Western Zone Blacklip (Haliotis rubra) and Greenlip (H. laevigata) Abalone Fisheries in 2016

B. Stobart, S. Mayfield and K. Heldt

SARDI Publication No. F2017/000331-1 SARDI Research Report Series No. 964

SARDI Aquatics Sciences PO Box 120 Henley Beach SA 5022

October 2017

Report to PIRSA Fisheries and Aquaculture

Stobart, B. et al. (2017) Western Zone Abalone Fishery

Western Zone Blacklip (Haliotis rubra) and Greenlip (H. laevigata) Abalone Fisheries in 2016

Report to PIRSA Fisheries and Aquaculture

B. Stobart, S. Mayfield and K. Heldt

SARDI Publication No. F2017/000331-1 SARDI Research Report Series No. 964

October 2017

II Stobart, B. et al. (2017) Western Zone Abalone Fishery

This publication may be cited as: Stobart, B., Mayfield, S. and Heldt, K. (2017). Western Zone Blacklip (Haliotis rubra) and Greenlip (H. laevigata) Abalone Fisheries in 2016. Report to PIRSA Fisheries and Aquaculture. South Australian Research and Development Institute (Aquatic Sciences), Adelaide. SARDI Publication No. F2017/000331-1. SARDI Research Report Series No. 964. 91pp. Cover photograph: Wanna Bay, Port Lincoln National Park, 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 5415 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 and its employees do not warrant or make any representation regarding the use, or results of the use, of the information contained herein as regards to its correctness, accuracy, reliability and currency or otherwise. SARDI and its employees expressly disclaim all liability or responsibility to any person using the information or advice. Use of the information and data contained in this report is at the user’s sole risk. If users rely on the information they are responsible for ensuring by independent verification its accuracy, currency or completeness. 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.

© 2017 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: October 2017 SARDI Publication No. F2017/000331-1

SARDI Research Report Series No. 964 Author(s): B. Stobart, S. Mayfield and K. Heldt

Reviewer(s): M. Steer, L. McLeay (SARDI) and B. McGrath-Steer (PIRSA)

Approved by: T. Ward Science leader – Marine Ecosystems

Signed:

Date: 13 October 2017

Distribution: PIRSA Fisheries and Aquaculture, SAASC Library, Parliamentary Library, State Library and National Library

Circulation: Public Domain

III Stobart, B. et al. (2017) Western Zone Abalone Fishery

TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ...... X EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ...... 1 1 GENERAL INTRODUCTION ...... 4 1.1 Background...... 4 1.2 History and description of the fishery ...... 6 1.2.1 Commercial fishery ...... 6 1.2.2 Economic importance of the commercial fishery ...... 7 1.2.3 Recreational fishery ...... 8 1.2.4 Illegal, unregulated and unreported catch ...... 8 1.3 Management Plan ...... 8 1.4 Abalone biology ...... 12 2 METHODS ...... 13 2.1 Information sources for the assessment ...... 13 2.2 Blacklip ...... 13 2.2.1 Catch and effort ...... 13 2.2.2 Commercial catch sampling ...... 14 2.2.3 Fishery-independent surveys ...... 15 2.3 Greenlip ...... 16 2.4 Harvest strategy ...... 16 2.5 Quality Assurance ...... 16 3 RESULTS ...... 17 3.1 Blacklip ...... 17 3.1.1 Western Zone ...... 17 Regions of the Western Zone ...... 19 Distribution of catch among spatial assessment units ...... 21 Distribution of CPUE values among spatial assessment units ...... 24 Temporal patterns in HIGH importance spatial assessment units ...... 25 Drummond ...... 25 Sheringa ...... 27 Point Westall ...... 29 Reef Head ...... 31 Avoid Bay ...... 32 Searcy Bay ...... 34 Anxious Bay ...... 35 Ward Island...... 36 Temporal patterns in MEDIUM importance spatial assessment units ...... 38 Point Avoid ...... 38 Venus Bay ...... 38 Hotspot ...... 38 Temporal patterns in LOW importance spatial assessment units ...... 38 3.1.2 Risk of overfishing in SAUs and zonal stock status ...... 42 IV Stobart, B. et al. (2017) Western Zone Abalone Fishery

3.2 Greenlip ...... 45 3.2.1 Western Zone ...... 45 3.2.1.1 Spatial assessment units ...... 45 3.2.2 Risk of overfishing in SAUs and zonal stock status ...... 45 4 DISCUSSION ...... 58 4.1 Current status of blacklip and greenlip in the WZ ...... 58 4.1.1 Status of blacklip in the WZ ...... 58 4.1.2 Status of greenlip in the WZ ...... 62 4.1.3 Information, data gaps and uncertainty in the assessment ...... 63 4.2 Harvest strategy for the WZ abalone fishery ...... 65 4.3 Future research needs ...... 66 5 REFERENCES ...... 67 6 APPENDIX ...... 72 6.1 Blacklip biology ...... 72 6.2 Quality Assurance ...... 74 6.2.1 Research planning ...... 74 6.2.2 Data collection ...... 74 6.2.3 Data entry, validation, storage and security ...... 74 6.2.4 Data and statistical analyses ...... 74 6.2.5 Data interpretation and report writing ...... 75 6.3 Blacklip performance indicators ...... 76 6.3.1 High importance SAUs ...... 77 6.3.2 Summary tables ...... 86

V Stobart, B. et al. (2017) Western Zone Abalone Fishery

LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1.1. Fishing zones and mapcodes of the South Australian Abalone Fishery and regions of the WZ...... 4 Figure 1.2. Spatial assessment units (SAUs) and map codes of the Western Zone South Australian Abalone Fishery...... 10 Figure 1.3. Relative importanceof each blacklip and greenlip SAU...... 11 Figure 2.1. Number of blacklip measured by the commercial fishery (1999 to 2016)...... 15 Figure 3.1. Catch and CPUE of blacklip from the Western Zone from 1968 to 2016...... 17 Figure 3.2. Combined trend of relative catch and relative CPUE from the Western Zone from 1979 to 2016...... 18 Figure 3.3. Comparison of Western Zone blacklip CPUE calculated with alternative estimation methods from 1979 to 2016...... 18 Figure 3.4. Rank order of Western Zone blacklip CPUE calculated with alternative estimation methods from 1979 to 2016...... 19 Figure 3.5. Comparison of blacklip percent of catch at SAUs located near Port Lincoln, Elliston and Streaky Bay from the Western Zone from 1968 to 2016...... 19 Figure 3.6. Comparison of blacklip CPUE at SAUs located near Port Lincoln, Elliston and Streaky Bay from the Western Zone from 1968 to 2016...... 20 Figure 3.7. Multi-dimensional scaling plot for SAUs showing similarity among years based on blacklip catch from the Western Zone from 1979 to 2016 ...... 22 Figure 3.8. Pielou’s evenness Index of SAU catch among years for the Western Zone from 1979 to 2016...... 22 Figure 3.9. Bubble plot showing the spatial distribution of the blacklip catch among the SAUs in the WZ from 1979 to 2016...... 23 Figure 3.10. Catch and CPUE of blacklip from Drummond from 1979 to 2016...... 25 Figure 3.11. Length-frequency distributions of legal-sized and sub-legal-sized blacklip at Drummond observed on fishery-independent surveys from 2006 to 2017...... 26 Figure 3.12. Mean density of all, legal-sized and sub-legal sized blacklip at Drummond from 2005 to 2017...... 26 Figure 3.13. Catch and CPUE of blacklip from Sheringa from 1979 to 2016...... 27 Figure 3.14. Length-frequency distributions of legal-sized and sub-legal-sized blacklip at Sheringa observed on fishery-independent surveys from 2005 to 2017...... 28 Figure 3.15. Mean density of all, legal-sized and sub-legal sized blacklip at Sheringa from 2005 to 2017...... 28 Figure 3.16. Catch and CPUE of blacklip from Point Westall from 1979 to 2016...... 29 Figure 3.17. Length-frequency distributions of legal-sized and sub-legal-sized blacklip at Granites, Point Westall, observed on fishery-independent surveys from 2005 to 2017. ...30 Figure 3.18. Mean density of all, legal-sized and sub-legal sized blacklip at Point Westall from 2005 to 2017...... 30 Figure 3.19. Catch and CPUE of blacklip from Reef Head from 1979 to 2016...... 31

VI Stobart, B. et al. (2017) Western Zone Abalone Fishery

Figure 3.20. Catch and CPUE of blacklip from Avoid Bay from 1979 to 2016...... 32 Figure 3.21. Length-frequency distributions of legal-sized and sub-legal-sized blacklip at Black Rocks, Avoid Bay, observed on fishery-independent surveys from 2005 to 2017...... 33 Figure 3.22. Mean density of all, legal-sized and sub-legal sized blacklip at Black Rocks, Avoid Bay from 2005 to 2017...... 33 Figure 3.23. Catch and CPUE of blacklip from Searcy Bay from 1979 to 2016...... 34 Figure 3.24. Catch and CPUE of blacklip from Anxious Bay from 1979 to 2016...... 35 Figure 3.25. Catch and CPUE of blacklip from Ward Island from 1979 to 2016...... 36 Figure 3.26. Length-frequency distributions of legal-sized and sub-legal-sized blacklip at Ward Island observed on fishery-independent surveys from 2005 to 2015...... 37 Figure 3.27. Mean density of all, legal-sized and sub-legal sized blacklip at Ward Island from 2005 to 2015...... 37 Figure 3.28. Catch and CPUE of blacklip from Point Avoid, Venus Bay and Hotspot and from 1979 to 2016...... 39 Figure 3.29. Catch and CPUE of blacklip from low importance SAUs Baird Bay, Cape Bauer, Cape Catastrophe, Coffin Bay, D’Entrecasteaux Reef, Elliston Cliffs, Fishery Bay, Flinders Island, Franklin Islands, Greenly Island, Memory Cove and NE Thistle...... 40 Figure 3.30. Catch and CPUE of blacklip from low importance SAUs Neptune Islands, North Nuyts Archipelago, Pearson Island, Sir Joseph Banks, South Nuyts Archipelago, SW Thistle, Taylor Island, The Gap, Unassigned WZ Rgn A, Unassigned WZ Rgn B, Waterloo Bay and Wedge Island...... 41 Figure 3.31. Catch and CPUE of greenlip from the Western Zone from 1968 to 2016...... 48 Figure 3.32. Comparison of Western Zone greenlip CPUE with alternative estimation methods from 1979 to 2016...... 48 Figure 3.33. Rank order of Western Zone greenlip CPUE calculated with alternative estimation methods from 1979 to 2016...... 49 Figure 3.34. Bubble plot showing the spatial distribution of the greenlip catch among the SAUs in the WZ from 1979 to 2016...... 49 Figure 3.35. Anxious Bay performance indicators catch, CPUE, PropG1, legal density, pre- recruit density, mortality and scores from the harvest strategy...... 50 Figure 3.36. The Gap performance indicators catch, CPUE, PropG1, legal density, pre-recruit density, mortality and scores from the harvest strategy...... 51 Figure 3.37. Avoid Bay performance indicators catch, CPUE, PropG1, legal density, pre-recruit density, mortality and scores from the harvest strategy...... 52 Figure 3.38. Point Avoid, Flinders Island, Ward Island, and Drummond performance indicators catch, CPUE, PropG1 and scores from the harvest strategy...... 53 Figure 3.39. Taylor Island, Reef Head, Hotspot and Baird Bay performance indicators catch, CPUE, PropG1 and scores from the harvest strategy...... 54 Figure 3.40. South Nuyts, Point Westall, Memory Cove, Fishery Bay and Cape Catastrophe performance indicators catch, CPUE, PropG1 and scores from the harvest strategy...... 55

VII Stobart, B. et al. (2017) Western Zone Abalone Fishery

Figure 3.41. Catch, CPUE and PropG1 of greenlip from low importance SAUs Cape Bauer, Coffin Bay, D’Entrecasteaux Reef, Elliston Cliffs, Franklin Islands, Greenly Island, NE Thistle, Neptune Islands, North Nuyts Archipelago, Pearson Island, Searcy Bay and Sheringa from 1979 to 2016...... 56 Figure 3.42. Catch, CPUE and PropG1 of greenlip from low importance SAUs Sir Joseph Banks, SW Thistle, Unassigned WZ Region A, Unassigned WZ Region B, Venus Bay, Waterloo Bay and Wedge Island from 1979 to 2016...... 57 Figure 6.1. Drummond performance indicators catch, CPUE, PropLge, legal density, pre- recruit density, mortality and scores from the harvest strategy...... 77 Figure 6.2. Sheringa performance indicators catch, CPUE, PropLge, legal density, pre-recruit density, mortality and scores from the harvest strategy...... 78 Figure 6.3. Point Westall performance indicators catch, CPUE, PropLge, legal density, pre- recruit density, mortality and scores from the harvest strategy...... 79 Figure 6.4. Reef Head performance indicators catch, CPUE, PropLge, legal density, pre- recruit density, mortality and scores from the harvest strategy...... 80 Figure 6.5. Avoid Bay performance indicators catch, CPUE, PropLge, legal density, pre- recruit density, mortality and scores from the harvest strategy...... 81 Figure 6.6. Searcy Bay performance indicators catch, CPUE, PropLge, legal density, pre- recruit density, mortality and scores from the harvest strategy...... 82 Figure 6.7. Anxious Bay performance indicators catch, CPUE, PropLge, legal density, pre- recruit density, mortality and scores from the harvest strategy...... 83 Figure 6.8. Ward Island performance indicators catch, CPUE, PropLge, legal density, pre- recruit density, mortality and scores from the harvest strategy...... 84 Figure 6.9. Point Avoid, Venus Bay and Hotspot SAUs performance indicators catch, CPUE, PropLge and scores from the harvest strategy...... 85

VIII Stobart, B. et al. (2017) Western Zone Abalone Fishery

LIST OF TABLES Table 1.1. Terminology for the status of key Australian fish stocks reports...... 5 Table 1.2. Western Zone Management milestones ...... 6 Table 1.3. Summary of the current Western Zone management arrangements...... 7

Table 3.1. Ranked annual SAU CPUE, as a percentage of CPUE90-09, for high and medium SAUs since the introduction of quota in 1985...... 24 Table 3.2. 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. Scoring of the “proportion of TACC” PI was against the legislated TACC...... 43 Table 3.3. 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. Scoring of the “proportion of TACC” PI was against the voluntary catch limit...... 44

Table 6.1. Size at L50 for blacklip at different sites in the Western Zone...... 72 Table 6.2. Relationships between shell length and fecundity for legal sized blacklip at different sites in the Western Zone...... 72 Table 6.3. Relationships between shell length and total weight blacklip abalone at various sites in the Western Zone...... 73

Table 6.4. Growth rate and L for blacklip tagged and recaptured at different sites in the Western Zone...... 73 Table 6.5. Summary of the PIs and the formulae and data constraints underpinning their utilisation in the harvest strategy...... 76 Table 6.6. Blacklip catch from the Western Zone and SAUs, ordered by importance...... 86 Table 6.7. Blacklip CPUE from the Western Zone and SAUs, ordered by importance...... 87 Table 6.8. Blacklip PropLge from the Western Zone and SAUs, ordered by importance...... 88 Table 6.9. Greenlip catch from the Western Zone and SAUs, ordered by importance...... 89 Table 6.10. Greenlip CPUE from the Western Zone and SAUs, ordered by importance...... 90 Table 6.11. Greenlip PropG1 from the Western Zone and SAUs, ordered by importance. ..91

IX Stobart, B. et al. (2017) Western Zone Abalone Fishery

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Funds for this research were provided by PIRSA Fisheries and Aquaculture and obtained through licence fees. SARDI Aquatic Sciences provided substantial in-kind support. We thank the Western Zone licence holders, fishers and shellers for their contribution to our understanding of information presented in this report. We are grateful to Jay Dent, Doug Graske, Dr Owen Burnell, Bruce Miller- Smith, Dr Rowan Chick, Brian Foureur, Damian Matthews, Andrew Hogg, Toby Fox and other SARDI past and present divers for assistance with diving and the collection and management of data. We thank Dr Jonathan Carroll for statistical support and programming. This report was formally reviewed by Drs Michael Steer and Lochlan McLeay (SARDI Aquatic Sciences), Prof. Gavin Begg, Research Chief (SARDI Aquatic Sciences) and Dr Belinda McGrath-Steer (PIRSA Fisheries and Aquaculture). It was formally approved for release by Dr Tim Ward, Science Leader – Marine Ecosystems, SARDI Aquatic Sciences.

X Stobart, B. et al. (2017) Western Zone Abalone Fishery

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY This report assesses the status of Haliotis rubra and H. laevigata stocks (hereafter referred to as blacklip and greenlip, respectively) in the Western Zone (WZ) of the South Australian Abalone Fishery (SAAF) in 2016.

A review of the harvest strategy is underway and due for completion in 2018. Consequently, stock status was determined using a weight-of-evidence assessment following the National Fishery Status Reporting Framework (NFSRF; Flood et al. 2014).

Blacklip

In 2016, blacklip comprised 51% (74.49 t.yr-1) of the combined abalone total allowable commercial catch (TACC) in the WZ. The catch in 2016 was the lowest since 1979 reflecting a 36% decrease over the past seven years. This included a 21% voluntary reduction in catch by the commercial sector in 2015 and 2016.

There is compelling evidence that, despite the current low catches, the WZ blacklip biomass continues to decline and that these stocks are at their weakest position in 27 years.

This evidence includes a sequential decline in WZ catch per unit effort (CPUE) since 2006 which, in 2016, was the third lowest on record post-quota, similar to the mean value observed during the period of lowest CPUE in the history of the fishery. The sequential decline was recorded in all four catch rate methods tested and clearly evident for the Port Lincoln, Elliston and Streaky regions and almost every WZ spatial assessment unit (SAU) since 2006. In addition, there is no evidence for stock recovery in the Ward Island, Venus Bay and Hotspot SAUs even though current catches are among the lowest recorded for these SAUs in over 30 years.

There is increasing evidence that the WZ blacklip stocks are likely recruitment overfished because, despite reduced catches in recent years, levels of CPUE (biomass) are still in decline, indicating that existing levels of recruitment are unable to support current exploitation rates. In addition, there are now a lack of alternative fishing grounds into which catch could be redistributed, demonstrating that the low biomass and reduced recruitment is widespread throughout the WZ.

Application of the harvest strategy resulted in 67% of the high and medium-importance SAUs being assigned to a ‘red’ or ‘yellow’ risk-of-overfishing category in 2016 and the WZ being assigned a zonal stock status of ‘over fished’.

1 Stobart, B. et al. (2017) Western Zone Abalone Fishery

In summary, there is evidence of ongoing declines in harvestable biomass to levels not observed in almost 30 years. Fishing pressure is too high and moving the stock in the direction of becoming recruitment overfished. It could also be argued that the stock is likely recruitment overfished because recent low recruitment levels have been unable to support the historically low catches. However, it was not possible to unequivocally determine whether the WZ blacklip stocks were recruitment overfished or at a biomass level above this point. Consequently, for the fourth consecutive year, the WZ blacklip abalone fishery in 2016 is classified as ‘transitional depleting’ under the NFSRF.

Greenlip

Greenlip stocks in the WZ improved substantially following their classification of ‘transitional depleting’ in 2014 evidenced by a widespread and unprecedented increase in CPUE and size of greenlip landed – that remained in 2016. In 2016, CPUE for the WZ and most SAUs was equivalent to that observed in the 1990s. The risk of overfishing has recently been reduced by lower catch and fewer greenlip being harvested suggesting that the overall risk to the fishery has decreased. However, there is evidence that stocks from some SAUs remain weak in 2016 because CPUE is low and/or declining (e.g. Anxious Bay and The Gap SAUs) and densities of pre-recruit greenlip from the fishery-independent surveys at the three high-importance SAUs were the lowest on record. This is likely to impact harvestable biomass in future years.

Application of the harvest strategy resulted in the WZ greenlip being assigned a zonal stock status of ‘sustainably fished’. Similarly, given that stock biomass is at a level sufficient to ensure that, on average, future levels of recruitment are adequate and fishing pressure is adequately controlled, the overall WZ Greenlip Abalone Fishery is classified as ‘sustainable’ under the NFSRF.

