I & I NSW Wild Fisheries research Program Spanner ( ranina)

Exploitation Status Fully Fished

Joint fishery-independent monitoring between NSW and Queensland occurs for this shared stock, and status has been determined from the Queensland assessment.

Scientific name common name comment

Ranina ranina spanner crab

Ranina ranina Image © Bernard Yau

Background Spanner (Ranina ranina) are distributed Spanner crabs are opportunistic feeders throughout the Indo-Pacific region in coastal with their diet consisting of urchins, bivalve waters, to a depth of 70 m, on sandy substrates molluscs, , polychaete worms, in which they bury. On the east coast of and fish. Growth estimates for spanner crabs Australia, spanner crabs are distributed from sampled in NSW suggest that males reach Yeppoon in Queensland to Nowra in NSW and, a maximum size of 14 cm CL and females on the west coast, from Quinn rocks (north of reach a maximum size > 11 cm CL. Growth to Perth) to the Houtman Abrolhos and Geraldton these maximum lengths is thought to take in WA. approximately 10 years. Sampling of spanner crabs in both NSW and Queensland has Spanner crabs mature and spawn between indicated that the commercial catch consists October and February, and large females are predominantly of males. able to produce two batches of eggs each season with each batch averaging around Virtually all spanner crabs are caught in the 120,000 eggs. Female crabs mature at about Ocean Trap and Line Fishery by specifically 2 years of age which is equivalent to 7-7.5 cm endorsed fishers using spanner crab nets (also carapace length, (CL) or about 150 g in weight. know as dillies).

status of fisheries resources in nsw, 2008/09 Spanner Crab | p 315 wild fisheries research program

Additional Notes Landings by Commercial Fishery of Spanner Crab • Shared stock with Queensland, where the Ocean Trap and Line (Primary ) majority of the fishery (~90%) exists.

• There are no concerning trends evident 350

in catch rates of legal-sized crabs from 300

Queensland, but the fishery dependant catch 250 rates from NSW have declined since 2003/04. 200 • Both jurisdictions have regulations that Landings (t) 150 prohibit the harvesting of berried crabs (females carrying maturing ova). 100 • In NSW there is a minimum legal length of 50 9.3 cm carapace length and a recreational 0 97/98 99/00 01/02 03/04 05/06 07/08 bag limit of 10 spanner crabs. Financial Year Reported landings of spanner crab by NSW commercial fisheries from 1997/98. Fisheries which contribute less Catch than 2.5% of the landings are excluded for clarity and privacy. Recreational Catch of Spanner Crab The annual recreational harvest of spanner crab in NSW is likely to be less than one tonne. Catch Per Unit Effort Information of Spanner Crab Harvested by Spanner Crab Trapping in NSW Historical Landings of Spanner Crab 1.0 500 0.8 400 0.6 300 0.4 Relative Catch Rate 200 Landings (t) 0.2 100 0.0

88/89 93/94 98/99 03/04 08/09 0 Financial Year 88/89 93/94 98/99 03/04 08/09 Catch rates of spanner crab harvested using spanner Financial Year crab trapping for NSW. Two indicators are provided: Commercial landings (including available historical (1) median catch rate (lower solid line); and (2) 90th records) of spanner crab for NSW from 1984/85 to percentile of the catch rate (upper dashed line). Note that 2008/09 for all fishing methods. catch rates are not a robust indicator of abundance in many cases. Caution should be applied when interpreting these results.

