Optimising the Collection of Relative Abundance Data for the Pipi Population in New South Wales
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Optimising the collection of relative abundance data for the pipi population in New South Wales Charles A. Gray WildFish Research January 2016 FRDC Project No 2012/018 ! ! © 2016 Fisheries Research and Development Corporation. All rights reserved. ISBN 978-0-9941504-0-0 Optimising the collection of relative abundance data for the pipi population in New South Wales Project 2012/018 2016 Draft final report submitted 18 November 2015; accepted 6 January 2016 Ownership of Intellectual property rights Unless otherwise noted, copyright (and any other intellectual property rights, if any) in this publication is owned by the Fisheries Research and Development Corporation, the Sydney Institute of Marine Science and WildFish Research This publication (and any information sourced from it) should be attributed to Gray, C.A., WildFish Research, 2016, Optimising the collection of relative abundance data for the pipi population in New South Wales. Sydney, Australia, August. CC BY 3.0 Creative Commons licence All material in this publication is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Australia Licence, save for content supplied by third parties, logos and the Commonwealth Coat of Arms. Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Australia Licence is a standard form licence agreement that allows you to copy, distribute, transmit and adapt this publication provided you attribute the work. A summary of the licence terms is available from creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/au/deed.en. The full licence terms are available from creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/au/legalcode. Inquiries regarding the licence and any use of this document should be sent to: [email protected]. Disclaimer The authors do not warrant that the information in this document is free from errors or omissions. The authors do not accept any form of liability, be it contractual, tortious, or otherwise, for the contents of this document or for any consequences arising from its use or any reliance placed upon it. The information, opinions and advice contained in this document may not relate, or be relevant, to a readers particular circumstances. Opinions expressed by the authors are the individual opinions expressed by those persons and are not necessarily those of the publisher, research provider or the FRDC. The Fisheries Research and Development Corporation plans, invests in and manages fisheries research and development throughout Australia. It is a statutory authority within the portfolio of the federal Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry, jointly funded by the Australian Government and the fishing industry. Researcher Contact Details FRDC Contact Details Name: Prof Charles Gray Address: 25 Geils Court Address: WildFish Research Deakin ACT 2600 c/- Sydney Institute of Marine Science Phone: 02 6285 0400 Building 19 Chowder Bay Road Fax: 02 6285 0499 Mosman NSW 2088 Email: [email protected] Phone: 02 9435 4600 Web: www.frdc.com.au Email: [email protected] In submitting this report, the researcher has agreed to FRDC publishing this material in its edited form. Contents Contents .................................................................................................................................................... i Executive Summary ............................................................................................................................... ii 1. Introduction ........................................................................................................................................ 1 2. Objectives ............................................................................................................................................ 3 3. Key Methods and Results .................................................................................................................. 4 4. Discussion .......................................................................................................................................... 10 5. Conclusions ....................................................................................................................................... 12 6. Implications ....................................................................................................................................... 13 7. Recommendations ............................................................................................................................. 14 Further development ........................................................................................................................ 14 8. Extension and Adoption ................................................................................................................... 15 Project coverage ............................................................................................................................... 15 9. References ......................................................................................................................................... 16 10. Project materials developed ........................................................................................................... 18 11. Appendices ...................................................................................................................................... 19 Appendix 1. ...................................................................................................................................... 20 Appendix 2. ...................................................................................................................................... 21 Appendix 3. ...................................................................................................................................... 39 Appendix 4. ...................................................................................................................................... 61 Appendix 5. ...................................................................................................................................... 79 Appendix 6. .................................................................................................................................... 101 Appendix 7. .................................................................................................................................... 111 Appendix 8. .................................................................................................................................... 127 i Executive Summary Overview: This project evaluated fishery-independent and -dependent data sources and sampling strategies to monitor and assess the beach clam (pipi), Donax deltoides. This was achieved using novel experiments across several beaches that tested specific hypotheses related to the project objectives. This research was required to determine the most appropriate and rigorous sampling strategies to provide vital demographic information for future managing the sustainable harvesting of the pipi resource in New South Wales (NSW). The project methodologies and results have applicability to other systems and jurisdictions in Australia and elsewhere. Background: The pipi has a long history of indigenous, and a more recent history of commercial and recreational, harvesting in NSW. Commercial fishery production increased dramatically from its beginnings in the 1950’s to peak at 670 tonnes in 2001, after which it declined to a low of 9 tonne in 2011 despite increasing prices and markets. Whilst the reasons for the decline are not clear and confounded by environmental variability, unregulated fishing probably contributed. In response to the decade of decline in commercial catches, several management initiatives designed to substantially reduce commercial fishing effort and harvest, and therefore halt further population declines were introduced to the NSW fishery in 2012. These included a six-month total commercial fishing closure, spatially explicit commercial fishing closures of whole beaches and specific zones along particular beaches, a maximum daily catch quota of 40 kg per-commercial fisher, and a minimum legal size limit (45 mm shell length, SL). Concomitant restrictions to recreational and indigenous fishers were also introduced, but these were primarily in response to concerns over human health issues associated with bio-toxins. These latter two groups can still harvest clams year-round across most beaches, but this is limited to 50 clams per day for immediate in-situ bait use only (unless for specific indigenous cultural events). To assist future management and industry needs for sustainable harvesting of the pipi resource, there was a requirement to develop and test cost-effective and reliable strategies to monitor and assess pipi populations across the breadth of beaches throughout NSW. This included fishery-dependent and - independent data sources and sampling strategies. Aims and objectives: This project aimed to evaluate fishery-independent and -dependent data sources, and provide robust and practical demonstrations of their roles, for the assessment and management of the pipi resource and commercial fishery in NSW. It also provided quantitative information on the across-beach distributions of pipis. The specific project objectives were: 1. Assess fishery-independent and -dependent techniques in developing a practical, cost-efficient and collaborative strategy for surveying the relative abundance and size structure of pipi populations, and 2. Determine the across-beach