2 Stobart, B. et al. (2017) Western Zone Abalone Fishery

Key WZ blacklip and greenlip statistics from 2013 are summarised in the table below that shows number of licences (No. licences); total allowable commercial catch (TACC); voluntary catch limit (VCL); total commercial catch (TCC); catch per unit effort (CPUE); harvest strategy (HS) stock status; and national fishery status reporting framework (NFSRF) weight of evidence (WOE) stock status. tmw = tonnes meat weight, kg.hr-1 = kilograms per hour.

No TACC VCL TCC HS Stock Status HS Stock Status NSRF Stock Status Season licences (tmw) (tmw) (tmw) (TACC) (VCL) (WOE)

BLACKLIP 2013 23 89.93 89.04 Sustainably Fished na Transitional Depleting 2014 22 84.08 82.41 Sustainably Fished na Transitional Depleting 2015 22 84.08 66.38 65.85 Over Fished Sustainably Fished Transitional Depleting 2016 22 74.58 66.38 66.83 Over Fished Over Fished Transitional Depleting

GREENLIP

2013 23 73.37 72.36 Under Fished na Sustainable 2014 22 73.01 71.74 Sustainably Fished na Transitional Depleting 2015 22 73.01 69.70 68.88 Under Fished Under Fished Sustainable 2016 22 73.01 69.70 69.64 Sustainable Sustainable Sustainable

Keywords: Blacklip abalone (Haliotis rubra), Greenlip abalone, (Haliotis laevigata), Stock assessment, Harvest strategy, Stock status, South Australia

3 Stobart, B. et al. (2017) Western Zone Abalone Fishery

1 GENERAL INTRODUCTION 1.1 Background This 2017 report provides a fishery assessment report for blacklip abalone (Haliotis rubra; hereafter referred to as blacklip) and a stock status report for greenlip abalone (H. laevigata, hereafter referred to as greenlip) in the Western Zone (WZ) of the South Australian Abalone Fishery (SAAF; Figure 1.1) in 2016. These form part of the South Australian Research and Development Institute’s (SARDI – Aquatic Sciences) ongoing assessment program for blacklip and greenlip fisheries and update previous fishery assessment and status reports for both abalone species (see Stobart and Mayfield 2016a). The aims of this report are to (1) assess the status of the resource; (2) identify the uncertainty associated with the assessment; (3) evaluate the harvest strategy for the fishery; and (4) identify future research needs for both species.

Streaky Elliston Port Lincoln Other mapcodes

Figure 1.1. Fishing zones and mapcodes of the South Australian Abalone Fishery and regions of the WZ.

The level of reporting for the two species differs because species-specific assessments are undertaken biennially as part of an overall rationalisation of the research program. Previously, assessment and status reports were delivered in separate documents (e.g. 2016 greenlip assessment report Stobart and Mayfield 2016a; 2016 blacklip status report Stobart and Mayfield 2016b). At the request of Primary Industries and Regions South Australia (PIRSA) Fisheries and Aquaculture the reports have been amalgamated, but the level of detail consistent with the biennial assessment and status reports is maintained throughout this document.

4 Stobart, B. et al. (2017) Western Zone Abalone Fishery

Analysis of fishery-dependent (FD) and fishery-independent (FI) data from 1 January 1968 to 31 December 2016 is provided for both species as part of the ongoing assessment program for the abalone fishery in the WZ. An analysis of the fishery’s performance and stock status based on the harvest strategy described in the Management Plan (PIRSA 2012) is also included. The harvest strategy has several limitations including stock status classifications that are considered over-optimistic (e.g. Stobart et al. 2014) and the absence of an agreed limit reference point for determining whether the stocks are recruitment overfished that would link the harvest strategy to the National Fishery Status Reporting Framework (NFSRF; Flood et al. 2014). An improved harvest strategy is currently being developed by the Abalone Harvest Strategy Working Group which consists of representatives from PIRSA Fisheries and Aquaculture, SARDI and Industry. Consequently, for both species, we compare determinations of stock status from the harvest strategy and traditional, weight-of-evidence assessments under the NFSRF (Table 1.1; Flood et al. 2014, Stewardson et al. 2016) adopted by PIRSA Fisheries and Aquaculture for classifying fish stocks (PIRSA 2015).

Table 1.1. Terminology for the status of key Australian fish stocks reports (Flood et al. 2014, Stewardson et al. 2016).

Potential implications for Stock status Description management of the stock Sustainable Stock for which biomass (or biomass proxy) is at a level sufficient to Appropriate management is in ensure that, on average, future levels of recruitment are adequate (i.e. place not recruitment overfished) and for which fishing pressure is adequately controlled to avoid the stock becoming recruitment overfished

Transitional - Recovering stock—biomass is recruitment overfished, but management Appropriate management is in recovering measures are in place to promote stock recovery, and recovery is place, and the stock biomass occurring is recovering Transitional - Deteriorating stock—biomass is not yet recruitment overfished, but Management is needed to depleting fishing pressure is too high and moving the stock in the direction of reduce fishing pressure and becoming recruitment overfished ensure that the biomass does not deplete to an overfished state Overfished Spawning stock biomass has been reduced through catch, so that Management is needed to average recruitment levels are significantly reduced (i.e. recruitment recover this stock; if adequate overfished). Current management is not adequate to recover the stock, management measures are or adequate management measures have been put in place but have already in place, more time not yet resulted in measurable improvements may be required for them to take effect Environmentally Spawning stock biomass has been reduced to the point where average Appropriate management is in limited recruitment levels are significantly reduced, primarily as a result of place substantial environmental changes/impacts, or disease outbreaks (i.e. the stock is not recruitment overfished). Fisheries management has responded appropriately to the environmental change in productivity

Undefined Not enough information exists to determine stock status Data required to assess stock status are needed

5 Stobart, B. et al. (2017) Western Zone Abalone Fishery

1.2 History and description of the fishery

1.2.1 Commercial fishery A review of the management history of the SAAF since its inception in 1964 is provided by Mayfield et al. (2012). Major management milestones are listed in Table 1.2. Briefly, entrants to the fishery increased in the late 1960s and exceeded 100 operators by 1970. In 1971, the SAAF was divided into three zones (Western (WZ), Central and Southern; Figure 1.1). During the same year, licences were made non-transferable to reduce the number of operators and by 1976 had fallen to 35. These 35 licences remained until 2013. From 1 January 2014, removal of one licence from the WZ as part of the voluntary marine park buy-back scheme, reduced the total number of licences in the SAAF to 34.

Table 1.2. Management milestones: Western Zone of the South Australian Abalone Fishery.

Date Milestone 1964 Fishery started 1970 In excess of 100 operators 1971 Licences made non-transferable Fishery divided into three zones (Western, Central and Southern) Minimum legal length (MLL) set at 130 mm shell length (SL) for both species 1976 30 licences remained; 5 additional licences issued 1978 Sub-zones and fishing blocks replaced by map numbers and codes 1980 Licences became transferable 1984 Greenlip minimum legal length amended to 145 mm SL in the Western Zone 1985 Western Zone divided into regions A and B Quota introduced to Region A in the Western Zone (97.75 t blacklip; 97.75 t greenlip) 1989 Total allowable commercial catch (TACC) in Western Zone Region A greenlip fishery reduced to 69 t 1991 Quota introduced to Region B in the Western Zone (9.2 t both species) 1993 Abolition of owner-operator regulation TACC in Western Zone Region B increased to 11.5 t 1994 TACC in Western Zone Region B increased to 13.8 t 1996 TACC in Western Zone Region A blacklip fishery decreased to 86 t 1997 Management Plan implemented (Zacharin 1997) TACC in Western Zone Region A blacklip fishery increased to 97.8 t 2004 Management Plan reviewed (Nobes et al. 2004) 2006 TACC in Western Zone Region A greenlip fishery increased to 75.9 t 2010 TACC in Western Zone Region A blacklip fishery decreased to 92 t TACC in Western Zone Region A greenlip fishery decreased to 69 t 2011 TACC in Western Zone Region B fishery decreased to 9.2 t 2012 NewVoluntary Management closed season Plan including in Region harvest B from strategy October (PIRSA to February 2012) TACC in Western Zone Region B fishery decreased to 6.9 t 2013 TACC in Western Zone Region A blacklip fishery decreased to 87.4 t 2014 Regions A and B amalgamated, Number of licences reduced to 22. TACC in Western Zone greenlip fishery increased to 73 t, blacklip fishery decreased to 84.1 t Ministerial exemption to harvest Haliotis roei with a TACC of 11 t granted from February 2014 2015 Harvest strategy review commenced

6 Stobart, B. et al. (2017) Western Zone Abalone Fishery

The WZ of the SAAF includes coastal waters of South Australia between the Western Australia/South Australia border and eastern Eyre Peninsula (Figure 1.1). This zone was subdivided into Region A and Region B in 1985, a process that was reversed in 2014. There are currently 22 licences operating in the WZ, and the fishing season extends from 1 January to 31 December each year. In Region A, annual Total Allowable Commercial Catches (TACCs) were introduced for blacklip and greenlip in 1985 and amended to the calendar year fishing season from 1989 (Table 1.3; Nobes et al. 2004). For Region B, both species were included under a single annual TACC that was introduced in 1991. A research logbook must be completed for each fishing day and submitted to SARDI Aquatic Sciences at the end of each month. Commercial catch and effort data on this fishery have been collected since 1968 and are used in stock assessment and status reports for each zone.

Table 1.3. Summary of the current management arrangements for the Western Zone commercial abalone fishery.

Management strategy Western Zone management arrangements in 2016

Licence holders 22 Target species Haliotis rubra (blacklip), H. laevigata (greenlip), H. roei (roei) Minimum legal length Blacklip 130 mm shell length (SL), Greenlip 145 mm SL, Roei 75 mm SL Quota year 1 January to 31 December Quota transferability Yes Other species permitted H. scalaris, H. cyclobates when SL ≥130 mm Method of capture By hand – dive fishery By-catch Negligible

Since 1997, the WZ fishery has operated under the control of formal management plans (Zacharin 1997, Nobes et al. 2004, PIRSA 2012). These plans guide management through a regime of input (e.g. limited entry) and output (e.g. minimum legal lengths (MLLs) and quotas) controls. The current management arrangements in the WZ are summarised in Tables 1.2 and 1.3.

1.2.2 Economic importance of the commercial fishery Econsearch provides an annual assessment of the economic performance of the SAAF (Paterson et al. 2013, Rippin et al. 2014, Fargher et al. 2015, Magnusson et al. 2016). Catch value (gross value of production – GVP) in the fishery increased rapidly between 1997/98 and 2000/01 but declined in subsequent years due to a decline in the price of abalone that was linked to an increase in the value of the Australian dollar (Rippin et al. 2014). Until 2013/14, GVP closely followed changes in average price because total catch had remained relatively stable. However, in 2013/14, the total catch of abalone in the SAAF dropped by 25% (principally through the Southern Zone TACC not being harvested, see Mayfield et al. 2015), and GVP was impacted by 7 Stobart, B. et al. (2017) Western Zone Abalone Fishery both changes in levels of catch and changes to average price. In 2014/15, the SAAF catch was valued at AU$25.2 million dollars, directly and indirectly generating 405 full time jobs (Magnusson et al. 2016); both have increased since the previous assessment in 2013/14.

Paid labour, which accounts for the largest share of total cash costs to the SAAF, decreased by 8% between 2013/14 and 2014/15 (Magnusson et al. 2016). Other major costs include interest, management fees, repairs and maintenance and fuel. With the exception of insurance, leasing and a few minor increases in management costs, most fixed costs were lower in 2014/15. Profitability of the fishery fell again in 2014/15, with profit at full equity being 6% lower than the previous year. The average cost of management per licence holder has remained relatively stable since 2004/05 and, in 2013/14, was AU$73,292, 11% of GVP. The combined small increase in management costs and decrease in catch value has resulted in licence fees being 9.8% of GVP in 2014/15 (Magnusson et al. 2016).

1.2.3 Recreational fishery The most recent recreational abalone catch estimate for South Australia was 282 blacklip and 4,651 greenlip individuals for the 12-month period from late 2013 to 2014 (Giri and Hall 2015). This equates to 2.04 t meat weight, a 13% decrease since the previous survey from late 2007 to 2008 (Jones 2009). Recreational fishing effort was estimated at 16% for the West Coast during 2013/14 (Giri and Hall 2015), equating to 789 abalone.

1.2.4 Illegal, unregulated and unreported catch Illegal, unregulated and unreported (IUU) catch is difficult to estimate. PIRSA rely on field observations and intelligence reports that document quantities of abalone when estimating the IUU catch. During 2016, PIRSA received 23 information reports relevant to the WZ. Eight reports contained estimates of illegally harvested abalone totalling 41.25 kg (meat weight). Applying the mean weight per information report (5.16 kg/report) to the 23 provides an estimated illegal harvest of 0.12 t (meat weight) abalone. This estimate excludes IUU catch where a caution, expiation or brief has been compiled. It should also be noted that PIRSA would not have been advised of all illegally harvested abalone and as such, the actual extent of IUU is expected to be higher.

1.3 Management Plan The second Management Plan for the SAAF (Nobes et al. 2004) was reviewed and replaced in 2012 by the current Management Plan (PIRSA 2012) that is undergoing review. This management plan stipulates management goals and objectives for the fishery that reflect current policy drivers including Section 7 of the Fisheries Management Act 2007, Ecologically Sustainable

8 Stobart, B. et al. (2017) Western Zone Abalone Fishery

Development as described in the Environmental Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 and the precautionary principle.

The four management goals are to ensure: (1) the abalone resource is sustainably harvested; (2) optimal economic utilisation and equitable distribution of the abalone resource; (3) impacts on the ecosystem are minimised; and (4) cost effective and participative management of the fishery. This SARDI report is directly relevant to the first goal, for which the objectives are to: (1) maintain the stocks above ecologically sustainable levels; and (2) ensure sufficient data and information are available to undertake the harvest strategy, which underpins management decisions. The harvest strategy is the primary tool used to achieve the goal of sustainably harvesting the abalone resource and it is described elsewhere (Chick and Mayfield 2012, PIRSA 2012, Stobart et al. 2012a, Stobart et al. 2012b, Mayfield et al. 2013b). Briefly, it is species-specific, spatially-explicit and comprises two key components. First, performance indicators (PIs) are used with a series of reference points to determine the risk that the stocks in each spatial assessment unit (SAU; Figure 1.2) are overfished. Second, the assigned risks are catch-weighted and summed to determine the stock status for each zone.

The PIs are only used to assess high and medium importance SAUs that are assigned based on the percentage contribution to total catch (see Stobart et al. 2012). For the ten year period ending 31 December 2016, there were 11 high and 16 medium importance SAUs in the WZ (Figure 1.3). There was one change to the importance rating of both blacklip and greenlip SAUs between 2015 (Stobart and Mayfield 2016a,b) and 2016, with Flinders Island changing from medium importance to low importance and Cape Catastrophe changing from a low to a medium importance SAU.

9 Stobart, B. et al. (2017) Western Zone Abalone Fishery

Figure 1.2. Spatial assessment units (SAUs) and map codes of the Western Zone South Australian Abalone Fishery.

10 Stobart, B. et al. (2017) Western Zone Abalone Fishery

HIGH MEDIUM LOW

Figure 1.3. Relative importance (% of total catch) of each blacklip (black bars) and greenlip (green bars) SAU. Note each SAU is ranked twice, once for blacklip and once for greenlip. Red text and dotted lines indicate SAU importance category and division. Note abbreviations for Cape (Cp), island (Is), reef (Rf), North East (NE) and South West (SW).

11 Stobart, B. et al. (2017) Western Zone Abalone Fishery

The outcomes from the harvest strategy are used in the decision-making process which integrates information obtained from multiple sources (e.g. divers, licence holders, fishery managers, compliance officers, researchers) to inform management for each SAU. The range of management decisions for each SAU is constrained by explicit decision rules based on the assigned risk-of-overfishing category (PIRSA 2012). The harvest-decision rules guide determination of future catch contributions from each SAU in the fishery and are summed by species for each zone and used to adjust annual TACCs. The TACC is able to be set for two years – concurrent with the biennial assessment program – providing that zonal stock status does not change among years.

1.4 Abalone biology The biology of blacklip and greenlip in the WZ is well described and documented in previous sock assessment reports (e.g. Stobart et al. 2015a, Stobart and Mayfield 2016a). Briefly, blacklip and greenlip are contiguous throughout southern Australia but have differing overall distributions. Blacklip range from Coffs Harbour (New South Wales) to Rottnest Island (Western Australia), while greenlip range from Flinders Island (Tasmania) to Cape Naturaliste (Western Australia). Typically, these two species occupy different habitats, with blacklip mostly inhabiting crevices and caves or the bottom of steep rock faces of topographically complex rocky reefs (1 to 30 m depth) and greenlip tending to inhabit the edge of reefs and boulders near sand or seagrass (5 to >50 m depth).

Blacklip have a broad-scale population structure (Brown 1991), although significant genetic differentiation can occur between sites less than 15 km apart (Shepherd and Brown 1993, Temby et al. 2007, Miller et al. 2009), suggesting limited dispersal among ‘metapopulations’ (Fleming 1997, Miller et al. 2009) is a key feature of the species. In contrast greenlip dispersal appears to be more widespread and is reflected in the population genetics that suggests ‘metapopulations’ occur at the distances of up to 135 km (Miller et al. 2014). The relatively limited dispersal of abalone has implications for the recovery of depleted stocks and contrasts with many other marine organisms, whose widespread dispersal capacity makes them more resilient to localised depletion.

12 Stobart, B. et al. (2017) Western Zone Abalone Fishery

2 METHODS 2.1 Information sources for the assessment The 2017 assessment uses fishery-dependent (FD) and fishery-independent (FI) data for blacklip and greenlip in the WZ. The FD data consists of catch and effort data from 1 January 1968 to 31 December 2016 and blacklip commercial shell measurements from 1999 to 2016, excepting 2001 and 2010 when no shells were measured. The FI data consists of density estimates and population size structure determination derived from cross drop surveys (blacklip) and lead line surveys (greenlip) conducted periodically at selected SAUs from 2005 to 2017.

2.2 Blacklip Data were analysed at three spatial scales: (1) the WZ; (2) regions of the WZ (termed Port Lincoln, Elliston and Streaky Bay); and (3) the SAUs defined in the harvest strategy. The regions of Port Lincoln, Elliston and Streaky Bay comprised those SAUs typically accessed from respective regional centres (see Figure 1.1). The harvest strategy requires the allocation of importance by species to each SAU in the WZ, based on the relative contribution to total catch of greenlip and blacklip over the ten-year period ending with the year being assessed (i.e. the current year). Thus, for this assessment, importance was determined using data from 2007 to 2016. Three importance categories are defined – high, medium and low – based on the percent contribution to total catch. SAUs from which the cumulative catch harvested reaches 50% are deemed of high importance. Medium importance SAUs comprise those which, cumulatively, contribute to at least the next 30% of the combined TACC. All remaining SAUs are classified as being of low importance.

2.2.1 Catch and effort Commercial catch and effort data have been collected since 1968 in the form of daily entries to commercial logbooks submitted to SARDI, allowing spatial and temporal analyses of catch (t, meat weight) and mean CPUE ± standard error (se). Multi-dimensional scaling (MDS) was used to evaluate temporal changes in the distribution of the proportion of catch for WZ SAUs, where closer proximity between years indicates greater similarity. MDS results were further interpreted with similarity percentage (SIMPER) analysis, which calculates the percentage each SAU contributes to the difference between each year pair (i.e. which SAUs are contributing most to the differences between years) and hierarchical cluster analysis (CLUSTER) using complete linkage. CLUSTER aims to find “natural groupings” of years such that years within a group are more similar to each other than years outside of the group and years in other groups. Pielou’s evenness index (J’) was used to evaluate how the distribution of catch among SAUs varies between years, with

13 Stobart, B. et al. (2017) Western Zone Abalone Fishery higher values indicating that the catch is more evenly distributed among SAUs, and low values indicating that most of the catch is obtained unevenly and often from fewer SAUs.