p 316 | Spanner Crab status of fisheries resources in nsw, 2008/09

Further Reading Brown, I. (2004). Spanner crab stock assessment Kennelly, S.J. (1989). Effects of soak-time and spatial review and annual quota determination for the heterogeneity on sampling populations of spanner quota period 1/6/04-31/5/06. Report to the Crab crabs Ranina ranina. Marine Ecology Progress Series Management Advisory Committee (CrabMAC), 55: 141-147. Queensland Fisheries Service. Kennelly, S.J. (1992). Distribution, abundances and Brown, I. (2007). Mid-cycle Spanner Crab Fishery current status of exploited populations of spanner TAC Review for 2007-08. Report to CrabMAC crabs Ranina ranina off the east coast of Australia. Stock Assessment Group, Department of Primary Marine Ecology Progress Series 85: 227-235. Industries and Fisheries: 8 pp. Kennelly, S.J. and D. Watkins (1994). Fecundity and Brown, I. (2010). Queensland spanner crab annual reproduction period, and their relationship to catch status report and TAC review for TAC period rates of spanner crabs, Ranina ranina, off the east June 2010 to May 2012. Crab Scientific Advisory coast of Australia. Journal of Biology 14 Group Report 2010/01. Queensland, Department (1): 146-150. of Employment, Economic Development and Kennelly, S.J. and J.P. Scandol (2002). Using a fishery- Innovation. independent survey to assess the status of a Brown, I., J. Kirkwood, S. Gaddes, C. Dichmont and spanner crab Ranina ranina fishery: univariate J. Ovenden (1999). Population dynamics and analysis and biomass modelling. Crustaceana 75 (1): management of spanner crabs (Ranina ranina) 13-39. in southern Queensland. FRDC Project Report Kennelly, S.J. and J.R. Craig (1989). Effects of trap Q099010. Deception Bay, Queensland Department design, independence of traps and bait on sampling of Primary Industries and Fisheries: 145 pp. populations of spanner crabs Ranina ranina. Marine Brown, I.W. (1986). Population Biology of the Spanner Ecology Progress Series 51: 49-56. Crab in South-East Queensland. Final Project Report. Kennelly, S.J., D. Watkins and J.R. Craig (1990). Queensland, Southern Fisheries Centre, Department Mortality of discarded spanner crabs Ranina ranina of Primary Industries: 106 pp. (Linnaeus) in a tangle-net fishery - laboratory and Brown, I.W., M.C. Dunning, S. Hansford and L. Gwynne field experiments.Journal of Experimental Marine (2001). Ecological Assessment - Queensland Biology and Ecology 140: 39-48. Spanner Crab Fishery, Department of Primary Krajangdara, T. and S. Watanabe (2005). Growth and Industries, Queensland: 50 pp. reproduction of the red frog crab, Ranina ranina Chen, Y. and S.J. Kennelly (1999). Growth of spanner (Linnaeus, 1758), in the Andaman Sea off Thailand. crabs, Ranina ranina, off the east coast of Australia. Fisheries Science 71 (1): 20-28. Marine and Freshwater Research 50 (4): 319-325. McGilvray, J., I. Brown, E. Jebreen and D. Smallwood Dempster, T., I. Brown, E. Jebreen, D. Smallwood, J. (2006). Fisheries long-term monitoring program: McGilvray and I. Breddin (2004). Fisheries Long- Summary of spanner crab (Ranina ranina) term monitoring programme. Spanner crab (Ranina survey results 2000-2005. Brisbane, Queensland ranina) report: 2000-2003. Brisbane, Queensland, Department of Primary Industries and Fisheries: Department of Primary Industry and Fisheries: 46 pp. 44 pp. Queensland Fisheries. (2010). Stock status of Dichmont, C.M., M. Haddon, K. Yeomans and K. Kelly Queensland’s fisheries resources 2009-10. (1999). Proceedings of the South-East Queensland Queensland, Department of Employment, Economic Stock Assessment Review Workshop. Deception Bay, Development and Innovation: 65 pp. Queensland Department of Primary Industries: Sumpton, W.D., I.W. Brown and S.J. Kennelly (1995). 179 pp. Fishing gears that minimise the damage incurred by Environment Australia (2001). Assessment of the discarded spanner crabs (Ranina ranina): Laboratory Queensland Spanner Crab Fishery against the and field experiments.Fisheries Research 22: 11-27. Guidelines for the Ecologically Sustainable Management of Fisheries for the Purposes of Part 13 and Part 13A of the Environment Protection and Please visit the CSIRO website, Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999: 25 pp. http://www.marine.csiro.au/caab/ and search for the species code (CAAB) 28 865001, common name or Jones, D.S. and G.J. Morgan (1994). A Field Guide to scientific name to find further information. Crustaceans of Australian Waters. Sydney, Reed.

© State of New South Wales through Industry and Investment NSW 2010. You may copy, distribute and otherwise freely deal with this publication for any purpose, provided that you attribute Industry and Investment NSW as the owner.

Disclaimer: The information contained in this publication is based on knowledge and understanding at the time of writing (April 2010). However, because of advances in knowledge, users are reminded of the need to ensure that information upon which they rely is up to date and to check currency of the information with the appropriate officer of Industry and Investment NSW or the user’s independent adviser.

Spanner Crab | p 317 wild fisheries research program

p 318 | Spanner Crab