................................................................................................... 49 6. APPENDIX A: ANNUAL SIZE AND AGE STRUCTURE ...................................................... 53 7. APPENDIX B: EFFORT STANDARDISATION ..................................................................... 56 8. APPENDIX C: AGE-LENGTH ‘SLICE’ PARTIONING METHOD ......................................... 57 9. APPENDIX D. GARFISH STOCK ASSESSMENT MODEL ................................................ 62 9.1. Growth ............................................................................................................................ 62 9.2. Recruitment .................................................................................................................... 63 IV Steer, M. et al. (2016) Garfish Assessment 9.3. Model population array ................................................................................................... 63 9.4. Mortality .......................................................................................................................... 64 9.5. Estimation: Parameters and model likelihood .............................................................. 65 10. APPENDIX E. MODEL FITS TO DATA ............................................................................... 69 V Steer, M. et al. (2016) Garfish Assessment LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1.1. Map of the netting closures and restrictions relevant to South Australia’s MSF hauling net sector. Note: the dark blue (0-5m depth) areas indicate where commercial haul netters are permitted to operate. ......................................................................................................................................................... 6 Figure 3.1. The relative contribution to the total statewide catch of Garfish across the shared sectors. * Recreational data are aggregated across financial years. .......................................................................... 20 Figure 3.2. Statewide trends in the number of MSF licences landing or targeting Garfish; commercial Garfish catch, effort and CPUE by gear from 1984 until 2014. ................................................................... 23 Figure 3.3. Relative proportion of the statewide commercial catch of Garfish by Region (top). The size of the bubble indicates its relative proportion of the total annual catch. Long-term trends in seasonal commercial catch (t) of Garfish by hauling net (middle) and dab net (bottom) from 1984 until 2014. ........ 24 Figure 3.4. Estimated State-wide and regional harvest of Garfish by the recreational sector as estimated through three telephone/diary surveys (Henry and Lyle 2003, Jones 2009, Giri and Hall 2015) and their relative contribution to the total state-wide catch. ....................................................................................... 25 Figure 3.5. Key outputs used to assess the status of the NSG Garfish stock. (Left) Trends in total catch, total hauling net effort, catch rates (CPUE) and modelled age composition. (Right) Model output: Harvest fraction, egg production