As in previous reports (see Stobart et al. 2015a), the mean CPUE was computed using the catch- weighted mean of daily CPUE (Burch et al. 2011). Similarly, to Burch et al. (2011), in this assessment the time series from three alternate catch rate estimation methods were compared to CPUE. These were: 1) effort (hrs) was apportioned to blacklip based on the proportion of blacklip in the total catch and then weighted according to that proportion (wpCPUE; SARDI unpublished data); 2) exclusion of all days where a greenlip catch greater than zero was reported (i.e. blacklip only fishing days; BL day CPUE); and 3) the method for Tasmania in which effort (hrs) is apportioned to blacklip based on the proportion of blacklip in the total catch but only where blacklip catch is greater than 25% of the total catch (TAS CPUE; Mundy and Jones 2017). In all instances, prior to calculation of CPUE, daily data were filtered to remove records where catch was >300 kg, effort was <3 and >8 hours, the ratio of total catch over total hours was >50 kg.hr-1 and blacklip comprised <30% of catch (except for TAS CPUE where exception is at < 25%). The minimum sample size was 10 fishing records; therefore, the absence of data for this measure in any one year indicates fewer records were available. The combined trend of CPUE and catch is displayed as time series of relative catch multiplied by relative CPUE, in both cases relating these metrics to the year 1979, as an approximation to a Kobe plot (Kell 2012).

For historical comparison, mean values of key measures of fishery performance are provided in text and as dashed lines on figures. Key measures include the (1) proportion of the blacklip TACC harvested from each SAU for the 10-yr period between 2005 and 2014 (C07-16); and (2) mean annual CPUE for the 20-yr period between 1990 and 2009 (CPUE90-09). Ranking and percent of total catch in SAU titles refer first to the ten-year period (C07-16), followed by the value in 2016 separated by a hyphen (e.g. Rank 1-5; 10.1-13.5% had rank 1 and represented 10.1% of the total catch over the 10-yr period and rank 5 representing 13.5% of the total catch in 2016).

2.2.2 Commercial catch sampling Depending on the year and SAU, length-frequency data of blacklip from the commercial catch have been obtained by SARDI, the Abalone Industry Association of South Australia and one licence (see Stobart et al. 2015 for detail). These data are used to estimate the proportion of large blacklip in the commercial catch (PropLge), defined as the ratio of the number of ‛large’ shells (>165 mm shell length; SL) to the total number of shells measured in the commercial catch

14 Stobart, B. et al. (2017) Western Zone Abalone Fishery

(minimum sample size = 100) with SL measurements >5 mm below the MLL (130 mm SL) excluded.

The quality of length-frequency data obtained varied considerably between years. Data were more representative across the fishery from 2012 to 2014 than in other sampled years, based on the number of medium and high importance SAUs fished, the number of blacklip fishing days when shells were measured, percent of licences fishing and on the number of abalone measured (Stobart et al. 2015a; Figure 2.1). Limited historical information continues to impede interpretation of the data, sampling was very limited in 2015 and 2016 and data for most SAUs provided were below the 70% of fishing days required (Burch et al. 2010; Stobart et al. 2012b). These data are used to determine the risk of overfishing in SAUs and zonal stock status because they conform to current rules describing data utilisation in the harvest strategy but, due to the issues described above, are excluded from the weight-of-evidence analyses on stock status.

Figure 2.1. Number of blacklip measured by the commercial fishery from 1999 to 2016 by year (black = high and medium, red = low importance SAUs).

2.2.3 Fishery-independent surveys Blacklip abundance and population size structure were obtained from SARDI FI surveys which, in recent years, have been undertaken biennially as part of an overall rationalisation of the research program. The FI information provided includes length-frequency distributions and mean density (± se) of legal and sub-legal-sized blacklip and are obtained from high importance SAUs. In 2017, data were available for 5 of the 8 high importance SAUs. Density of blacklip within an SAU was estimated using a minimum of 6 cross drops (Chick and Mayfield 2006, Chick et al. 2012). In order to aid the interpretation of the length-frequency distributions, the percentage of large blacklip (LARGE) from FI survey length-frequency distributions was defined as the ratio of ‘large’ blacklip (≥145 mm SL) to all legal-sized (i.e. ≥130 mm SL) measurements. The percentage

15 Stobart, B. et al. (2017) Western Zone Abalone Fishery of small blacklip (SMALL) was defined as the ratio of ‘small’ blacklip (<100 mm SL) to all sub- legal-sized blacklip (i.e. ≥100 mm to <130 mm SL). Survey design was reviewed in 2013. Alterations to existing surveys included changes to survey areas, survey boxes and the number/location of cross drops, notably at Drummond, Ward Island, Avoid Bay and Point Westall. Historic density estimates and new estimates based on combined historic drops, new drops and new boxes/box areas are provided for comparison.

2.3 Greenlip The data sources and methods used to compute the PIs used to undertake the weight-of-evidence assessment and apply the harvest strategy for greenlip are described in Stobart et al. (2016) and generally mirror those described for blacklip. The main difference is that the PI proportion of Grade 1 (PropG1) is used for greenlip. For PropG1, all records where the total catch was >1% different from the sum of all three weight-grade categories were excluded, as were all records with zero catch. The minimum sample size was 10 fishing records; therefore, the absence of data for this measure in any one year indicates fewer records were available.

2.4 Harvest strategy The harvest strategy integrates catch and effort, commercial catch sampling and FI data to determine the risk that individual SAUs are overfished and a zonal stock status. The methodology used to calculate, score and interpret high and medium importance SAU PIs for the harvest strategy is detailed in Table 6.5, Stobart et al. (2012b) and the Management Plan (PIRSA 2012). Application of the harvest strategy was complicated because the legislated TACC and the catch limit agreed among the licence holders differ. This is because the commercial sector unanimously agreed to voluntarily under-catch the TACC by 21% (blacklip) and 5% (greenlip) in 2016 in response to low and declining stock abundance that was poorly reflected in the harvest strategy. The reduction in catch influences scoring of a key performance indicator (PI) – ‘proportion of TACC’ – if the voluntary reduction is not accounted for. Consequently, in this report, outcomes from application of the harvest strategy using both the legislated TACC and the voluntary catch limit are provided.

2.5 Quality Assurance Quality assurance systems form an integral part of stock assessments undertaken by SARDI. These systems are designed to ensure high quality project planning, data collection and storage, analyses, interpretation of results and report writing. Details of the five individual components are provided in Appendix 6.2.

16 Stobart, B. et al. (2017) Western Zone Abalone Fishery

3 RESULTS 3.1 BLACKLIP

3.1.1 Western Zone Total catches were relatively stable from the introduction of Region A quota in 1985 (98 t) to 2009. Within this period, fluctuations in catch were primarily attributed to a reduction to the Region A TACC in 1996 (86 t), the introduction of quota to Region B in 1991 (9.2 t), increases to the Region B TACC in 1993 (11.5 t) and 1994 (13.8 t) and the variation in the proportion of blacklip caught in Region B (Figure 3.1). Subsequently, catch from the WZ decreased 35% between 2009 (102 t) and 2016 (67 t) following reductions to the Region A TACC in 2010 (92 t), Region B in 2011 (9.2 t) and 2013 (6.9 t), the removal of one licence in the WZ in 2014 and a 21% voluntary catch reduction of the TACC in 2015 and 2016. Catches in 2015 and 2016 were the lowest since 1979 (i.e. over 35 years)

CPUE was generally stable over two periods: 1979 to 1988 (mean 18.7 kg.hr-1) and 1990-2000 (mean 21.5 kg.hr 1), after which it increased rapidly (15%) to a historic high in 2003 (25.6 kg.hr 1). Excepting 2006 and 2015, CPUE declined consistently between 2003 and 2016 (28%). In 2016, CPUE (18.55 kg.hr-1) was the fifth lowest on record, the third lowest since TACC implementation, 19% below CPUE90-09 and similar to the mean value observed between 1979 and 1988, the period of lowest CPUE in the history of the fishery. When both catch and CPUE are

Figure 3.1. Catch (t, meat weight; black bars) of blacklip from the Western Zone from 1968 to 2016. CPUE -1 ± se (kg.hr ; solid red line), and a red dashed line showing CPUE90-09. Red arrows indicate implementation (1985) and amendment (1996 and 2010) of the blacklip TACC in Region A. Blue arrows indicate implementation (1991) and amendment (1993, 1994, 2011 and 2013) of the TACC in Region B. Black arrow indicates amendment to the WZ TACC (2014).

17 Stobart, B. et al. (2017) Western Zone Abalone Fishery considered together, the 2016 value from the combined trend of relative catch and relative CPUE was the second lowest value on record (Figure 3.2).

Figure 3.2. Combined trend of relative catch and relative CPUE from the Western Zone from 1979 to 2016.

The three alternative methods used to estimate catch rate had consistently higher values than CPUE, but temporal trends were virtually identical to those observed for CPUE and, consequently, were highly correlated with this metric (Figure 3.3; Pearson correlations wpCPUE = 0.97, BL day CPUE = 0.83 and TAS CPUE = 0.98). Irrespective of the method used to estimate catch rate, the values in 2016 were amongst the lowest on record, with the values estimated for 2016 for wpCPUE and BL day CPUE lower in the rank order than the value for CPUE (Figure 3.4).

Figure 3.3. Comparison of Western Zone blacklip CPUE calculated with alternative estimation methods (kg.hr-1; see legend) from 1979 to 2016.

18 Stobart, B. et al. (2017) Western Zone Abalone Fishery

Figure 3.4. Rank order of Western Zone blacklip CPUE calculated with alternative estimation methods (kg.hr-1; see legend) from 1979 to 2016. Open square symbol is 2016 data point.

Regions of the Western Zone The percent of catch harvested from the three regions remained relatively similar from the introduction of quota in 1985 to 2009, whereafter it decreased in Elliston and Streaky Bay and increased substantially in Port Lincoln (Figure 3.5).

Figure 3.5. Comparison between percent of blacklip catch at SAUs located near Port Lincoln, Elliston and Streaky Bay (see legend) from the Western Zone from 1968 to 2016.

19 Stobart, B. et al. (2017) Western Zone Abalone Fishery

With few exceptions, CPUE estimates for Elliston and Streaky Bay were higher than those for the Port Lincoln region (Figure 3.6), with Port Lincoln only reaching comparable values at the beginning of the fishery (1979-1982) and during the 2000s when there was a large increase in CPUE for Port Lincoln. The CPUE from Port Lincoln declined consistently from a historic peak in 2006 (25.4 kg.hr-1) and, in 2016, was the fourth lowest on record (16.6 kg.hr-1). Similarly, the CPUE from Elliston also generally decreased from a peak in 2004 to 2014, the fourth lowest value on record (20.9 kg.hr-1), whereafter it remained relatively stable at a low value. While CPUE also decreased in Streaky Bay, from a historic peak in 2006 to 2010, it subsequently remained relatively stable at values similar to the 1990s.

Figure 3.6. Comparison between CPUE ± se (kg.hr-1) of blacklip at SAUs located near Port Lincoln, Elliston and Streaky Bay (see legend) from the Western Zone from 1968 to 2016.

20 Stobart, B. et al. (2017) Western Zone Abalone Fishery

Distribution of catch among spatial assessment units For the ten year period ending 31 December 2016, there were 11 high and 16 medium importance SAUs in the WZ (Figure 1.3). Of these, 8 high (Drummond, Sheringa, Point Westall, Reef Head, Avoid Bay, Searcy Bay, Anxious Bay and Ward Island) and 3 medium (Point Avoid, Venus Bay and Hotspot) were for blacklip. There was only one change to the importance rating of blacklip SAUs between 2015 (Stobart and Mayfield 2016b) and 2016, with Flinders Island changing from medium importance in 2015 to low importance in 2016.

In 2016, the eight SAUs from which more than 5% of the total blacklip catch for the WZ was harvested were Drummond (27.0%), Reef Head (10.3%) Anxious Bay (10.0%) Point Westall (8.9%), Sheringa (8.2%), Avoid Bay (6.3%), Point Avoid (6.2%) and Searcy Bay (5.7%). Cumulatively, they represented 83% of the catch. This was similar to the eight SAUs that exceeded 5% of the total blacklip catch in 2015 and represented 82% of the catch. The distribution of catch among SAUs did not change substantially between 2015 and 2016, with the largest increase occurring at Anxious Bay (4.6 t; 7.0% to 6.7 t; 10.0%).

The MDS plot shows four groupings of years where the distribution of catch in WZ SAUs within each group was similar (75% similarity; Figure 3.7). The more recent distribution of catch among years has been most similar to that obtained in the early 1980s, with the spatial distribution of catch in 2016 most similar to that from 2015 (Red Group 2; Figure 3.7). The current and 1980s catch distribution was less diverse than that observed between 1990 and 2010 (Figure 3.8), with the lower diversity associated with a high proportion of the catch being harvested from the Drummond SAU (Figure 3.9). The longest period of similarity occurred during a period when the catch contribution from SAUs was more diverse and lasted 15 years, primarily encompassing the mid-to-late 1990s and 2000s. During this period, the catch contribution was more evenly distributed among SAUs and generally changed less abruptly between years (Figure 3.9). The least diverse year was 1983, when most of the catch came from the Drummond, Sheringa and Reef Head SAUs. The difference between 2015 and 2016 was primarily attributed to increased catch from Cape Bauer, Anxious Bay Franklin Islands, Flinders Island and Sir Joseph Banks along with decreases from Baird Bay, Sheringa, Venus Bay and Fishery Bay SAUs.

21 Stobart, B. et al. (2017) Western Zone Abalone Fishery

1989 1985

1984 3 2 1990 1988 1983 1992

1998 1982 1979 1991 1993 1987 1994 1999 1997 1 1986 1996

1995 2000 2001 2002 2004 1980 2009 1981 2013 2008 2003 2010 2012 2011 2005 2006 2015 2007 2014 4 2016

Figure 3.7. Multi-dimensional scaling (MDS) plot for SAUs showing similarity among years based on blacklip catch from the Western Zone from 1979 to 2016. 2D stress = 0.11. Green, red, yellow and blue lines indicate numbered clusters with 75% similarity, labelled 1 to 4.

Figure 3.8. Pielou’s evenness Index of SAU catch among years for the Western Zone from 1979 to 2016.

22 Stobart, B. et al. (2017) Western Zone Abalone Fishery

Figure 3.9. Bubble plot showing the spatial distribution of the blacklip catch (% of total catch) among the SAUs in the WZ from 1979 to 2016. Coloured boxes are clusters 1 (green), 2 (red), 3 (yellow) and 4 (blue) from the MDS in Figure 3.7. Note abbreviations for Cape (Cp), island (Is), reef (Rf), unassigned region (Unass. RG), north east (NE) and south west (SW).

23 Stobart, B. et al. (2017) Western Zone Abalone Fishery

Distribution of CPUE values among spatial assessment units Seven of the nine high and medium importance SAUs for which CPUE could be estimated in 2016 had CPUE values substantially below CPUE90-09 (Table 3.1). Drummond and Sheringa, the two most important blacklip SAUs (35% of the catch in 2016) had, respectively, the second (-22%) and fourth (-15%) lowest CPUE values in the post-quota history of the fishery. Remaining SAUs with low CPUE values contributed to a further 32% of the 2016 blacklip catch, with CPUE values that ranged from -15% (Searcy Bay) to -47% (Ward Island) of CPUE90-09. Reef Head had the lowest post-quota CPUE value on record relative to CPUE90-09 (-28%). Only two of the nine high and medium SAUs, Point Westall and Anxious Bay, had CPUE values equivalent to the 1990- 2009 reference period average.

Table 3.1. Ranked annual SAU CPUE, as a percentage of CPUE90-09, for high and medium SAUs since the introduction of quota in 1985 and for which CPUE could be estimated in 2016. Orange cells indicate 2016 values.

BAY

POINT POINT WARD POINT

AVOID

ISLAND

ANXIOUS ANXIOUS WESTALL

SHERINGA

AVOID BAY AVOID

REEF HEAD REEF

DRUMMOND

SEARCY BAY SEARCY

16 21 33 19 30 14 26 24 31 13 6 16 14 22 14 26 19 28 13 4 14 13 18 12 21 10 17 9 1 12 10 17 8 19 9 10 7 1 10 8 10 6 19 4 6 7 0 7 7 6 5 12 3 6 3 0 5 5 5 4 9 2 5 2 0 3 5 1 4 4 1 4 2 0 1 4 1 2 4 -1 4 2 0 1 4 0 2 2 -1 3 2 0 0 4 -1 1 1 -2 1 -1 -1 0 1 -2 -1 1 -2 0 -1 -2 0 -1 -5 -1 0 -3 -2 -2 -2 0 -3 -7 -2 -4 -3 -2 -5 -2 -1 -6 -12 -2 -6 -7 -5 -6 -2 -1 -9 -13 -2 -6 -8 -6 -7 -3 -2 -9 -13 -3 -7 -8 -9 -9 -5 -3 -10 -13 -4 -7 -9 -10 -9 -5 -4 -10 -14 -6 -10 -9 -14 -9 -7 -7 -12 -14 -7 -13 -10 -16 -9 -7 -7 -13 -15 -7 -14 -13 -18 -10 -8 -7 -15 -17 -12 -18 -15 -18 -11 -9 -9 -16 -18 -13 -20 -16 -21 -13 -10 -9 -17 -20 -14 -20 -19 -23 -15 -11 -9 -17 -24 -14 -20 -27 -25 -16 -11 -9 -19 -27 -15 -20 -29 -27 -18 -13 -10 -22 -36 -16 -21 -36 -31 -19 -15 -12 -22 -45 -16 -21 -42 -32 -21 -18 -14 -24 -48 -19 -22 -47 -36 -22 -18 -15 -25 -50 -21 -24 -36 -26 -20 -18 -26 -55 -21 -26 -45 -32 -23 -21 -28 -24 -27

24 Stobart, B. et al. (2017) Western Zone Abalone Fishery

Temporal patterns in HIGH importance spatial assessment units Drummond (Rank 1-1; 19.8-27%) Drummond is the most important SAU in the WZ. Catch decreased from a historic high in 1981 to substantially lower, but relatively stable catches between 1994 and 2005 (Figure 3.10). Subsequently, catches from this SAU increased and, from 2011, have remained at a level similar to that recorded in the early 1980s. Catch in 2016 remained high (18 t), representing 27% of the 2014 WZ blacklip catch.

CPUE generally increased from 1979 (19 kg.hr-1) to the maximum in 2006 (29 kg.hr-1). However, it has subsequently declined and, in 2016, CPUE (18 kg.hr-1) was the fourth lowest value on record, the lowest value post-quota and 26% below CPUE90-09.

Figure 3.10. Catch (t, meat weight; black bars) of blacklip from Drummond from 1979 to 2016. CPUE ± se -1 (kg.hr ; solid red line), and a red dashed line showing CPUE90-09.

FI surveys at Drummond indicated that the percentage of LARGE blacklip varied between years (range: 12-31%), with the highest percentage recorded in 2015 (Figure 3.11). The percentage of SMALL blacklip was relatively low in 2006, 2013 and 2015 (15%) (Figure 3.11). The density of legal-sized blacklip remained similar from the beginning of surveys in 2005 to 2015, but halved between 2015 and 2017 to the lowest value on record (Figure 3.12). The decrease in density between 2015 and 2016 was also apparent when new drops were included in the analysis. The density of sub-legal-sized blacklip have remained similar since surveys began in 2005.

25 Stobart, B. et al. (2017) Western Zone Abalone Fishery

Figure 3.11. Length-frequency distributions of legal-sized (black bars) and sub-legal-sized (red bars) blacklip at Drummond (map-code 12B) observed on fishery-independent surveys from 2006 to 2017. Length classes represent the upper length of each 5 mm bin. n = number of blacklip measured. Bin classes <50 mm SL pooled.

Figure 3.12. Mean density ± se (abalone.m-2) of all, legal-sized and sub-legal sized (see legend) blacklip at Drummond (cross drops; map-code 12B) from 2005 to 2017. Yellow and green points indicate mean density ± se (abalone.m-2) for legal and sub-legal blacklip, respectively, including values from 12 new drops established in 2013.

