Haliotis Rubra) Fishery in 2014
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Assessment of the Western Zone Blacklip Abalone (Haliotis rubra) Fishery in 2014 B. Stobart, S. Mayfield and J. Dent SARDI Publication No. F2015/000407-1 SARDI Research Report Series No. 864 SARDI Aquatic Sciences PO Box 120 Henley Beach SA 5022 September 2015 Fishery Stock Assessment Report to PIRSA Fisheries and Aquaculture Stobart et al. 2015 Western Zone Blacklip Stock Assessment Report Assessment of the Western Zone Blacklip Abalone (Haliotis rubra) Fishery in 2014 Fishery Stock Assessment Report to PIRSA Fisheries and Aquaculture B. Stobart, S. Mayfield and J. Dent SARDI Publication No. F2015/000407-1 SARDI Research Report Series No. 864 September 2015 ii Stobart et al. 2015 Western Zone Blacklip Stock Assessment Report This publication may be cited as: Stobart, B., Mayfield, S. and Dent, J. (2015). Assessment of the Western Zone Blacklip Abalone (Haliotis rubra) Fishery in 2014. Fishery Stock Assessment Report to PIRSA Fisheries and Aquaculture. South Australian Research and Development Institute (Aquatic Sciences), Adelaide. SARDI Publication F2015/000407-1. SARDI Research Report Series No. 864. 68pp. Cover photograph: Blacklip abalone (Haliotis rubra), B. Stobart 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. © 2015 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: September 2015 SARDI Publication No. F2015/000407-1 SARDI Research Report Series No. 864 Author(s): B. Stobart, S. Mayfield and J. Dent Reviewer(s): T. Ward, A. Linnane (SARDI) and B. McGrath-Steer (PIRSA) Approved by: Dr Q. Ye Science Leader – Inland Waters & Catchment Ecology Signed: Date: 18 September 2015 Distribution: PIRSA Fisheries and Aquaculture, Western Zone Abalone Fishery licence holders, SAASC Library, Parliamentary Library, State Library and National Library Circulation: Public Domain iii Stobart et al. 2015 Western Zone Blacklip Stock Assessment Report TABLE OF CONTENTS EXECUTIVE SUMMARY..................................................................................... I 1. INTRODUCTION ......................................................................................... 2 1.1. Overview ............................................................................................................ 2 1.2. History and description of the fishery ............................................................ 3 1.2.1. Commercial fishery ................................................................................... 3 1.2.2. Economic importance of the commercial fishery ....................................... 6 1.2.3. Recreational fishery .................................................................................. 6 1.2.4. Illegal, unregulated and unreported catch ................................................. 6 1.3. Management Plan ............................................................................................. 7 1.4. Blacklip biology ................................................................................................ 9 1.5. Previous stock assessments ......................................................................... 10 2. METHODS ................................................................................................ 12 2.1. Catch and effort .............................................................................................. 12 2.2. Commercial catch sampling .......................................................................... 13 2.3. Fishery-independent surveys ........................................................................ 15 2.4. Harvest strategy .............................................................................................. 15 2.5. Quality Assurance .......................................................................................... 15 2.5.1. Research planning .................................................................................. 15 2.5.2. Data collection ......................................................................................... 16 2.5.3. Data entry, validation, storage and security ............................................ 16 2.5.4. Data and statistical analyses ................................................................... 16 2.5.5. Data interpretation and report writing ...................................................... 16 3. RESULTS ................................................................................................. 17 3.1. Western Zone .................................................................................................. 17 3.1.1. Spatial assessment units ........................................................................ 18 3.1.2. Distribution of catch among spatial assessment units ............................ 20 3.1.3. Temporal patterns in high importance spatial assessment units ............ 22 Drummond (Rank 1-1; 16.5-29.2%) .................................................................. 22 iv Stobart et al. 2015 Western Zone Blacklip Stock Assessment Report Sheringa (Rank 2-2; 11.0-10.7%) ..................................................................... 23 Point Westall (Rank 3-3; 7.8-10.7%) ................................................................. 25 Avoid Bay (Rank 4-4; 7.3-7.7%) ........................................................................ 28 Reef Head (Rank 5-5; 6.7-6.4%) ....................................................................... 29 Searcy Bay (Rank 6-7; 6.3-5.4%) ..................................................................... 31 Ward Island (Rank 7-11; 5.7-2.4%) ................................................................... 32 Anxious Bay (Rank 8-6; 5.7-6.1%) .................................................................... 34 3.1.4. Temporal patterns in medium importance spatial assessment units ...... 35 Venus Bay (Rank 9-9; 4.9-3.5%) ...................................................................... 35 Hotspot (Rank 10-23; 4.7-0.2%) ....................................................................... 35 Point Avoid (Rank 11-8; 3.8-4.7%) .................................................................... 35 Flinders Island (Rank 12-14; 2.4-1.2%) ............................................................ 37 Baird Bay (Rank 13-17; 2.4-0.8%) .................................................................... 37 3.2. Risk-of-overfishing in SAUs and zonal stock status ................................... 38 4. DISCUSSION ............................................................................................ 40 4.1. Information, data gaps and uncertainty in the assessment ....................... 40 4.2. Status of blacklip in the WZ ........................................................................... 41 4.3. Harvest strategy for the WZ abalone fishery ................................................ 45 4.4. Future research needs ................................................................................... 47 5. REFERENCES .......................................................................................... 48 APPENDIX ............................................................................................................... 54 A.1. Blacklip biology ................................................................................ 54 A.2. Blacklip performance indicators ....................................................... 56 A.3. Historic medium importance SAU FI surveys .................................. 68 v Stobart et al. 2015 Western Zone Blacklip Stock Assessment Report LIST OF TABLES Table 1.1. Stock status terminology for the Status of key Australian fish stocks reports ................................................................................................. 1 Table 1.2. Management milestones: Western Zone of the South Australian Abalone Fishery. ................................................................................. 4 Table 1.3. Summary of the current management arrangements for the Western Zone commercial abalone fishery. ...................................................... 6 Table 3.1. Outcome from application of the harvest strategy described in the Management Plan for the South Australian Abalone Fishery against the blacklip fishery in the Western Zone. .........................................