Greenback Flounder (Rhombosolea Tapirina) Stock Assessment Report 2014/15
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Greenback Flounder (Rhombosolea tapirina) Stock Assessment Report 2014/15 J. Earl and Q. Ye SARDI Publication No. F2007/000315-2 SARDI Research Report Series No. 889 SARDI Aquatics Sciences PO Box 120 Henley Beach SA 5022 March 2016 Report to PIRSA Fisheries & Aquaculture Earl, J. and Ye, Q. (2016) Greenback Flounder Stock Assessment Report 2014/15 Greenback Flounder (Rhombosolea tapirina) Stock Assessment Report 2014/15 Report to PIRSA Fisheries and Aquaculture J. Earl and Q. Ye SARDI Publication No. F2007/000315-2 SARDI Research Report Series No. 889 March 2016 ii Earl, J. and Ye, Q. (2016) Greenback Flounder Stock Assessment Report 2014/15 This publication may be cited as: Earl, J. and Ye, Q. (2016). Greenback Flounder (Rhombosolea tapirina) Stock Assessment Report 2014/15. Report to PIRSA Fisheries and Aquaculture. South Australian Research and Development Institute (Aquatic Sciences), Adelaide. SARDI Publication No. F2007/000315-2. SARDI Research Report Series No. 889. 40pp. 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. F2007/000315-2 SARDI Research Report Series No. 889 Author(s): J. Earl and Q. Ye. Reviewer(s): M. Steer, G. Ferguson (SARDI) and J. McPhail (PIRSA) Approved by: S. Mayfield Science Leader - Fisheries Signed: Date: 4 March 2016 Distribution: PIRSA Fisheries and Aquaculture, Lakes and Coorong Consultative Committee, SAASC Library, University of Adelaide Library, Parliamentary Library, State Library and National Library Circulation: Public Domain iii Earl, J. and Ye, Q. (2016) Greenback Flounder Stock Assessment Report 2014/15 TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF FIGURES .................................................................................................................... V LIST OF TABLES ...................................................................................................................... VI ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ........................................................................................................ VII EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ........................................................................................................... 1 1. GENERAL INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................... 2 1.1 Overview ...................................................................................................................... 2 1.2 Description of the fishery.............................................................................................. 2 1.3 Management of the fishery ........................................................................................... 4 1.4 Performance indicators ................................................................................................ 6 1.5 Previous fishery assessments ...................................................................................... 7 1.6 National stock status classification framework ............................................................. 7 1.7 Biology of Greenback Flounder .................................................................................... 9 2. COMMERCIAL FISHERY STATISTICS .............................................................................14 2.1 Introduction .................................................................................................................14 2.2 Methods ......................................................................................................................14 2.3 Results ........................................................................................................................16 2.4 Discussion ..................................................................................................................22 3. SIZE AND AGE STRUCTURES .........................................................................................24 3.1 Introduction .................................................................................................................24 3.2 Methods ......................................................................................................................24 3.3 Results ........................................................................................................................25 3.4 Discussion ..................................................................................................................28 4. PERFORMANCE INDICATORS ........................................................................................29 4.1 Introduction .................................................................................................................29 4.2 Methods ......................................................................................................................29 4.3 Results ........................................................................................................................29 4.4 Discussion ..................................................................................................................31 5. GENERAL DISCUSSION ...................................................................................................32 5.1 Information available for assessing fishery status .......................................................32 5.2 Current status of the LCF for Greenback Flounder......................................................32 5.3 Uncertainty in the assessment ....................................................................................34 5.4 Future research needs ................................................................................................35 REFERENCES .........................................................................................................................37 iv Earl, J. and Ye, Q. (2016) Greenback Flounder Stock Assessment Report 2014/15 LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1. Map of the Lakes and Coorong region showing commercial reporting areas 4-16 of the LCF. .... 3 Figure 2. Greenback Flounder, Rhombosolea tapirina (Gunther 1862). Source: Australian National Fish Collection, CSIRO (2014). ............................................................................................................................. 9 Figure 3. Von Bertalanffy growth (VBG) curves for Greenback Flounder from two areas in the Coorong estuary: the ‘Estuary’ represents LCF reporting areas 6 and 7; and the ‘North Lagoon’ represents reporting areas 8, 9 and 10 (Source: Earl et al. 2014). Estimates of VBG parameters (L∞ and K) are also shown. The parameter t0 was constrained to zero. ........................................................................................................ 12 Figure 4. Total annual catches of Greenback Flounder in South Australia from 1951/52 to 2014/15, by fishing sector. Information on the sector by which catches were taken was not available from 1951/52 to 1957/58. Estimates of recreational harvest were available for 2000/01, 2007/08 and 2013/14. Horizontal red capped line indicates the period for which catch estimates were unavailable. .................................... 16 Figure 5. Annual catches of Greenback Flounder by the LCF from 1984/85 to 2014/15, by gear type. .... 17 Figure 6. Average monthly catches (±S.E.) of Greenback Flounder by the LCF from 1984/85 to 2014/15, expressed as a percentage of annual catch. .............................................................................................. 18 Figure 7. Annual targeted catch and effort for Greenback Flounder using large mesh gill nets from 1984/85 to 2014/15. (A) Targeted catch is shown in t, and as a percentage of total catch for the LCF; (B) Comparison of two measures of targeted effort for large mesh gill nets, i.e. fisher days, net days; (C) Comparison of two measures of CPUELMGN based on the two measures of targeted effort. (*) represents confidential data reported by less than five licence holders (does not represent actual values). No targeted fishing effort was reported for 2010/11. ................................................................................................................................... 19 Figure 8. Contribution of catches from commercial reporting areas to total annual