26 Stobart, B. et al. (2017) Western Zone Abalone Fishery

Sheringa (Rank 2-5; 11.8-8.2%) Annual catches from Sheringa have oscillated among years with substantially larger catches (>25 t) harvested from this SAU in 1981 and 1985 (Figure 3.13). Lower catches from 2005 to 2007 were the consequence of industry agreeing with PIRSA to reduce the level of catch from this SAU for this period. Catches increased from 2007 and, in 2011 (14.9 t), catch was at the highest level since 1995. Catch remained high in 2012 and 2013, but decreased 61% between 2013 (14.2 t) and 2016 (5.5 t). The blacklip catch from this SAU in 2016 was the second lowest on record.

With the exception of a high value in 2006, CPUE remained relatively stable from 1990 to 2010 but decreased by 22% between 2010 (29.7 kg.hr-1) and 2015 (23.3 kg.hr-1), the second lowest

CPUE value on record and 23% below CPUE90-09. There was a small (7%) increase in CPUE between 2015 and 2016, likely driven by the substantial reduction in catch.

Figure 3.13. Catch (t, meat weight; black bars) of blacklip from Sheringa from 1979 to 2016. CPUE ± se -1 (kg.hr ; solid red line), and a red dashed line showing CPUE90-09.

FI surveys at Sheringa indicate that the percentage of LARGE blacklip varied considerably between 2005 and 2017 (range: 43-73%), with the largest size classes evident in all years (Figure 3.14). The percentage of SMALL blacklip was also variable between years (range 8-40%). The density of legal-sized blacklip halved between 2008 and 2009, and remained low in 2011 and 2017, with the 2017 legal-size density being the lowest on record (Figure 3.15). The density of sub-legal sized blacklip was low in 2009, 2014 and 2017. The sub-legal density in 2017 also the lowest value on record (Figure 3.15).

27 Stobart, B. et al. (2017) Western Zone Abalone Fishery

Figure 3.14. Length-frequency distributions of legal-sized (black bars) and sub-legal-sized (red bars) blacklip at Sheringa (map-code 11A) observed on fishery-independent surveys from 2005 to 2017. Length classes represent the upper length of each 5 mm bin. n = number of blacklip measured. Bin classes < 50 mm SL pooled.

Figure 3.15. Mean density ± se (abalone.m-2) of all, legal-sized and sub-legal sized (see legend) blacklip at Sheringa (cross drops; map-code 11A) from 2005 to 2017.

28 Stobart, B. et al. (2017) Western Zone Abalone Fishery

Point Westall (Rank 3-4; 7.6-8.9%) With few exceptions, annual catches from Point Westall have been relatively stable, ranging between approximately 4 and 9 t.yr-1 (Figure 3.16). Catch in 2016 (5.9 t) was lower than the average for this SAU since 1979 (7.1 t).

With the exception of high values in 1979 (27 kg.hr-1) and 2006 (30 kg.hr-1) and low levels in the early 1980s, CPUE has remained relatively stable and, in 2016 (22 kg.hr-1), was equivalent to

CPUE90-09.

Figure 3.16. Catch (t, meat weight; black bars) of blacklip from Point Westall from 1979 to 2016. CPUE ± -1 se (kg.hr ; solid red line), and a red dashed line showing CPUE90-09.

FI surveys at Point Westall began in 2005 and the percentage of LARGE blacklip has remained relatively stable, with the highest percentage recorded in 2017 (range: 17-30%; Figure 3.17). The range of the percentage of SMALL blacklip was similar, with the highest percentage in 2015 (range: 16-26%). The density of legal and sub-legal-sized blacklip has remained relatively stable since surveys began in 2005, although there is some evidence of a large reduction of legal-sized blacklip between 2015 and 2017 when the more complete set of cross-drops were considered (Figure 3.18).

29 Stobart, B. et al. (2017) Western Zone Abalone Fishery

Figure 3.17. Length-frequency distributions of legal-sized (black bars) and sub-legal-sized (red bars) blacklip at Granites, Point Westall (map-code 4B), observed on fishery-independent surveys from 2005 to 2017. Length classes represent the upper length of each 5 mm bin. n = number of blacklip measured. Bin classes < 50 mm SL pooled.

Figure 3.18. Mean density ± se (abalone.m-2) of all, legal-sized and sub-legal sized (see legend) blacklip at Point Westall (cross drops; Granites, map-code 4B) from 2005 to 2017. Yellow and green points indicate mean density ± se (abalone.m-2) for legal and sub-legal blacklip, respectively, including values from 12 new drops established in 2013.

30 Stobart, B. et al. (2017) Western Zone Abalone Fishery

Reef Head (Rank 4-2; 7.3-10.3%) Annual catch from Reef Head generally declined from a historic high in 1983 (16 t) to the second lowest on record in 1999 (2.5 t; Figure 3.19) and subsequently, with the exception of 2000, 2001 and 2005, remained low until 2009. Catches from 2010 to 2013 were relatively high and similar to those harvested from this SAU in the early 1980s. Catch then decreased 43% between 2013 (9.2 t) and 2014 (5.3 t), thereafter increasing to 6.5 t in 2015 and 7.0 t in 2016.

CPUE declined from the maximum level in 2005 (24 kg.hr-1) and, in 2016 (14.8 kg.hr-1) was the second lowest on record, the lowest post-quota and 28% below CPUE90-09. There are no FI surveys at this high-importance SAU.

Figure 3.19. Catch (t, meat weight; black bars) of blacklip from Reef Head from 1979 to 2016. CPUE ± se -1 (kg.hr ; solid red line), and a red dashed line showing CPUE90-09.

31 Stobart, B. et al. (2017) Western Zone Abalone Fishery

Avoid Bay (Rank 5-6; 7.3-6.3%) Catch from Avoid Bay has been relatively stable ranging from 3-7 t between 1979 and 2016 (Figure 3.20). The exception was the three-year period from 2006 to 2008 when catch was higher (8-12 t). CPUE has varied considerably among years, but has recently declined from the high levels through the mid-2000s and, in 2016, was 27% below CPUE90-09.

Figure 3.20. Catch (t, meat weight; black bars) of blacklip from Avoid Bay from 1979 to 2016. CPUE ± se -1 (kg.hr ; solid red line), and a red dashed line showing CPUE90-09.

FI surveys at Avoid Bay began in 2009. The percentage of LARGE blacklip varied between years (26-44%), with the lowest percentage occurring in 2015 (Figure 3.21). The percentage of SMALL blacklip was highest in 2015. Density estimates of legal-sized blacklip reduced by 75% between 2009 and 2013, but subsequently more than doubled between 2013 and 2017 (Figure 3.22). This contrasts with the density estimate including the eight new drops that were started in 2013 that suggests density has not increased. The density of sub-legal-sized blacklip decreased by over 50% between 2010 and 2013, remained low in 2015 and has subsequently almost doubled. Again this estimate based on new drops that does not indicate an increase in the density of sub-legal- sized blacklip.

32 Stobart, B. et al. (2017) Western Zone Abalone Fishery

Figure 3.21. Length-frequency distributions of legal-sized (black bars) and sub-legal-sized (red bars) blacklip at Black Rocks, Avoid Bay (Black Rocks, map-code 14D), observed on fishery-independent surveys from 2005 to 2017. Length classes represent the upper length of each 5 mm bin. n = number of blacklip measured. Bin classes < 50 mm SL pooled.

Figure 3.22. Mean density ± se (abalone.m-2) of all, legal-sized and sub-legal sized (see legend) blacklip at Black Rocks, Avoid Bay (cross drops; Black Rocks, map-code 14D) from 2005 to 2017. Yellow and green points indicate mean density ± se (abalone.m-2) for legal and sub-legal blacklip, respectively, including values from 8 new drops established in 2013.

33 Stobart, B. et al. (2017) Western Zone Abalone Fishery

Searcy Bay (Rank 6-8; 6.3-5.7%) Catch from this SAU increased from the lowest on record in 1979 (1 t) to the highest on record in 1985 (18 t), whereafter it remained relatively stable, ranging between 4 and 9 t.yr-1 (Figure 3.23). Catch in 2016 was the lowest (3.8t) since 1984. While CPUE has varied among years, it increased from a historic low in 1982 (17 kg.hr-1) to a historic high in 2006 (29 kg.hr-1). From 2006, CPUE generally declined, with the largest inter-annual decrease occurring between 2012 and 2013 (14%), whereafter it has remained relatively stable at a lower level (Figure 3.23). In 2016, CPUE was 15% below CPUE90-09. There are no FI surveys at this high-importance SAU.

Figure 3.23. Catch (t, meat weight; black bars) of blacklip from Searcy Bay from 1979 to 2016. CPUE ± se -1 (kg.hr ; solid red line), and a red dashed line showing CPUE90-09.

34 Stobart, B. et al. (2017) Western Zone Abalone Fishery

Anxious Bay (Rank 7-3; 6.0-10.0%) With the exception of a high catch in 1984 (15 t) annual catches from Anxious Bay have been relatively stable among years, ranging between 2 and 8 t.yr-1 (Figure 3.24). CPUE remained relatively stable between 1980 and 2000, with the exception of a high value in 1999 (25 kg.hr-1), whereafter it increased and was high between 2003 and 2007 (average 26 kg.hr-1). CPUE subsequently declined from the historic high in 2007 (27 kg.hr-1) and, in 2016 (21 kg.hr-1), following successive small increase, was close to CPUE90-09.

Figure 3.24. Catch (t, meat weight; black bars) of blacklip from Anxious Bay from 1979 to 2016. CPUE ± -1 se (kg.hr ; solid red line), and a red dashed line showing CPUE90-09.

35 Stobart, B. et al. (2017) Western Zone Abalone Fishery

Ward Island (Rank 8-11; 5.0-2.6%) Annual catches from Ward Island were less than 2 t between 1979 and 1991 (Figure 3.25). Following this, catch more than doubled, remaining high from 1992 to 2010 (about 7 t). However, in 2011 catch decreased by 56% to the lowest level since 1991 (2.5 t), and has remained low thereafter (2016 was 2 t).

Figure 3.25. Catch (t, meat weight; black bars) of blacklip from Ward Island from 1979 to 2016. CPUE ± se -1 (kg.hr ; solid red line), and a red dashed line showing CPUE90-09.

CPUE was relatively stable between 1992 and 2010, although higher in 2003 and 2004, then declined substantially from 2010 to 2016 (26 to 13 kg.hr-1). The CPUE estimate in 2016 was the second lowest value on record and 47% below CPUE90-09.

Fishery independent surveys at Ward Island indicated the percentage of LARGE blacklip varied between 48% and 62% prior to 2009 but, from 2011 to 2015 was lower (range 21-24%) with no blacklip > 165 mm SL observed in 2011 and 2013 or > 160 mm SL in 2015 (Figure 3.27). The density of legal-sized blacklip in 2015 was 25% higher than that recorded in 2013, and similar to the highest densities that were recorded in 2005 and 2006 (Figure 3.26). However, the density of sub-legal-sized blacklip was the lowest on record.

36 Stobart, B. et al. (2017) Western Zone Abalone Fishery

Figure 3.27. Length-frequency distributions of legal-sized (black bars) and sub-legal-sized (red bars) blacklip at Ward Island (map-code 9A) observed on fishery-independent surveys from 2005 to 2015. Length classes represent the upper length of each 5 mm bin. n = number of blacklip measured. Bin classes < 50 mm SL pooled.

Figure 3.26. Mean density ± se (abalone.m-2) of all, legal-sized and sub-legal sized (see legend) blacklip at Ward Island (cross drops; map-code 9A) from 2005 to 2015.

37 Stobart, B. et al. (2017) Western Zone Abalone Fishery

Temporal patterns in MEDIUM importance spatial assessment units Point Avoid (Rank 9-7; 4.4-6.3) The annual catch from Point Avoid has been relatively stable since 1979, with the exception of a very low catch in 1996 (0.5 t Figure 3.28). Catch in 2016 (4.2 t) was similar to the average over the 36 years of the fishery (3.7 t). CPUE has fluctuated considerably among years, but gradually increased from 1979 to historical peaks observed in 2003 and 2006 (~27 kg.hr-1). However, CPUE generally declined from 2006 and, in 2016, was 27% below CPUE90-09.

Venus Bay (Rank 10-13; 4.3-1.5%) Catch from Venus Bay increased substantially from 1979 to 1984, oscillated among year up to 2003, and subsequently declined to the second lowest catch on record in 2016 (1 t; Figure 3.28). CPUE was relatively stable between 1989 and 2002, whereafter it increased to a historic high in 2006 (30 kg.hr-1). Between 2006 and 2015 CPUE decreased 29% but could not be calculated in 2016 due to insufficient data.

Hotspot (Rank 11-18; 3.0-0.4%) The annual catch from Hotspot was relatively low from 1979 to 1996 and subsequently almost doubled between 1996 (3.3 t) and 1997 (5.9 t), remaining high for 14 years until 2010 whereafter it declined substantially and has remained low (Figure 3.28). CPUE has fluctuated among years

-1 but generally declined since 2006. In 2011 (19 kg.hr ) it was equivalent to CPUE90-09 but could not be calculated between 2012 and 2016 due to insufficient data.

Temporal patterns in LOW importance spatial assessment units In most cases, CPUE in 2016 could not be estimated for low importance SAUs and in many cases there was a lack of historic records for this metric (Figure 3.29 Figure 3.30). There were a few exceptions where CPUE could be estimated in many years, including 2016. These were Cape Bauer, that had relatively a high CPUE value in 2016, and Coffin Bay and Flinders Island that had low CPUE values.

38 Stobart, B. et al. (2017) Western Zone Abalone Fishery

Figure 3.28. Catch (t, meat weight; black bars) of blacklip from Point Avoid, Venus Bay and Hotspot and -1 from 1979 to 2016. CPUE ± se (kg.hr ; solid red line), and a red dashed line showing CPUE90-09.

39 Stobart, B. et al. (2017) Western Zone Abalone Fishery

Figure 3.29. Catch (t, meat weight; black bars) and CPUE ± se (kg.hr-1) of blacklip from low importance SAUs Baird Bay, Cape Bauer, Cape Catastrophe, Coffin Bay, D’Entrecasteaux Reef, Elliston Cliffs, Fishery Bay, Flinders Island, Franklin Islands, Greenly Island, Memory Cove and NE Thistle. CPUE is shown in red. Red dashed lines show CPUE90-09 where applicable. Note catch scales vary among graphs.

40 Stobart, B. et al. (2017) Western Zone Abalone Fishery

Figure 3.30. Catch (t, meat weight; black bars) and CPUE ± se (kg.hr-1) of blacklip from low importance SAUs Neptune Islands, North Nuyts Archipelago, Pearson Island, Sir Joseph Banks, South Nuyts Archipelago, SW Thistle, Taylor Island, The Gap, Unassigned WZ, Waterloo Bay and Wedge Island. CPUE is shown in red. Red dashed lines show CPUE90-09 where applicable. Note catch scales vary among graphs.

41 Stobart, B. et al. (2017) Western Zone Abalone Fishery

3.1.2 Risk of overfishing in SAUs and zonal stock status There were eight high and three medium importance SAUs for blacklip in the WZ in 2016, with all other SAUs being of low importance (Table 3.2). It was possible to determine the risk-of- overfishing category for 9 (82%) of these 11 SAUs. The inability to estimate CPUE on two medium importance SAUs (Venus Bay and Hotspot), due to insufficient data, resulted in the blacklip stocks in these SAUs being categorised as uncertain (Table 3.2).

Use of two alternate TACC values for scoring the “proportion of TACC” PI yielded differences in the PI “proportion of TACC” for six SAUs (Table 3.2Table 3.3; Sheringa, Point Westall, Reef Head, Avoid Bay, Searcy Bay and Anxious Bay). This resulted in a change to the risk-of-overfishing category for both Point Westall and Anxious Bay (green using the legislated TACC, dark blue using the voluntary TACC) and Reef Head and Avoid Bay (red using the legislated TACC, yellow using the voluntary TACC). Using the legislated TACC, summed PI scores ranged from -20 (Ward Island) to 6 (Point Avoid) with five high importance SAUs assigned to a red (Sheringa, Reef Head, Avoid Bay, Searcy Bay and Ward Island), one to a yellow (Drummond) and two to green (Point Westall and Anxious Bay) risk-of-overfishing categories (Table 3.2). Point Avoid was the only assessable medium importance SAU and was assigned a dark blue risk-of-overfishing category for both alternate TACC values considered. Low importance SAUs were not assessed or categorised.

The catch-weighted zonal score was -1.02 and -0.6 when using the legislated (Table 3.2) and voluntary (Table 3.3) TACCs, respectively. In both cases this defined a zonal stock status for WZ blacklip of ‘over fished’.

42 Stobart, B. et al. (2017) Western Zone Abalone Fishery

Table 3.2. 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. Scoring of the “proportion of TACC” PI was against the legislated TACC. Grey shading identifies the performance indicators and their respective scores. ND indicates no data.

% contribution to mean % contribution to Catch-weighted Proportion Pre-recruit Legal Spatial assessment unit total catch (WZ) over the Importance catch from high & CPUE PropLge Mortality Combined PI score Risk of overfishing contribution to zonal TACC Density Density last 10 years (07-16) medium SAU in 2016 score

Drummond 10.8 High 31.71 -7 8 -2 -4 -2 2 -5 -1 -0.32 Sheringa 6.4 High 9.62 -8 -2 -1 -2 -3 0 -16 -2 -0.19 Pt Westall 4.1 High 10.40 0 0 2 0 -2 2 2 0 0.00 Rf Head 4.0 High 12.13 -8 3 -1 ND ND ND -6 -2 -0.24 Avoid Bay 3.9 High 7.35 -6 1 -1 0 0 0 -6 -2 -0.15 Searcy Bay 3.4 High 6.69 -8 -1 0 ND ND ND -9 -2 -0.13 Anxious Bay 3.2 High 11.76 0 2 -1 ND ND ND 1 0 0.00 Ward Island 2.7 High 3.05 -8 -8 -2 0 0 -1 -19 -2 -0.06 Pt Avoid 2.4 Medium 7.29 -7 8 5 6 1 0.07 Venus Bay 2.4 Medium - - -7 -1 Uncertain Not assigned Hotspot 1.6 Medium - - -8 -1 Uncertain Not assigned - Flinders Island 1.2 Low ------Not assigned - Fishery Bay 1.0 Low ------Not assessed Baird Bay 0.9 Low ------Not assessed Cp Bauer 0.8 Low ------Not assessed North Nuyts 0.8 Low ------Not assessed Elliston Cliffs 0.7 Low ------Not assessed Coffin Bay 0.6 Low ------Not assessed DEntrecasteaux Rf 0.6 Low ------Not assessed The Gap 0.6 Low ------Not assessed Waterloo Bay 0.5 Low ------Not assessed Cp Catastrophe 0.5 Low ------Not assessed South Nuyts 0.4 Low ------Not assessed Unassigned WZ 0.2 Low ------Not assessed Franklin Islands 0.2 Low ------Not assessed SW Thistle 0.1 Low ------Not assessed Memory Cove 0.1 Low ------Not assessed Taylors Island 0.1 Low ------Not assessed NE Thistle 0.1 Low ------Not assessed Neptune Islands 0.1 Low ------Not assessed Wedge Island 0.0 Low ------Not assessed Pearson Island 0.0 Low ------Not assessed Greenly Island 0.0 Low ------Not assessed Sir Joseph Banks 0.0 Low ------Not assessed Sir_Joseph_Banks 0.0 Low ------Not assessed Sum 54.3 100.0 Zonal Stock Status -1.02

43 Stobart, B. et al. (2017) Western Zone Abalone Fishery

Table 3.3. 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. Scoring of the “proportion of TACC” PI was against the voluntary catch limit (i.e. 21% below the TACC). Grey shading identifies the performance indicators and their respective scores. ND indicates no data.

% contribution to mean % contribution to Catch-weighted Proportion Pre-recruit Legal Spatial assessment unit total catch (WZ) over the Importance catch from high & CPUE PropLge Mortality Combined PI score Risk of overfishing contribution to zonal TACC Density Density last 10 years (07-16) medium SAU in 2016 score

Drummond 10.8 High 31.71 -7 8 -2 -4 -2 2 -5 -1 -0.32 Sheringa 6.4 High 9.62 -8 -1 -1 -2 -3 0 -15 -2 -0.19 Pt Westall 4.1 High 10.40 0 1 2 0 -2 2 3 1 0.10 Rf Head 4.0 High 12.13 -8 4 -1 ND ND ND -5 -1 -0.12 Avoid Bay 3.9 High 7.35 -6 3 -1 0 0 0 -4 -1 -0.07 Searcy Bay 3.4 High 6.69 -8 0 0 ND ND ND -8 -2 -0.13 Anxious Bay 3.2 High 11.76 0 4 -1 ND ND ND 3 1 0.12 Ward Island 2.7 High 3.05 -8 -8 -2 0 0 -1 -19 -2 -0.06 Pt Avoid 2.4 Medium 7.29 -7 8 5 6 1 0.07 Venus Bay 2.4 Medium - - -7 -1 Uncertain Not assigned - Hotspot 1.6 Medium - - -8 -1 Uncertain Not assigned - Flinders Island 1.2 Low ------Not assigned Fishery Bay 1.0 Low ------Not assessed Baird Bay 0.9 Low ------Not assessed Cp Bauer 0.8 Low ------Not assessed North Nuyts 0.8 Low ------Not assessed Elliston Cliffs 0.7 Low ------Not assessed Coffin Bay 0.6 Low ------Not assessed DEntrecasteaux Rf 0.6 Low ------Not assessed The Gap 0.6 Low ------Not assessed Waterloo Bay 0.5 Low ------Not assessed Cp Catastrophe 0.5 Low ------Not assessed South Nuyts 0.4 Low ------Not assessed Unassigned WZ 0.2 Low ------Not assessed Franklin Islands 0.2 Low ------Not assessed SW Thistle 0.1 Low ------Not assessed Memory Cove 0.1 Low ------Not assessed Taylors Island 0.1 Low ------Not assessed NE Thistle 0.1 Low ------Not assessed Neptune Islands 0.1 Low ------Not assessed Wedge Island 0.0 Low ------Not assessed Pearson Island 0.0 Low ------Not assessed Greenly Island 0.0 Low ------Not assessed Sir Joseph Banks 0.0 Low ------Not assessed Sir_Joseph_Banks 0.0 Low ------Not assessed Sum 54.3 100.0 Zonal Stock Status -0.60

44 Stobart, B. et al. (2017) Western Zone Abalone Fishery

3.2 Greenlip

3.2.1 Western Zone Total catches were relatively stable from 1989 to 2009 (Figure 3.31). From 2009 to 2016, there has been a 16% reduction to the WZAF greenlip catch. This was due to the combined effects of reductions to the Region A TACC in 2010 (77.7 t), decreases in TACC for Region B in 2011 (9.2 t) and 2012 (6.9 t), the removal of one licence from the WZ in 2014 and the 5% voluntary catch reduction of the TACC in 2015 and 2016 (84.1 t). Catch per unit effort (CPUE) declined between 2003 and 2009, remained stable from 2009 to 2012 and declined further between 2012 and 2014,

whereafter it increased to values similar to the reference CPUE from 1990-2009 (CPUE90-09; the 20-year reference period from which the PIs are scored). In 2016, CPUE was 4% below CPUE

CPUE90-09. The trend was similar for the alternative CPUE estimation methods of wpCPUE, GL day CPUE and TAS CPUE (Figure 3.32 Pearson correlations wpCPUE = 0.96, BL day CPUE = 0.82 and TAS CPUE = 0.99). For all catch rate estimation methods, the 2016 value was close to the mid-point of rank order (Figure 3.3). The proportion of Grade 1 greenlip in the commercial

catch in 2016 was the second highest on record, 15% above the mean from 1990-2009 (PropG190-

09; Figure 3.31). 3.2.1.1 Spatial assessment units The distribution of catch among SAUs remained similar between 2015 and 2016 (Figure 3.3), but there were decreases in the percentage of catch from the Neptune Islands and Searcy Bay SAUs. Catch increased in the Flinders Island, Cape Catastrophe, Franklin Islands, NE Thistle and Taylor Island SAUs. In 2016, SAU importance remained the same as 2015, with the exception of Cape Catastrophe that went from low importance in 2015 to medium importance in 2016. The recent small decline in zonal CPUE was evident in the Anxious Bay, Ward Island, Point Westall, and Drummond SAUs. Between 2015 and 2016, CPUE increased moderately in the medium importance SAUs of Flinders Island and Memory Cove (Figures 3.35 - 3.42). 3.2.2 Risk of overfishing in SAUs and zonal stock status In 2016, application of the harvest strategy to determine stock status for greenlip in the WZ was based on 16 SAUs, providing a broad representation of fished stocks. There were three high- (Anxious Bay, The Gap and Avoid Bay) and thirteen medium-importance SAUs (Flinders Island, Ward Island, Drummond, Taylor Island, Reef Head, Hotspot, Baird Bay, South Nuyts Archipelago, Point Westall, Fishery Bay and Cape Catastrophe; Table 3.; Figures 3.35 – 3.42) for greenlip. Remaining SAUs were of low importance (Table 3.; Figures 3.41 – 3.42). The risk-of-overfishing category could be determined for 15 (94%) of the 16 high and medium importance SAUs (Table

45 Stobart, B. et al. (2017) Western Zone Abalone Fishery

3.4). Limited data for estimating CPUE in medium-importance SAU South Nuyts Archipelago in 2016 resulted in the greenlip stocks in this SAU being categorised as uncertain (Table 3.4).

Use of the two alternate TACC values for scoring the “proportion of TACC” PI yielded one different result, namely the “proportion of TACC” PI score for Avoid Bay scored a zero and two when the legislated TACC and voluntary TACCs were used, respectively. This did not change the “risk of overfishing” category for Avoid Bay, and thus in both cases the catch-weighted, zonal stock status scores using both options were 0.50 that defines a zonal stock status for WZ greenlip of ‘sustainably fished’ (Table 3.4).

46 Stobart, B. et al. (2017) Western Zone Abalone Fishery

Table 3.4. Outcome from application of the harvest strategy described in the Management Plan for the South Australian Abalone Fishery against the greenlip fishery in the Western Zone for 2016. Scoring of the “proportion of TACC” PI was against the legislated TACC. Grey shading identifies the performance indicators and their respective scores. ND indicates no data.

% contribution to mean % contribution to catch Catch-weighted Proportion Pre-recruit Legal Spatial assessment unit total catch (WZ) over the Importance from high & medium CPUE PropG1 Mortality Combined PI score Risk of overfishing contribution to zonal TACC Density Density last 10 years (07-16) SAU in 2016 score

Anxious_Bay 5.4 High 12.86 -2 5 4 -2 0 2 7 2 0.26 The_Gap 4.7 High 12.61 -4 0 0 -5 -1 1 -9 -2 -0.25 Avoid_Bay 3.9 High 7.92 0 0 0 -1 0 1 0 0 0.00 Point_Avoid 2.6 Medium 9.55 0 8 1 9 2 0.19 Flinders_Island 2.5 Medium 7.50 0 -7 2 -5 -1 -0.07 Ward_Island 2.4 Medium 5.52 -2 0 0 -2 0 0.00 Drummond 2.3 Medium 6.61 -4 8 0 4 1 0.07 Taylors_Island 2.1 Medium 5.98 0 0 2 2 0 0.00 Reef_Head 2.0 Medium 6.80 5 8 0 13 2 0.14 Hotspot 1.8 Medium 2.59 1 -8 0 -7 -2 -0.05 Baird_Bay 1.6 Medium 7.21 8 5 6 19 2 0.14 South_Nuyts_Archipelago 1.5 Medium - 0 -7 0 Uncertain Not assigned Point_Westall 1.4 Medium 3.00 -2 -2 8 4 1 0.03 Memory_Cove 1.3 Medium 3.14 0 0 0 0 0 0.00 Fishery_Bay 1.2 Medium 3.13 1 0 0 1 0 0.00 Cape_Catastrophe 1.2 Medium 5.58 1 2 0 - - - 3 1 0.06 Venus_Bay 0.9 Low ------Not assessed SW_Thistle 0.9 Low ------Not assessed Wedge_Island 0.8 Low ------Not assessed North_Nuyts_Archipelago 0.7 Low ------Not assessed Searcy_Bay 0.7 Low ------Not assessed NE_Thistle 0.6 Low ------Not assessed Franklin_Islands 0.5 Low ------Not assessed Coffin_Bay 0.5 Low ------Not assessed Neptune_Islands 0.4 Low ------Not assessed Cape_Bauer 0.4 Low ------Not assessed DEntrecasteaux_Reef 0.3 Low ------Not assessed Waterloo_Bay 0.3 Low ------Not assessed Sheringa 0.3 Low ------Not assessed Elliston_Cliffs 0.2 Low ------Not assessed Unassigned_WZ 0.1 Low ------Not assessed Pearson_Island 0.1 Low ------Not assessed Sir_Joseph_Banks 0.0 Low ------Not assessed Greenly_Island 0.0 Low ------Not assessed Sum 45.7 100.0 Zonal Stock Status 0.50

47 Stobart, B. et al. (2017) Western Zone Abalone Fishery

Figure 3.31. Catch (t, meat weight; green bars) of greenlip from the Western Zone from 1968 to 2016. Mean CPUE ± se (kg.hr-1), wpCPUE (kg.hr-1) and PropG1 are red, black and blue lines, respectively. Red and blue dashed lines show the reference points CPUE90-09 and PropG190-09, respectively. Red arrows indicate implementation (1985) and amendment (1989, 2006 and 2010) of the TACC in Region A, blue arrows indicate implementation (1991) and amendment (1993, 1994, 2011 and 2012) of the TACC in Region B.

Figure 3.32. Comparison of Western Zone greenlip CPUE with alternative estimation methods (kg.hr-1; see legend) from 1979 to 2016.

48 Stobart, B. et al. (2017) Western Zone Abalone Fishery

Figure 3.33. Rank order of Western Zone greenlip CPUE calculated with alternative estimation methods (kg.hr-1; see legend) from 1979 to 2016. Open square symbol is 2016 data point.

Figure 3.34. Bubble plot showing the spatial distribution of the greenlip catch (% of total catch) among the SAUs in the WZ from 1979 to 2016. Note abbreviations for Cape (Cp), island (Isl), reef (Rf) north east (NE), south west (SW), unassigned (Unass).

49 Stobart, B. et al. (2017) Western Zone Abalone Fishery

Figure 3.35. Anxious Bay (high importance). Performance indicators catch (proportion of TACC), CPUE (kg.hr-1), PropG1, legal density (no.m-2), pre-recruit density (no.m-2), mortality (Z) and scores from the harvest strategy in brackets. Red and blue lines are upper and lower limit and target reference points, respectively. Green bars describe the data and time over which the reference points were calculated, open bars describe the measures of the PI outside the reference period and orange bars the data and year subject to assessment for each PI, i.e. the score-year

50 Stobart, B. et al. (2017) Western Zone Abalone Fishery

Figure 3.36. The Gap (high importance). Performance indicators catch (proportion of TACC), CPUE (kg.hr- 1), PropG1, legal density (no.m-2), pre-recruit density (no.m-2), mortality (Z) and scores from the harvest strategy in brackets. Red and blue lines are upper and lower limit and target reference points, respectively. Green bars describe the data and time over which the reference points were calculated, open bars describe the measures of the PI outside the reference period and orange bars the data and year subject to assessment for each PI, i.e. the score-year.

51 Stobart, B. et al. (2017) Western Zone Abalone Fishery

Figure 3.37 Avoid Bay (high importance). Performance indicators catch (proportion of TACC), CPUE (kg.hr-1), PropG1, legal density (no.m-2), pre-recruit density (no.m-2), mortality (Z) and scores from the harvest strategy in brackets. Red and blue lines are upper and lower limit and target reference points, respectively. Green bars describe the data and time over which the reference points were calculated, open bars describe the measures of the PI outside the reference period and orange bars the data and year subject to assessment for each PI, i.e. the score-year.

52 Stobart, B. et al. (2017) Western Zone Abalone Fishery

Figure 3.38. Point Avoid, Flinders Island, Ward Island, and Drummond (medium importance). Performance indicators catch (proportion of TACC), CPUE (kg.hr-1), PropG1 and scores from the harvest strategy in brackets. Red and blue lines are upper and lower limit and target reference points, respectively. Green bars describe the data and time over which the reference points were calculated, open bars describe the measures of the PI outside the reference period and orange bars the data and year subject to assessment for each PI, i.e. the score-year. ND indicates no data.

53 Stobart, B. et al. (2017) Western Zone Abalone Fishery

Figure 3.39. Taylor Island, Reef Head, Hotspot and Baird Bay (medium importance). Performance indicators catch (proportion of TACC), CPUE (kg.hr- 1), PropG1 and scores from the harvest strategy in brackets. Red and blue lines are upper and lower limit and target reference points, respectively. Green bars describe the data and time over which the reference points were calculated, open bars describe the measures of the PI outside the reference period and orange bars the data and year subject to assessment for each PI, i.e. the score-year. ND indicates no data.

54 Stobart, B. et al. (2017) Western Zone Abalone Fishery

Figure 3.40. South Nuyts Archipelago, Point Westall, Memory Cove, Fishery Bay and Cape Catastrophe (medium importance). Performance indicators catch (proportion of TACC), CPUE (kg.hr-1), PropG1 and scores from the harvest strategy in brackets. Red and blue lines are upper and lower limit and target reference points, respectively. Green bars describe the data and time over which the reference points were calculated, open bars describe the measures of the PI outside the reference period and orange bars the data and year subject to assessment for each PI, i.e. the score-year. ND indicates no data.

55 Stobart, B. et al. (2017) Western Zone Abalone Fishery

Figure 3.41. Catch (t, meat weight; green bars), CPUE ± se (kg.hr-1) and PropG1of greenlip from low importance SAUs Cape Bauer, Coffin Bay, D’Entrecasteaux Reef, Elliston Cliffs, Franklin Islands, Greenly Island, NE Thistle, Neptune Islands, North Nuyts Archipelago, Pearson Island, Searcy Bay and Sheringa from 1979 to 2016. CPUE and PropG1 are shown in red and blue lines, respectively. Where applicable, red and blue dashed lines show CPUE90-09 and PropG190-09, respectively. Note catch scales vary among graphs.

56 Stobart, B. et al. (2017) Western Zone Abalone Fishery

Figure 3.42. Catch (t, meat weight; green bars) CPUE ± se (kg.hr-1) and PropG1 of greenlip from low importance SAUs Sir Joseph Banks, SW Thistle, Unassigned WZ, Venus Bay, Waterloo Bay and Wedge Island from 1979 to 2016. CPUE and PropG1 are shown in red and blue lines, respectively. Where applicable, red and blue dashed lines show CPUE90-09 and PropG190-09, respectively. Note catch scales vary among graphs.

57 Stobart, B. et al. (2017) Western Zone Abalone Fishery

4 DISCUSSION 4.1 Current status of blacklip and greenlip in the WZ

4.1.1 Status of blacklip in the WZ Blacklip comprises 51% (74.49 t.yr-1) of the combined abalone TACC (i.e. blacklip and greenlip) in the WZ and has an estimated landed value of $6.7M. The WZ blacklip catch has decreased through a combination of (1) reductions to the TACCs (Table 1.2); and (2) unanimous, voluntary agreements within the commercial sector to under catch the legislated TACC by 21% in 2015 and 2016. Overall, these represent a 36% decrease in the WZ blacklip catch over 6 years with the net effect that catches in 2015 and 2016 were the lowest since 1979. Despite the reductions in catch this stock was classified as ‘transitional depleting’ under the NFSRF in 2013, 2014 and 2015.

There is compelling evidence that, despite the current low catches, overfishing is most likely occurring, that the WZ blacklip biomass has continued to decline and that these stocks are at their weakest positions in 27 years. First, the WZ CPUE has declined sequentially since 2006, even though hyperstability and effort creep have not been taken into account. The CPUE value in 2016 was the third lowest on record post-quota, similar to the mean value observed during the period of lowest CPUE in the history of the fishery and substantially below CPUE90-09. Using the current harvest strategy scoring framework, the CPUE score for WZ blacklip in 2016 would be -8 which is the lowest possible score attainable. The sequential decline was clear in all four catch rate estimates across the WZ (i.e. CPUE, wpCPUE, BL only CPUE and TAS CPUE), demonstrating that the CPUE estimation method used is robust. Notably, the estimate of BL only CPUE was the second lowest on record. Second, the sequential and consistent decline in CPUE was evident for the three regions (i.e. Port Lincoln, Elliston, Streaky Bay) and almost every WZ SAU since 2006. In 2016, all regions and most SAUs had low and/or declining CPUE. The two SAU exceptions were Point Westall and Anxious Bay where the CPUE in 2016 was equivalent to CPUE90-09. Third, the ongoing decline in harvestable biomass – evidenced by the downward CPUE trajectory – occurred despite the 36% reduction in catch and demonstrates that the current catch is not sustainable. Fourth, there is no evidence for stock recovery in the Ward Island, Venus Bay and Hotspot SAUs – that previously yielded relatively high catches at high CPUE – even though current catches are among the lowest recorded for these SAUs in over 30 years. Fifth, there was a relatively low density of legal sized blacklip observed on recent fishery-independent surveys at Drummond and Sheringa. The weak position of the blacklip stocks in 2016 was also reflected in the outcome from applying the harvest strategy in the management plan because 67% of the high 58 Stobart, B. et al. (2017) Western Zone Abalone Fishery and medium-importance SAUs were assigned to a ‘red’ (17% of catch in 2016) or ‘yellow’ (44% of catch in 2016) risk-of-overfishing category in 2016 and the WZ was assigned a zonal stock status of ‘over fished’. These categorizations occurred even though the harvest strategy is known to provide over-optimistic outcomes (Stobart et al. 2015a).

Overfishing of the blacklip stocks has likely been compounded by an inadequate reduction in catch to offset areas of the fishery that have effectively been closed to blacklip fishing. For several areas, a high Perkinsus prevalence has led to blacklip being harvested in shell. Harvesting in shell creates an added burden because the catch occupies more space on the vessel and shucking has to occur at the processors after fishing, thus fishing has reduced in the areas with this requirement even though they previously yielded higher catches. There were also substantial decreases in catch from Ward Island and Hotspot between 2009 and 2011 (Stobart et al. 2013, 2015a) that were not disease related. Given the catch was redistributed from the Perkinsus- affected areas and the Ward Island and Hotspot SAUs, previous stock assessment reports identified this had resulted in a reliance on the key fishing grounds of Drummond, Sheringa, Reef Head and, to a lesser extent, those in Avoid Bay to harvest an unchanged TACC to compensate for the reduction in fishable area. One of the solutions proposed was for the catch to be redistributed into non-traditional fishing grounds without compromising the stocks in those areas. However, heavy reliance on these key SAUs remained in 2015 (Stobart and Mayfield 2016b) and 2016. Although the redistribution of catch away from key fishing grounds to other SAUs remains desirable, there is no evidence that other SAUs could sustain the necessary large increases in catch required to relieve fishing pressure on the key fishing grounds (e.g. Drummond and Sheringa) and maintain the current catch levels without likely severe impacts on these stocks. This is because 1) the 2016 CPUE values at most other high and medium SAUs in 2016 were amongst the lowest on record (Table 3.1); and 2) for the two exceptions, Point Westall and Anxious Bay, the catch history suggests these SAUs have yielded relatively low catches.

In addition to the evidence that overfishing is most likely occurring, there is increasing evidence that the WZ blacklip stocks are also recruitment overfished. There are two key pieces of evidence supporting this assertion. First, recent levels of recruitment appear inadequate to sustain the current low catches indicating that recruitment levels have been significantly reduced below those that have supported much higher catches at higher catch rates for an extended time period throughout the 1990s. The inability for recruitment to support the current low catches is evidenced by catch rates that are almost ubiquitously low and/or declining – across the WZ, regions and SAUs – demonstrating ongoing reductions in harvestable biomass despite reduced catch. The

59 Stobart, B. et al. (2017) Western Zone Abalone Fishery current low level of recruitment conflicts with expected recruitment levels given the high blacklip biomass through the 2000s. This suggests that overfishing is unlikely to be the sole driver of these changes, but identification of the contribution from additional factors (e.g. suitable environmental conditions to support recruitment) is challenging (Pecl et al. 2014). Second, there are now a lack of alternative fishing grounds into which catch could be redistributed, demonstrating that the low biomass and reduced recruitment is widespread throughout the WZ.

The WZ blacklip stocks have been classified as transitional depleting for the past three years (2013-2015), with no indication that the catch reduction (36%) over the past six years has resulted in an improvement to the stocks (Stobart et al. 2015a, Stobart and Mayfield 2016b). The ongoing reductions in biomass and prolonged weak position of the fishery indicate that current management measures are inadequate to either reduce the rate of decline or recover the stock and that current catch levels are not sustainable.

In summary, there is evidence of ongoing declines in harvestable biomass to levels not observed in over 30 years. Fishing pressure is too high and moving the stock in the direction of becoming recruitment overfished. The reduction in harvestable biomass and spawning individuals is also likely to have decreased the reproductive potential of the stock. Although the extent of the effect on future recruitment is difficult to quantify, recruitment is likely to be below the current low levels. It could also be argued that the stock is recruitment overfished because the recent low recruitment levels have been unable to support the historically low catches in 2015 and 2016. In this assessment, it was not possible to unequivocally determine whether the WZ blacklip stocks were recruitment overfished or at a biomass level above this point. Consequently, in the absence of 1) evidence that the entire WZ blacklip stock is recruitment overfished and 2) clear criteria for determining when these stocks should be classified as overfished, the WZ blacklip abalone fishery in 2016 remains classified as ‘transitional depleting’ under the NFSRF.

The harvest strategy for the fishery is currently under review and is expected to provide a clear definition in the new harvest strategy of when the stock will be classified as recruitment overfished. Given the difficulty in this assessment of determining whether the stocks were recruitment overfished, clear criteria are required to define recruitment overfished if the harvest strategy is not completed within the scheduled timeframe. The most tractable approach is to use the zone-wide CPUE value derived from days when no greenlip are harvested. The 2016 value was 20.3 kghr-1, which was the second lowest on record, with the lowest value being 20.0 kghr-1 in 1987. If the

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CPUE (blacklip only) falls below 20 kghr-1 this would be below the lowest value on record and, if this occurs, the fishery should be classified as recruitment overfished.

The vulnerability of abalone stocks to overfishing should not be under-estimated. Abalone fisheries have demonstrated a high degree of susceptibility to overfishing and have been in decline worldwide since the 1970s (Prince 2005, Cook and Gordon 2010, Cook 2016). More recent declines have occurred in Australia (Mayfield et al. 2012) despite reduced TACCs and catches (Stewardson et al. 2016, Ferguson et al. 2017, Mundy and Jones 2017, Strain et al. 2017). In 2016, stocks were in decline in two thirds of the blacklip fisheries in Australia with six of nine fisheries classified as transitional depleting (Stewardson et al. 2016). Responses to declining blacklip stocks in Australia have been variable among jurisdictions. The biggest reduction was in NSW where the TACC was reduced from 300 t in 2000 to 75 t in 2010 (75% reduction) and this has now resulted in strong recovery with the current TACC at about 125 t (Committee 2015). In Tasmania, the eastern and western zone TACCs were reduced by 66% and 42%, respectively, without clear evidence of stock recovery (Mundy and Jones 2017). A reduction in the greenlip TACC of 40% in Western Australia has not yet halted the decline in CPUE (Dr Lachlan Strain WA Fisheries pers comm, Strain et al. 2017). Importantly, once depleted, abalone stocks do not recover quickly (Prince and Peters 2010). Long-term catch reductions and/or fishery closure, are likely required for recovery because 1) recruitment is highly localised (Prince et al. 1987, 1988, Temby et al. 2007, Miller et al. 2009) and 2) interventionist approaches such as restocking have rarely been successful (Hart et al. 2007, Hamasaki and Kitada 2008, Chick 2010, Prince and Peters 2010). For example, the Californian red abalone fishery was closed in 1997 (Karpov et al. 2000) and, 20 years later, has yet to show signs of recovery (Cook 2016).

Abalone susceptibility to overfishing, stock depletion and long-term recovery time frames are compounded by their sensitivity to disease (e.g. AVG, Perkinsus and Withering Syndrome) and environmental stressors (e.g. heat shock via elevated sea temperatures; Russell et al. 2012, Pecl et al. 2014) and their life-history strategies that include slow growth rates, low mobility, and irregular recruitment (Hobday et al. 2001). In addition, there is also the potential for increasingly common elevated temperatures to interact with disease, leading to reduced reproductive output and population decline (Rogers-Bennett et al. 2010). For southern Australia, the Bureau of Meteorology’s sea surface temperature anomaly indicates recent elevated water temperatures. Notably, a recent heat event in Western Australia has led to the closure of fishing in affected areas that experienced mass mortalities (Hart et al. 2017) and a similar warm-water event is implicated in the reduced biomass of blacklip in the SA SZ Abalone Fishery (Ferguson et al. 2017) and in

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Tasmania (Oliver et al. 2017). Collectively, these demonstrate the high risk of depletion and slow recovery for abalone fisheries for which fishing pressure (i.e. TACCs) is inadequately controlled.

4.1.2 Status of greenlip in the WZ The zonal stock status score from the harvest strategy using the legislated TACC was 0.50 (‘sustainably fished’). The same score was obtained using the voluntary TACC. The zonal stock status for both TACCs used has changed from “under fished” in 2015 (Stobart et al. 2015b) to “sustainably fished” in 2016. This change in status is reflected in the zonal CPUE that has shown a minor decrease in value between 2015 and 2016, but remains above that observed between 1990 and 1999 prior to the period of elevated abundance in the 2000s. The decrease in CPUE between 2015 and 2016 is primarily the result of a 20% reduction in CPUE in the high importance Anxious Bay SAU. Over the same two-year period there was an increase in CPUE at the two remaining high importance SAUs (The Gap and Avoid Bay) and eight medium importance SAUs. The zone-wide reduction in catch rate between 2015 and 2016 was evident in all catch rate estimation methods. The zonal PropG1 in 2016 remained similar to that observed in 2015, confirming large greenlip remained available to the fishery.

In 2015, the interpretation of stock status based on CPUE was complicated by changes in the fishery that potentially impacted the relationship between CPUE and abundance (Stobart and Mayfield 2016a). As any biases are still not fully understood, that assessment and this stock status report rely on the assumption that the relationship remains unchanged.

Between 2014 and 2015 there was widespread evidence of improvement in stock status, including the highest increase in CPUE and PropG1 in the history of the fishery (Stobart and Mayfield 2016a). There is evidence that stocks from some SAUs remain weak in 2016 because (1) CPUE is low and/or declining at the high importance Anxious Bay and the Gap SAUs, and the medium importance Point Westall, Ward Island, Drummond, Flinders Island and Memory Cove SAUs; and (2) the most recent densities of sub-legal-sized greenlip at all three high-importance SAUs were the lowest on record. However, (1) current CPUEs for the WZ and at remaining SAUs, suggest that the abundance of legal-sized greenlip is at least equivalent to that observed in the 1990s; and (2) the high values for PropG1 demonstrate large greenlip remain readily available for harvest (i.e. able to be harvested without compromising catch rates). In addition, the risk of overfishing has recently been reduced by a combination of lower catch and fewer greenlip being harvested (Stobart et al. 2016). Given that stock biomass is at a level sufficient to ensure that, on average, future levels of recruitment are adequate and fishing pressure is adequately controlled, the overall WZ Greenlip Abalone Fishery is classified as ‘sustainable’ under the NFSRF (Flood et al. 2014,

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Stewardson et al. 2016)) This is the same as 2015 when the fishery was also classified as “sustainable” using the same criteria. 4.1.3 Information, data gaps and uncertainty in the assessment Assessment of the stocks in the WZ is supported by: (1) fine-scale catch and effort data, including commercial catch sampling data; and (2) fishery-independent survey data on population density and size-frequency at key high-importance SAUs (five blacklip sites and three greenlip sites). There is also a Management Plan (PIRSA 2012) that includes a harvest strategy for the fishery. However, this relatively new harvest strategy has several limitations including stock status classifications which are considered over-optimistic (e.g. Stobart et al. 2014) and the absence of an agreed limit reference point for determining when the stocks are recruitment overfished that would link the harvest strategy to the National Fishery Status Reporting Framework (NFSRF; Flood et al. 2014). As the harvest strategy is currently undergoing a review, the stock status classifications for greenlip and blacklip in 2016 were determined using a weight-of-evidence analysis under the NFSRF framework (Flood et al. 2014, Stewardson et al. 2016; Table 1.1).

There were four key limitations to this assessment. The first of these is the estimation of catch rate in a dynamic, mixed-species fishery. Decision rules are used to enable catch rate estimation from data which does not distinguish between effort apportioned to the harvest of blacklip and greenlip within a fishing day. Different methods of estimating catch rates were examined by Burch et al. (2011), recommending that a catch-weighted mean of daily CPUE would be a more appropriate method to estimate CPUE than that used previously. As a result of these recommendations, catch-weighted mean daily CPUE has been adopted as the standard method for estimation of this statistic since 2012 (Stobart et al. 2012b). However, assessment of the impact of the recent change in the proportion of blacklip and greenlip in the WZ catch on CPUE and a recent assessment of the validity of the CPUE data decision rules (SARDI unpublished data), suggest that a review of these rules and this approach for the WZ may be required. As part of this report, we compared three alternative methods for calculating catch rates to CPUE in this assessment. These were wpCPUE (SARDI unpublished data), BL or GL day CPUE (only using single-species fishing days) and TAS CPUE (Mundy and Jones 2017). These are all being evaluated for use in the new harvest strategy currently under development.

Second, CPUE plays a key role in this assessment as the primary index of legal-sized abalone abundance, based on the assumption that it relates to changes in the relative abundance of the fishable stock (Tarbath et al. 2005). Catch rate can be influenced by numerous factors unrelated to abalone abundance including: market demands for particular product types (e.g. larger or

63 Stobart, B. et al. (2017) Western Zone Abalone Fishery smaller abalone; changes in diver behaviour; changing fishing efficiency and the ability/inability to access ‘traditional’ fishing grounds due to variable weather conditions (e.g. wind, swell, turbidity). Therefore, this measure is often viewed as a biased index of relative abundance (Harrison 1983, Breen 1992, Prince and Shepherd 1992, Gorfine et al. 2002) and the relationship between CPUE and abundance, relative with historical values, should be interpreted with some caution. However, while the degree to which extrinsic factors may have influenced CPUE in recent years remains undetermined, we note that (1) decreases in CPUE in abalone fisheries can be considered a reliable indicator in abalone abundance (Tarbath and Gardner 2011); and (2) reductions in CPUE likely underestimate declines in abundance – because catch rates in dive fisheries tend to be hyperstable, rather than hyperdepleted – and this has not been taken into account in this assessment. In the absence of data to fully quantify the extent to which the relationship between CPUE and blacklip or greenlip abundance may have changed, the assessment of current stock status is made on the assumption that the relationship remains unchanged for both species.

Third, there have been substantial changes in the distribution of catch among SAUs since 2011 that are difficult to interpret. For example, greenlip catches from the offshore SAUs of Ward Island, Hotspot and Flinders Island have declined, whilst those from the inshore SAUs of Drummond, Reef Head and Point Avoid have increased. Similarly, for blacklip, catches from the southern SAUs have increased substantially over the past 5 years, with decreases in the northern and offshore SAUs. This has resulted in the highest blacklip catches from the Port Lincoln region since the early 1980s and, for the past three years, the least diverse distribution of blacklip catch from among the available SAUs since 1983. There are likely numerous explanations for these patterns including declining abundance of one or both species in some SAUs, spatial restrictions on harvesting blacklip due to Perkinsus, changing habits of divers (e.g. seeking to fish closer to home, for which many is Port Lincoln), local weather patterns, increased costs of travel, and the scheduling of catch processing restricting opportunity to efficiently harvest from the more remote SAUs.

Fourth, the FIS are (1) with the exception of greenlip at The Gap, available for a relatively short time period; (2) do not include all of the blacklip high-importance SAUs; and (3) cover spatially discreet areas that are assumed to be representative of the broader SAU. While the location of the FIS sites was originally based on information on regularly fished areas provided by fishers, these may change over time. Longer time series are available for greenlip from Flinders Island,

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Ward Island and Hotspot, but these are no longer used in the HS because these SAUs are not of high importance. A review of the FIS program is underway and will address these issues.

4.2 Harvest strategy for the WZ abalone fishery Previous WZ stock assessment reports identified several difficulties with the implementation of the new harvest strategy for the fishery (Stobart et al. 2011, 2013, 2014, 2015a), with similar issues identified in the Central (Chick and Mayfield 2012) and Southern zones (Mayfield et al. 2013a). Four key issues have recurred and are currently being considered in the harvest strategy review due to be completed in December 2016.

First, use of the PI ‘proportion of the TACC’ is problematic because SAUs from which recent, unusually high proportions of the TACC were harvested, were allocated positive scores that substantially influenced the total score for that SAU (Stobart et al. 2014). Several possible solutions to this problem are currently under review, including discarding this PI.

Second, there are a range of complexities associated with the use of PropLge as one of the three FD PIs in the harvest strategy (Stobart et al. 2015a). In particular, it has not been possible to obtain data on this PI that is representative of the fishery (i.e. that encompasses a wide cross section of licences and areas fished across of the fishery). Thus the use of this PI is being carefully evaluated during the current harvest strategy review, again with discard of this PI likely.

Third, there were no FI survey data for blacklip in four high-importance SAUs: Venus Bay, Anxious Bay, Searcy Bay and Reef Head. Thus, for these SAUs, application of the harvest strategy to determine the risk-of-overfishing category relied on FD data only. This reduced the information available for categorising the risk that the stocks in these five SAUs are overfished and, subsequently, the overall stock status. To overcome this limitation, FI surveys started at Anxious Bay in 2014 and are planned for the Reef Head and Searcy Bay SAUs in coming years, subject to the outcome of the current harvest strategy review (see Section 4.3).

Finally, the Management Plan (PIRSA 2012) does not identify a PI and reference point below which the fishery would be defined as overfished or yield a stock status consistent with the national guidelines (Flood et al. 2014, Stewardson et al. 2016). These issues are being addressed in the current review of the harvest strategy that includes the development of stock status triggers and/or reference points to ensure the harvest strategy is consistent with the South Australia Harvest Strategy Policy (PIRSA 2015).

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4.3 Future research needs The higher priority research needs for the WZ abalone fishery are to: (1) undertake analyses to inform the new harvest strategy; (2) re-evaluate the appropriateness of the CPUE estimation methods for blacklip and greenlip given ongoing changes in diver behaviour and fishing patterns; (3) continue to support the identification and testing of a process to formally include industry information into the assessment process; and (4) establish and validate an index of recruitment for use as a leading indicator of harvestable biomass (e.g. FRDC project 2014/010).

The most pressing research need for this fishery is the development of a revised harvest strategy. This is currently underway and includes evaluation of the inclusion of year-to-date data in the harvest strategy (i.e. information on the fishery from the same year the quota is set; Dent et al. 2016), SAU mapcode compositions, the determination of the most appropriate PIs for use in the new harvest strategy and the inclusion of diver assessments and economic indicators in the assessment process. This formal review is also being used to link the harvest strategy more closely with the national fishery status reporting framework (Flood et al. 2014) and to align the harvest strategy with the South Australian harvest strategy guidelines (PIRSA 2015).

Periodic revision of the appropriateness of the CPUE estimation methods used in the WZ assessments is necessary to ensure changes in the fishery are not leading to biased estimates of CPUE. For example, evaluation of the effect of the recent change in the proportion of blacklip and greenlip in the catch on CPUE and the associated data constraints and decision rules used to estimate CPUE remain underway to ensure CPUE estimates remain relevant for the assessment of WZ stocks as the fishery changes. In addition, analysing catch rate data to account for external influences (e.g. diver, dive location, month, loss of access, technological advance) is also being considered and could be accounted for through standardisation.

Identification and testing of a process to formally include industry information into the application of the harvest decision rules for determining TACCs is needed because: (1) changes in the value of PIs through time may not be directly related to stock status and their interpretation can be informed by credible, structured information (e.g. market demand, weather patterns, changing diver demography); and (2) abalone divers directly observe abalone stocks through their harvesting process. The latter is different to nearly all other fisheries where fishers typically use fishing methods (e.g. traps, nets, lines) that do not readily facilitate direct observations on the distribution, abundance and population structure of the target species.

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Mayfield, S., G. Ferguson, A. Hogg and J. Carroll (2015). Southern Zone Abalone (Haliotis rubra and H. laevigata) Fishery. Fishery Assessment Report for PIRSA Fisheries and Aquaculture. South Australian Research and Development Institute (Aquatic Sciences), Adelaide. SARDI Publication No. F2007/000552-5. SARDI Research Report Series No. 850. 57pp.

Mayfield, S., A. Hogg and P. Burch (2013a). Southern Zone Abalone (Haliotis rubra and H. laevigata) Fishery, Fishery Assessment Report to PIRSA Fisheries and Aquaculture. South Australian Research and Development Institute (Aquatic Sciences). Adelaide. SARDI Publication No. F2007/000552-4. SARDI Research Report Series No. 694. 54pp.

Mayfield, S., A. Hogg and P. Burch (2013b). Southern Zone Abalone Fishery (Haliotis rubra and H. laevigata). Fishery assessment report for PIRSA Fisheries and Aquaculture. South Australian Research and Development Institute (Aquatic Sciences), Adelaide. SARDI Publication No. F2007/000552-4. SARDI Research Report Series No. 694. 54pp.

Mayfield, S., C. Mundy, H. Gorfine, A. Hart and D. Worthington (2012). "Fifty years of sustained production in Australia'a abalone fisheries." Reviews in Fisheries Science. 20:4. 220-250.

Miller, K. J., B. T. Maynard and C. N. Mundy (2009). "Genetic diversity and gene flow in collapsed and healthy abalone fisheries." Molecular Ecology 18(2): 200-211.

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Mundy, C. and H. Jones (2017). Tasmanian abalone fishery assessment 2016. Hobart, Tasmania, IMAS, UTAS: 149.

Nobes, M., D. Casement and S. Mayfield (2004). Management Plan for the South Australian Abalone Fishery. South Australian Fisheries Management Series No. 42. Adelaide, Primary Industries and Resources South Australia: 47.

Oliver, E. C. J., J. A. Benthuysen, N. L. Bindoff, A. J. Hobday, N. J. Holbrook, C. N. Mundy and S. E. Perkins-Kirkpatrick (2017). "The unprecedented 2015/16 Tasman Sea marine heatwave." Nature Communications. 8: 16101.

Paterson, S., L. Rippin and J. Morison (2013). Economic Indicators for the South Australian Abalone Fishery 2011/12. Adelaide, Econsearch: 68.

Pecl, G. T., T. M. Ward, Z. A. Doubleday, S. Clarke, J. Day, C. Dixon, S. Frusher, P. Gibbs, A. J. Hobday, N. Hutchinson, S. Jennings, K. Jones, X. Li, D. Spooner and R. Stoklosa (2014). "Rapid assessment of fisheries speices senstitivity to climate change." Climatic Change.

PIRSA (2012). Management Plan for the South Australian commercial Abalone Fishery. Adelaide, Primary industries and Regions South Australia Fisheries and Aquaculture: 85pp.

PIRSA (2015). South Australian Fisheries Harvest Strategy Policy, Primary Industries and Regions SA: 17pp.

Prince, J. (2005). "Combating the tyranny of scale for Haliotids: micro-management for microstocks." Bulletin of Marine Science 76(2): 557-577.

Prince, J. and H. Peters (2010). Cost-benefit analysis of implementing alternative techniques for rehabilitating reefs severely depleted by the abalone viral ganglioneuritis epidemic. FRDC project 2008/076. South Fremantle, Western Australia, Biospherics P/L: 87.

Prince, J. D., T. L. Sellers, W. B. Ford and S. R. Talbot (1987). "Experimental evidence for limited dispersal of haliotid larvae (genus Haliotis: Mollusca: Gastropoda)." Journal of Experimental Marine Biology and Ecology 106: 243-263.

Prince, J. D., T. L. Sellers, W. B. Ford and S. R. Talbot (1988). "Recruitment, growth, mortality and population structure in a southern Australian population of Haliotis rubra (Mollusca, Gastropoda)." Marine Biology 100(1): 75-82.

Prince, J. D. and S. A. Shepherd (1992). Australian abalone fisheries and their management. Abalone of the World: Biology, Fisheries and Culture. S. A. Shepherd, M. J. Tegner and S. A. Guzmán Del Próo: 407-427.

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Rogers-Bennett, L., R. F. Dondanville, J. D. Moore and L. I. Vilchis (2010). "Response of Red Abalone reproduction to warm water, starvation and disease stressors: implications of ocean warming." Journal of Shellfish Research 29(3): 599-611.

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Shepherd, S. A. and L. D. Brown (1993). "What is an abalone stock- implications for the role of refugia in conservation." Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences 50(9): 2001-2009.

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6 APPENDIX 6.1 Blacklip biology

Table 6.1. Size at L50 (mm, shell length) for blacklip at different sites in the Western Zone. Parameters (a and b) describe the proportion of mature blacklip. The equation is of the form (f(x) = a/(1+exp(-((x-L50)/b)). N = total number sampled, n = number of abalone sampled within length range of maturity transition.

Site Year Month a b L50 N n Reference

Anxious Bay 2013 5 0.9947 4.670 88.1 150 60 SARDI unpublished

Avoid Bay 2012 7 0.9867 0.892 92.0 108 16 SARDI unpublished

Hotspot 2004 5 1.0042 7.495 82.3 124 31 SARDI unpublished

Hotspot 2005 5 1.0094 5.359 94.3 192 32 SARDI unpublished

Reef Head 2001 5 0.9979 6.784 87.7 189 126 SARDI unpublished

Pt Drummond 2011 6 0.9923 6.253 99.3 222 102 SARDI unpublished

Searcy Bay 2014 5 0.9720 0.102 79.9 84 26 SARDI unpublished

Sheringa 2004 5 1.0022 5.369 97.3 130 46 SARDI unpublished

Tungketta 2004 5 0.9942 8.135 103.0 88 37 SARDI unpublished

Ward Island 2001 5 1.0353 10.72 92.0 65 36 SARDI unpublished

Ward Island 2005 5 1.0000 0.333 91.8 145 7 SARDI unpublished

West Bay 2001 6 0.9917 7.040 96.1 222 185 SARDI unpublished

Table 6.2. Relationships between shell length (SL, mm) and fecundity (F, millions of eggs) for legal sized (130 mm) blacklip at different sites in the Western Zone. The equation is of the form F = aSLb. * indicates calculations based on anterior counts only.

Site Year a b r n SL F Reference

Avoid Bay 2010 1.01E+01 2.46 0.49 15 130 1.60E+06 SARDI unpublished

Hotspot* 2005 2.00E-04 4.58 0.83 22 130 9.47E+05 SARDI unpublished

Point Drummond 2011 2.07E-02 3.59 0.70 20 130 8.07E+05 SARDI unpublished

Ward Island* 2005 1.87E-01 3.29 0.70 27 130 1.68E+06 SARDI unpublished

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Table 6.3. Relationships between shell length (SL, mm) and total weight (TW, g) blacklip abalone at various sites in the Western Zone. TW is calculated total weight for 130 mm legal-sized blacklip. The equation is of the form TW = aSLb.

Site Year a b TW r n Reference Avoid Bay 2012 3.0E-04 2.90 405 0.95 204 SARDI unpublished Flinders Island 1998 6.7E-05 3.16 321 0.95 85 SARDI unpublished Hotspot 2004 7.1E-05 3.19 391 0.98 124 SARDI unpublished Hotspot 2005 3.0E-04 2.90 399 0.98 192 SARDI unpublished Kiana 1999 3.2E-02 1.93 378 0.73 46 SARDI unpublished Drummond Point 1998 6.2E-05 3.21 370 0.94 54 SARDI unpublished Drummond Point 2011 6.4E-05 3.20 377 0.98 222 SARDI unpublished Point Labatt 1999 1.4E-03 2.58 396 0.85 102 SARDI unpublished Point Whidbey 1998 4.9E-05 3.26 387 0.97 49 SARDI unpublished Price Island 1999 5.3E-04 2.75 345 0.83 50 SARDI unpublished Reef Head 1999 1.1E-02 2.16 411 0.79 44 SARDI unpublished Reef Head 2004 6.0E-04 2.72 345 0.94 63 SARDI unpublished Sheringa 2004 2.0E-05 3.44 379 0.98 130 SARDI unpublished Smoothpool 1999 6.0E-04 2.72 340 0.92 127 SARDI unpublished Tungketta 2004 9.8E-05 3.12 395 0.98 88 SARDI unpublished Waldegrave Island 1998 1.0E-04 3.05 274 0.94 100 SARDI unpublished Waldegrave Island 2005 1.0E-04 3.06 294 0.98 94 SARDI unpublished Waterloo Bay 2005 5.0E-04 2.77 362 0.94 162 SARDI unpublished Ward Island 1998 3.0E-04 2.90 399 0.92 100 SARDI unpublished Ward Island 2005 3.0E-04 2.86 329 0.98 145 SARDI unpublished West Bay 1998 2.0E-04 2.94 331 0.95 99 SARDI unpublished West Bay 1999 7.0E-04 2.72 386 0.89 99 SARDI unpublished

-1 Table 6.4. Growth rate, k (yr. ) and L (mm SL) for blacklip tagged and recaptured at different sites in the Western Zone. Errors are standard errors. Size ranges are shell length at time of tagging for recaptured abalone (mm). n is the number of recaptures. For ‘year tagged’ * indicates uncertainty over aspects of the data including the year of tagging, time period at liberty may not adhere to criteria used for SARDI data (Geibel et al. 2010) while for ‘size range’*indicates size ranges estimated from published graphs.

Site (Year Year 2 Size r k L∞ n Reference recovered) tagged range

Avoid Bay (2013) 2012 0.462 0.236 156.3 56-170 113 SARDI unpublished Reef Head (2002) 2001 0.176 0.102 153.6 52-116 29 SARDI unpublished Reef Head (2003) 2002 0.404 0.177 132.8 66-133 58 SARDI unpublished Sheringa (2004) 2002 0.571 0.190 152.4 54-135 20 SARDI unpublished Venus Bay (2002) 2001 0.448 0.295 152.7 66-124 54 SARDI unpublished Venus Bay (2003) 2001 0.369 0.155 167.9 62-117 34 SARDI unpublished Ward Is. (2001) 2000 0.053 0.086 217.4 57-135 27 SARDI unpublished Ward Is. (2002) 2000 0.182 0.139 150.2 67-129 18 SARDI unpublished Ward Is. (2002) 2001 0.244 0.180 152.5 58-117 24 SARDI unpublished Ward Is. (2005) 2004 0.363 0.172 167.4 40-153 24 SARDI unpublished Waterloo Bay* 1969 0.911 0.406 144.0 57-150 52 (Shepherd and Hearn 1983) West Bay (2001) 2000 0.078 0.078 244.0 59-127 53 SARDI unpublished

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6.2 Quality Assurance

6.2.1 Research planning The requirements of PIRSA Fisheries and Aquaculture were discussed in December 2012 and subsequently provided to representatives of the WZ abalone fishery to confirm their understanding of proposed deliverables. This ensures that the research undertaken and deliverables provided are consistent with the needs of PIRSA to meet their obligations under the Fisheries Management Act 2007. 6.2.2 Data collection Commercial fishers are advised on the procedures and requirements for commercial catch sampling and completion of the required fishing logbook on a regular basis, usually at the commencement of each fishing season. The data provided by commercial fishers are checked by SARDI prior to acceptance and potential errors corrected through direct correspondence with individual commercial fishers. SARDI staff are trained to undertake FI data collection using the standardised method described in the SARDI Abalone Research Group Quality Assurance and Fishery-Independent Survey Manual. 6.2.3 Data entry, validation, storage and security All logbook data are entered and validated according to the quality assurance protocols identified for the abalone fisheries in the SARDI Information Systems Quality Assurance and Data Integrity Report. The data are stored in an Oracle database, backed up daily, with access restricted to SARDI Information Systems staff. Copies of the database are provided to SARDI abalone researchers on request. All FI data are entered into Excel spreadsheets. A subset of the data (20%) is checked against the original data sheets in accordance with the Abalone Data Library Management Protocol. Once validated, data are uploaded to an Access database stored on the network drive in Port Lincoln. The database is regularly backed up to an external hard drive and to a web-based data storage system called Objective. 6.2.4 Data and statistical analyses Data are extracted from the databases using established protocols. A subset (10%) of data extractions are checked to ensure extraction accuracy. This occurs in two ways. First, data are compared to those extracted previously. Second, the data extractions are undertaken by two SARDI researchers and subsequently compared. Most of the data are analysed using the open source software R. A subset (~10%) of the outputs from R are compared against estimates made in an alternative software package (e.g. Excel).

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6.2.5 Data interpretation and report writing The results, their interpretation and conclusions provided in the reports are discussed with peers, PIRSA and abalone licence holders. All co-authors review the report prior to the report being formally reviewed by two independent scientists at SARDI in accordance with the SARDI report review process. Following necessary revision, the report is reviewed by PIRSA to ensure it is consistent with their needs and objectives for the fishery.

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6.3 Blacklip performance indicators Table 6.5. Summary of the PIs and the formulae and data constraints underpinning their utilisation in the harvest strategy.

Performance indicator Description Formulae Data constraints Total catch, expressed as a Species Catch (t) None Catch percentage of the combined Catch  . TACC TACC All measurements >5 mm SL below the MLL excluded; N Large Minimum sample size (N): 100 measurements Proportion large Blacklip >165 mm SL defined as large Proportion of large (or Grade 1) PropLge , (blacklip) Total N or abalone in the commercial or or All records where the total catch was >1% different from catch Proportion Grade 1 the sum of the three weight-grade categories were Grade 1 Meats (kg) (greenlip) PropG1 . excluded; Meats (kg)  Records with zero catch were excluded. Minimum sample size: 10 records All records where: total catch was >300 kg; CPUE (total catch/total effort) was >50 kg.hr-1; fishing effort was >8 n CPSi wi hr.; fishing effort was <3 hr.; the reported catch of both Commercial catch-per-unit i1 CPUE Ei species was zero; or the catch of the species for which effort (kg.hr-1) CPUEWt  , n CPUE was being estimated was <30% of the total catch wi i1 were excluded. Minimum sample size: 10 records Density of legal-sized abalone  Legal counted >90% of survey completed Densitylegal on surveys DensityLegal  Blacklip ≥130 mm SL defined as legal-sized Total area surveyed Greenlip ≥145 mm SL defined as legal-sized Density of pre-recruit (i.e. those >90% of survey completed Densitypre-recruit Pre-recruit counted that will exceed MLL within ~2 DensityPre-recruit  Blacklip 90 to <130 mm SL defined as pre-recruits

yrs.) abalone on surveys Total area surveyed Greenlip 105 to <145 mm SL defined as pre-recruits Measure of the difference Minimum sample size: 100 measurements between the MLL and the mean ()LL  length of legal-sized abalone. ZK , Total mortality For consistency with other PIs, (L  MLL) it is expressed as 1/total mortality

76 Stobart, B. et al. (2017) Western Zone Abalone Fishery

6.3.1 High importance SAUs

Figure 6.1. Drummond (high importance). Performance indicators catch (Proportion of legislated TACC), CPUE (kg.hr-1), PropLge, legal density (n.m-2), pre-recruit density (n.m-2), mortality (Z) and scores from the harvest strategy in brackets. Red and blue lines are upper and lower limit and target reference points, respectively. Black bars describe the data and time over which the reference points were calculated, open bars describe the measures of the PI outside the reference period and yellow. bars the data and year subject to assessment for each PI, i.e. the score-year.

77 Stobart, B. et al. (2017) Western Zone Abalone Fishery

Figure 6.2. Sheringa (high importance). Performance indicators catch (Proportion of legislated TACC), CPUE (kg.hr-1), PropLge, legal density (n.m-2), pre-recruit density (n.m-2), mortality (Z) and scores from the harvest strategy in brackets. Red and blue lines are upper and lower limit and target reference points, respectively. Black bars describe the data and time over which the reference points were calculated, open bars describe the measures of the PI outside the reference period and yellow bars the data and year subject to assessment for each PI, i.e. the score-year.

78 Stobart, B. et al. (2017) Western Zone Abalone Fishery

Figure 6.3. Point Westall (high importance). Performance indicators catch (Proportion of legislated TACC), CPUE (kg.hr-1), PropLge, legal density (n.m-2), pre-recruit density (n.m-2), mortality (Z) and scores from the harvest strategy in brackets. Red and blue lines are upper and lower limit and target reference points, respectively. Black bars describe the data and time over which the reference points were calculated, open bars describe the measures of the PI outside the reference period and yellow bars the data and year subject to assessment for each PI, i.e. the score-year.

79 Stobart, B. et al. (2017) Western Zone Abalone Fishery

Figure 6.4. Reef Head (high importance). Performance indicators catch (Proportion of legislated TACC), CPUE (kg.hr-1), PropLge, legal density (n.m-2), pre-recruit density (n.m-2), mortality (Z) and scores from the harvest strategy in brackets. Red and blue lines are upper and lower limit and target reference points, respectively. Black bars describe the data and time over which the reference points were calculated, open bars describe the measures of the PI outside the reference period and yellow bars the data and year subject to assessment for each PI, i.e. the score-year. ND indicates no data.

80 Stobart, B. et al. (2017) Western Zone Abalone Fishery

Figure 6.5. Avoid Bay (high importance). Performance indicators catch (Proportion of legislated TACC), CPUE (kg.hr-1), PropLge, legal density (n.m-2), pre-recruit density (n.m-2), mortality (Z) and scores from the harvest strategy in brackets. Red and blue lines are upper and lower limit and target reference points, respectively. Black bars describe the data and time over which the reference points were calculated, open bars describe the measures of the PI outside the reference period and yellow bars the data and year subject to assessment for each PI, i.e. the score-year.

81 Stobart, B. et al. (2017) Western Zone Abalone Fishery

Figure 6.6. Searcy Bay (high importance). Performance indicators catch (Proportion of legislated TACC), CPUE (kg.hr-1), PropLge, legal density (n.m-2), pre-recruit density (n.m-2), mortality (Z) and scores from the harvest strategy in brackets. Red and blue lines are upper and lower limit and target reference points, respectively. Black bars describe the data and time over which the reference points were calculated, open bars describe the measures of the PI outside the reference period and yellow bars the data and year subject to assessment for each PI, i.e. the score-year. ND indicates no data.

82 Stobart, B. et al. (2017) Western Zone Abalone Fishery

Figure 6.7. Anxious Bay (high importance). Performance indicators catch (Proportion of legislated TACC), CPUE (kg.hr-1), PropLge, legal density (n.m-2), pre-recruit density (n.m-2), mortality (Z) and scores from the harvest strategy in brackets. Red and blue lines are upper and lower limit and target reference points, respectively. Black bars describe the data and time over which the reference points were calculated, open bars describe the measures of the PI outside the reference period and yellow bars the data and year subject to assessment for each PI, i.e. the score-year. ND indicates no data.

83 Stobart, B. et al. (2017) Western Zone Abalone Fishery

Figure 6.8. Ward Island (high importance). Performance indicators catch (Proportion of legislated TACC), CPUE (kg.hr-1), PropLge, legal density (n.m-2), pre-recruit density (n.m-2), mortality (Z) and scores from the harvest strategy in brackets. Red and blue lines are upper and lower limit and target reference points, respectively. Black bars describe the data and time over which the reference points were calculated, open bars describe the measures of the PI outside the reference period and yellow bars the data and year subject to assessment for each PI, i.e. the score-year.

84 Stobart, B. et al. (2017) Western Zone Abalone Fishery

Figure 6.9. Point Avoid, Venus Bay and Hotspot SAUs (medium importance). Performance indicators catch (Proportion of legislated TACC), CPUE (kg.hr-1), PropLge and scores from the harvest strategy in brackets. Red and blue lines are upper and lower limit and target reference points, respectively. Black bars describe the data and time over which the reference points were calculated, open bars describe the measures of the PI outside the reference period and orange bars the data and year subject to assessment for each PI, i.e. the score-year. ND indicates no data. 85 Stobart, B. et al. (2017) Western Zone Abalone Fishery

6.3.2 Summary tables

Table 6.6. Blacklip catch (tonnes MW) from the Western Zone and SAUs, ordered by importance. Note empty cells denote no catch and abbreviations for reef (Rf) and region (RG).

High Medium Low

Season Drummond Sheringa Point Westall Reef Head Avoid Bay Searcy Bay Anxious Bay Ward Island Point Avoid Venus Bay Hotspot Flinders Island Fishery Bay Baird Bay Cape Bauer North Nuyts Elliston Cliffs Coffin Bay DEntrecasteaux Rf The Gap Waterloo Bay Cape Catastrophe South Nuyts Unassigned WZ Franklin Islands SW Thistle Memory Cove Taylors Island NE Thistle Neptune Islands Wedge Island Pearson Island Greenly Island Sir Joseph Banks

Western Zone Western 1979 43.0 16.1 5.3 2.2 1.1 3.2 0.7 2.1 0.2 3.4 0.9 0.1 0.2 0.6 1.1 0.0 0.3 0.1 1.9 1.4 0.4 0.0 0.0 0.6 0.2 0.2 0.4 0.1 0.0 0.2 1980 71.4 17.5 9.2 4.5 6.2 2.6 1.0 8.7 1.6 4.2 1.5 0.7 1.4 2.3 1.0 0.3 0.3 1.0 1.0 2.3 1.5 1.2 0.1 0.9 0.1 0.0 0.0 1981 119.1 31.7 29.6 8.3 4.6 1.1 5.8 8.4 1.9 4.7 2.3 1.0 2.0 6.9 0.6 0.0 1.2 1.8 2.2 1.7 0.9 0.0 1.0 0.5 0.5 0.2 0.2 0.0 1982 102.0 30.3 19.9 2.7 14.1 2.8 2.9 7.5 0.4 4.6 3.8 0.4 0.5 2.1 3.0 0.0 0.0 0.4 0.5 2.4 0.0 0.7 0.1 1.1 0.7 0.4 0.3 0.5 0.1 1983 94.0 20.7 17.7 1.8 15.9 2.5 2.5 6.3 0.3 6.1 5.1 0.9 1.1 3.0 2.2 0.0 0.1 1.5 0.8 0.4 2.1 0.0 0.7 0.0 0.8 0.6 0.5 0.3 0.1 0.0 0.1 0.0 0.0 1984 117.0 22.7 16.6 4.0 9.3 1.8 3.3 15.1 1.0 3.8 12.3 1.1 4.8 1.4 2.9 1.0 0.8 4.2 0.7 0.2 2.1 0.8 0.2 0.3 1.5 1.9 1.6 0.6 0.1 0.8 0.0 0.0 1985 116.2 10.5 28.3 6.7 7.6 1.6 18.2 6.0 1.2 2.4 8.0 0.6 3.7 2.3 5.6 0.3 1.3 2.8 0.5 1.0 2.0 1.1 0.1 0.7 1.1 0.9 0.5 0.8 0.2 0.0 0.1 0.4 1986 100.2 16.8 16.6 4.9 5.7 1.9 7.2 6.5 1.4 5.1 7.4 0.9 3.7 2.4 2.8 1.8 0.2 3.5 0.9 0.2 1.1 4.6 2.0 0.2 0.1 0.2 0.7 0.3 0.5 0.2 0.1 0.1 0.0 0.0 0.0 1987 95.9 18.8 13.1 8.9 12.4 1.0 5.7 5.8 0.7 4.8 3.4 0.2 0.9 2.7 3.0 1.3 0.5 1.1 1.7 0.8 2.0 0.0 2.0 0.1 1.2 0.1 1.9 0.4 0.6 0.2 0.6 0.0 0.0 0.0 1988 84.4 11.1 6.3 6.5 8.2 1.7 7.6 4.4 1.9 3.5 3.4 0.2 1.5 3.0 2.1 1.2 1.7 0.5 0.9 2.9 3.4 1.6 1.4 2.6 0.1 1.6 1.5 1.3 1.1 0.9 0.1 0.0 0.1 1989 108.1 14.6 10.5 12.0 6.1 2.6 4.1 5.7 2.0 4.4 7.6 0.6 2.0 3.0 1.9 0.2 2.9 0.9 0.5 7.4 3.3 2.6 2.0 3.1 1.9 1.6 2.1 0.7 0.5 0.3 0.1 1.0 0.1 1990 108.8 8.7 18.0 13.1 9.8 1.0 6.4 5.1 1.6 3.7 8.9 1.9 4.7 2.0 2.0 0.5 3.1 1.4 0.4 4.7 2.1 0.1 0.7 1.2 2.5 1.7 1.1 0.7 1.3 0.0 0.2 0.0 0.2 0.0 1991 98.2 19.6 12.8 8.6 8.8 2.3 4.5 3.1 1.1 2.5 8.6 1.3 2.4 2.0 3.1 0.6 0.6 1.4 1.3 0.5 3.7 0.8 1.5 0.6 0.5 1.7 1.1 1.2 1.3 0.1 0.1 0.0 0.3 0.0 1992 100.2 4.0 14.1 9.4 9.0 4.3 8.5 3.4 4.7 1.6 12.7 1.6 3.7 2.0 4.3 2.3 0.5 0.7 0.8 1.0 2.1 0.7 1.9 0.6 0.8 1.9 1.1 1.3 0.7 0.1 0.2 0.1 0.2 0.0 1993 102.3 13.7 5.6 7.8 6.9 2.5 5.0 4.0 7.4 4.5 14.9 4.0 2.0 1.4 3.8 1.2 1.0 1.2 1.5 3.7 2.5 0.6 1.8 0.2 0.1 0.6 0.9 0.4 1.6 1.2 0.2 0.3 0.0 0.1 0.1 1994 104.1 6.7 12.2 8.1 7.2 3.7 5.8 5.6 6.0 6.3 10.8 2.4 2.8 1.6 3.3 1.2 1.7 1.0 1.7 2.6 4.2 0.1 1.3 1.1 0.8 1.4 0.9 1.7 0.9 0.8 0.4 0.0 0.0 1995 103.7 10.4 17.3 8.2 7.1 4.6 6.9 2.5 5.0 4.0 11.4 1.5 3.6 1.0 3.2 3.1 2.6 1.3 1.7 2.0 1.9 0.3 0.5 1.2 0.6 0.5 0.2 0.2 0.3 0.3 0.0 0.1 1996 92.6 7.3 14.0 5.3 4.1 4.3 7.5 3.9 6.2 0.5 10.8 3.3 4.2 1.9 4.0 1.1 3.4 0.9 0.9 1.9 1.9 2.1 1.0 0.1 0.4 0.6 0.8 0.0 0.4 0.0 1997 104.9 9.8 13.0 7.9 5.2 4.5 6.5 4.6 6.9 3.6 8.0 5.9 3.0 1.8 3.9 0.4 2.6 0.9 1.1 2.6 5.2 2.2 0.9 0.3 0.9 0.7 1.0 1.1 0.2 0.2 1998 103.8 5.7 11.6 9.0 4.0 2.4 6.9 3.8 7.7 2.0 10.8 6.8 4.4 3.0 4.0 0.8 1.5 1.0 0.9 2.7 4.4 1.9 3.3 0.6 0.8 1.2 1.2 0.4 0.8 0.0 0.2 0.0 0.0 1999 102.3 6.4 12.0 8.7 2.5 0.9 5.8 7.5 9.5 1.6 11.2 7.9 5.5 1.7 2.3 2.5 0.9 0.5 0.8 1.3 3.2 1.8 3.9 1.2 0.0 0.6 1.3 0.5 0.1 0.3 0.2 0.0 2000 105.1 9.4 10.3 8.2 8.6 3.2 5.0 3.9 6.8 3.4 11.7 5.8 6.4 0.8 3.7 4.1 2.1 2.0 1.0 1.1 2.5 1.7 1.0 0.0 0.6 0.4 0.4 0.3 0.4 0.1 0.1 0.0 0.0 2001 104.8 8.9 13.8 8.8 6.7 5.4 5.2 6.5 6.3 4.2 6.5 4.9 7.9 0.9 4.9 2.1 1.3 1.0 0.5 1.6 1.7 1.0 1.7 0.2 0.8 0.7 0.4 0.6 0.2 0.1 0.0 2002 101.7 8.0 12.7 8.6 4.2 5.5 5.5 8.5 6.9 3.2 9.7 5.1 4.9 0.7 3.3 2.1 1.7 0.3 2.1 2.1 2.9 0.6 0.5 0.8 0.2 0.5 0.2 0.6 0.0 0.2 2003 101.5 9.1 11.4 5.0 5.1 3.9 8.9 7.9 6.5 2.9 12.1 6.8 4.0 0.9 3.7 1.6 1.2 0.6 2.2 1.2 1.6 0.7 0.8 1.8 0.7 0.4 0.3 0.2 0.1 0.0 2004 101.4 5.5 12.1 5.4 4.5 4.9 9.2 5.4 9.8 3.6 7.9 4.3 2.1 2.0 4.8 1.9 1.7 0.2 2.6 0.7 3.2 2.0 0.8 3.4 0.7 0.7 1.0 0.2 0.4 0.1 0.1 2005 102.4 8.2 7.9 6.8 7.5 5.2 8.4 7.4 6.1 1.8 7.5 11.0 2.4 1.1 5.7 1.5 3.1 0.6 1.7 0.4 2.0 0.7 1.2 2.7 0.4 0.2 0.4 0.2 0.1 0.0 2006 103.9 10.5 6.5 11.4 5.1 8.6 4.9 5.5 7.8 4.2 4.4 8.2 3.0 1.6 3.7 3.0 3.9 0.9 0.6 1.0 2.2 0.6 1.0 3.2 0.1 0.6 1.2 0.1 0.2 0.1 0.0 2007 103.7 12.4 6.6 8.8 3.5 12.4 8.0 4.2 6.6 2.3 1.7 7.3 3.8 0.6 2.8 1.6 3.2 0.3 0.8 2.2 2.5 5.9 0.6 1.1 2.8 0.2 0.4 0.4 0.3 0.3 0.1 0.2 2008 103.0 12.8 12.0 8.5 3.3 9.9 5.4 3.7 9.6 3.2 7.0 5.4 2.8 2.4 3.0 1.1 2.2 0.4 1.5 2.2 1.9 1.5 1.1 0.1 0.5 0.4 0.9 0.1 0.1 0.2 0.1 0.0 2009 102.3 14.9 9.7 7.5 2.6 5.2 6.5 6.0 10.0 4.4 5.6 6.9 3.4 2.5 2.4 1.1 2.2 2.4 0.7 1.6 1.4 1.3 1.0 0.2 0.3 0.8 0.4 0.4 0.2 0.5 0.1 0.1 2010 97.0 12.5 12.0 4.2 11.0 6.6 5.9 7.9 5.8 5.4 6.0 4.2 2.5 1.3 1.9 1.1 2.7 0.5 0.9 0.9 1.1 0.3 0.8 0.9 0.2 0.1 0.1 0.2 0.2 0.0 2011 94.1 21.9 14.9 6.0 8.4 6.0 5.7 5.2 2.5 4.4 4.0 1.3 1.6 1.5 0.7 1.4 1.5 1.2 1.5 0.5 0.7 0.8 0.8 0.5 0.4 0.3 0.1 0.1 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.2 2012 93.4 24.9 14.3 5.5 9.0 7.5 5.7 5.8 2.7 3.4 2.8 0.8 1.5 1.4 1.0 0.8 0.5 1.1 1.7 0.7 0.5 0.1 0.5 0.3 0.1 0.1 0.1 0.1 0.2 0.0 0.0 0.4 0.1 2013 89.0 18.2 14.2 8.1 9.2 3.4 6.2 4.3 2.6 4.4 5.7 0.2 1.6 1.7 1.2 1.6 0.9 1.0 1.2 0.8 0.3 1.0 0.6 0.1 0.1 0.2 0.0 0.0 0.1 0.1 0.0 0.0 2014 82.4 24.1 8.8 8.8 5.2 6.4 4.5 5.0 2.0 3.9 2.9 0.1 1.0 1.6 0.7 2.1 0.0 1.3 0.3 0.3 0.4 0.2 0.9 1.0 0.6 0.1 0.1 0.1 0.0 0.1 0.0 0.0 2015 65.8 18.2 8.1 4.8 6.5 3.7 4.6 4.7 1.7 3.7 2.2 0.3 0.4 1.8 0.8 0.8 0.3 1.3 0.6 0.2 0.1 0.4 0.6 0.0 0.1 0.0 0.0 0.0 2016 66.8 18.1 5.5 5.9 6.9 4.2 3.8 6.7 1.7 4.2 1.0 0.3 1.0 1.0 0.0 2.0 0.1 2.0 0.7 0.1 0.3 0.2 0.6 0.2 0.1 0.1 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.1

86 Stobart, B. et al. (2017) Western Zone Abalone Fishery

Table 6.7. Blacklip CPUE (kg.hr-1) from the Western Zone and SAUs, ordered by importance. Note empty cells denote no CPUE estimate and abbreviations for reef (Rf) and region (RG).

High Medium Low Table 6.8. Blacklip CPUE (kg.hr-1) from the Western Zone and SAUs, ordered by importance. Note empty cells denote no CPUE estimate and abbreviations for reef (Rf) and region (RG).

Season

Western Zone Western Drummond Sheringa Point Westall Reef Head Avoid Bay Searcy Bay Anxious Bay Ward Island Point Avoid Venus Bay Hotspot Flinders Island Fishery Bay Baird Bay Cape Bauer North Nuyts Elliston Cliffs Coffin Bay Rf DEntrecasteaux The Gap Bay Waterloo Cape Catastrophe South Nuyts WZ Unassigned Franklin Islands SW Thistle Cove Memory Taylors Island NE Thistle Neptune Islands Island Wedge Pearson Island Greenly Island Sir Joseph Banks 1979 17.1 18.9 18.4 27.0 14.8 14.9 14.8-1 13.6 10.6 9.7 14.1 Table1980 18.8 6.918.5. Blacklip25.9 18.2 19.8CPUE19.8 (kg.hr 17.8) from20.8 16.8 the 20.5Western Zone21.8 and8.1 SAUs, ordered 22.3 by importance. 10.1 14.7 Note empty cells denote 18.1 no CPUE estimate and abbreviation1981 19.5 19.7 s25.2 for 16.4reef 17.4(Rf)11.0 and18.5 region16.4 (RG).20.7 15.6 21.5 16.9 16.8 16.5 16.1 16.5 15.8 1982 19.5 20.4 25.0 14.9 18.6 18.8 17.4 19.4 13.0 20.7 15.0 10.7 11.6 10.2 1983 17.8 17.8 27.6 12.4 14.9 13.5 18.8 18.8 15.0 18.8 11.0 12.6 15.3 22.2 11.3 9.2 1984 18.9 18.8 25.2 21.8 14.4 14.8 18.2 18.9 11.4 12.4 22.4 14.7 12.8 17.6 26.2 18.0 11.7 19.0 15.5 15.1 1985 19.3 17.1 26.3 18.5 15.4 11.1 22.2 16.2 11.4 22.3 18.6 11.8 17.5 14.2 20.9 15.9 11.6 12.7 12.9 11.7 10.5 1986 19.5 19.6 26.9 20.6 18.1 10.7 20.0 18.6 16.2 15.5 21.2 13.5 12.6 20.4 12.1 25.4 12.8 9.1 19.3 15.1 1987 18.3 22.0 24.8 18.0 16.0 9.6 20.0 16.7 16.4 18.4 10.8 9.2 24.0 15.2 14.5 10.0 14.1 12.6 1988 17.8 23.9 25.7 21.0 17.3 11.8 22.2 15.6-1 14.7 13.3 17.6 24.1 10.1 13.7 14.4 12.7 17.6 18.7 14.1 15.6 13.2 14.3 12.8 14.0 12.6 8.5 Table1989 19.7 6.1022.6. Blacklip27.1 22.3 16.6CPUE17.7 (kg.hr19.2 17.3) from17.8 21.7 the 27.2Western 22.7 Zone12.3 and16.9 SAUs, 15.9 ordered by18.6 importance.14.1 18.4 Note13.1 empty 16.9 cells16.4 16.1denote11.8 no8.4 CPUE estimate and abbreviation1990 21.6 23.4 s30.2 for 22.9reef 21.3(Rf)16.3 and23.7 region21.6 (RG).27.5 17.5 23.9 13.7 21.4 11.5 23.2 14.9 25.9 18.1 13.4 13.6 17.2 14.7 9.7 14.0 1991 22.6 25.9 30.4 20.9 22.2 21.2 26.3 20.3 19.5 25.8 18.6 15.1 26.6 29.4 18.8 14.1 14.7 14.3 12.6 10.3 12.5 1992 21.0 21.4 29.7 19.9 18.7 27.8 25.6 15.8 22.9 14.3 22.8 16.1 13.8 20.3 18.6 15.5 10.9 14.2 16.8 13.9 14.0 14.4 11.0 1993 21.1 24.9 28.7 20.5 18.5 20.1 23.5 20.1 26.2 21.7 24.8 19.8 18.0 11.7 17.8 15.6 19.0 23.9 9.5 14.2 12.2 12.1 9.9 1994 21.2 22.4 29.8 20.3 21.8 17.5 21.2 19.2 27.7 20.9 25.2 23.2 18.6 16.0 20.0 21.5 14.6 17.3 22.8 18.2 13.5 11.7 14.8 10.3 11.5 1995 21.9 23.0 30.2 22.6 19.8 18.7 24.4 16.9 21.4 19.8 24.7 17.9 16.3 14.0 19.3 18.6 17.8 16.8 21.1 16.5 10.8 13.5 1996 20.5 20.8 28.2 19.4 16.9 20.3 24.7 17.1 24.5 23.5 14.3 15.9 11.2 17.5 17.3 18.4 18.0 24.2 15.9 15.3 9.8 17.0 1997 21.5 23.7 28.2 22.7 15.1 18.6 25.1 19.9 24.6 20.5 27.1 18.4 17.9 19.9 18.9 16.9 16.6 19.0 15.0 17.0 13.3 16.8 1998 21.5 25.8 28.7 19.2 18.4 18.4 24.8 16.8 25.3 18.8 24.4 19.7 18.1 18.5 21.5 16.7 24.1 14.9 20.3 21.0 18.4 1999 21.5 22.9 29.5 21.7 18.5 21.9 25.4 23.2 14.2 26.7 18.7 20.1 16.8 19.4 21.0 21.3 14.0 11.4 16.6 15.0 14.1 2000 21.9 25.0 29.5 20.6 21.2 21.6 24.8 17.2 24.6 21.5 22.8 20.8 18.0 12.0 23.7 22.5 17.6 14.7 16.2 9.5 9.8 2001 24.1 27.5 32.1 23.3 23.2 23.5 24.8 22.3 24.4 22.1 26.5 18.2 23.7 22.7 21.0 16.8 20.1 15.3 15.0 2002 24.1 25.7 30.4 23.8 22.5 25.0 25.8 23.3 23.3 22.8 26.3 21.7 21.7 19.4 22.1 17.0 24.8 21.8 18.9 2003 25.6 26.9 30.7 21.1 20.2 21.7 28.8 25.5 29.9 26.7 28.1 23.5 23.2 27.5 25.8 17.3 22.9 24.8 2004 25.1 25.8 30.5 26.2 21.3 21.7 28.5 27.1 31.2 21.8 28.6 20.0 21.5 24.2 21.3 29.0 19.2 23.3 18.9 23.2 22.8 14.7 2005 24.7 26.9 30.3 25.8 24.4 22.5 27.3 26.0 25.8 22.1 29.1 22.7 24.5 21.9 24.8 19.0 18.1 16.9 13.0 21.2 2006 25.5 29.3 36.4 30.0 23.3 25.3 29.0 23.9 24.9 27.2 29.8 23.0 21.0 20.7 21.7 21.0 17.1 11.9 19.8 2007 24.2 28.6 31.4 25.0 21.4 26.2 26.9 27.1 23.3 18.9 23.4 21.7 20.3 18.6 23.3 19.2 19.5 17.9 25.0 12.1 24.9 2008 23.8 28.4 29.4 24.3 21.5 22.8 26.5 21.8 25.0 24.4 24.7 18.6 20.2 20.1 22.0 13.9 20.2 20.7 16.0 17.7 2009 22.5 25.6 30.4 21.8 19.3 18.6 23.7 21.7 23.0 21.0 23.9 21.6 19.4 23.7 16.5 20.4 16.1 29.1 21.4 12.2 13.9 2010 22.2 24.7 29.7 22.2 20.7 21.0 25.8 17.7 25.9 20.4 22.6 17.5 23.8 20.2 23.1 14.3 11.1 2011 21.7 23.0 27.5 25.2 17.0 18.5 26.6 21.5 20.4 17.2 22.7 19.0 19.3 18.1 8.8 18.6 2012 21.2 21.3 27.7 20.5 17.8 18.3 25.1 22.3 21.0 17.0 23.5 20.8 17.8 19.8 2013 20.8 23.0 27.0 22.6 17.1 18.8 21.7 17.2 22.7 18.0 20.0 15.9 13.7 20.0 19.5 14.6 14.0 7.6 2014 19.3 20.4 24.3 22.5 15.5 17.1 20.4 18.4 18.4 13.3 18.8 13.9 11.5 22.9 22.1 10.8 2015 19.5 19.9 23.3 22.9 16.0 13.7 21.3 19.9 21.9 16.1 21.2 17.9 2016 18.6 18.7 24.9 22.3 14.8 15.6 21.7 20.7 13.2 15.1 16.5 24.6 23.1 11.9

87 Stobart, B. et al. (2017) Western Zone Abalone Fishery

Table 6.11. Blacklip PropLge from the Western Zone and SAUs, ordered by importance. Note empty cells denote no PropLge estimate and abbreviations for reef (Rf) and region (RG).

High Medium Low Table 6.12. Greenlip catch (tonnes MW) from the Western Zone and SAUs, ordered by importance. Note empty cells denote no catch estimate and abbreviations for reef (Rf) and region (RG).Table 6.13. Blacklip PropLge from the Western Zone and SAUs, ordered by importance. Note empty cells denote no PropLge estimate and abbreviations for reef (Rf) and region (RG).

Season

Sir Joseph Banks

Greenly Island

Pearson Island

Wedge Island Wedge

Neptune Islands

NE Thistle

Taylors Island

Memory Cove Memory

SW Thistle

Franklin Islands

Unassigned WZ Unassigned

South Nuyts

Cape Catastrophe

Waterloo Bay Waterloo

The Gap

DEntrecasteaux Rf DEntrecasteaux

Coffin Bay

Elliston Cliffs

North Nuyts

Cape Bauer

Baird Bay

Fishery Bay

Flinders Island

Hotspot

Venus Bay

Point Avoid

Ward Island

Anxious Bay

Searcy Bay

Avoid Bay

Reef Head

Point Westall

Sheringa

Drummond

Western Zone Western 1979 1980 1981 1982 Table1983 6.14. Greenlip catch (tonnes MW) from the Western Zone and SAUs, ordered by importance. Note empty cells denote no catch estimate and abbreviation1984 s for reef (Rf) and region (RG). 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 -1 Table1992 6.15. Greenlip CPUE (kg.hr ) from the Western Zone and SAUs, ordered by importance. Note empty cells denote no CPUE estimate and abbreviation1993 s for reef (Rf) and region (RG).Table 6.16. Greenlip catch (tonnes MW) from the Western Zone and SAUs, ordered by importance. 1994 Note1995 empty cells denote no catch estimate and abbreviations for reef (Rf) and region (RG).Table 6.17. Blacklip PropLge from the Western Zone 1996 and1997 SAUs, ordered by importance. Note empty cells denote no PropLge estimate and abbreviations for reef (Rf) and region (RG). 1998 1999 0.07 0.02 0.09 2000 0.05 0.10 0.02 0.11 0.01 0.02 0.10 0.03 2001 2002 0.09 0.09 0.02 0.24 0.00 0.09 0.03 0.21 0.02 0.06 2003 0.07 0.09 0.03 0.05 0.13 0.13 0.19 0.05 0.13 Table2004 0.076.180.03. Greenlip0.09 catch0.05 0.02 (tonnes0.04 0.10 MW)0.14 from0.09 0.33the Western0.06 0.13 Zone0.04 and0.01 SAUs,0.02 ordered by importance.0.02 0.00 Note empty0.04 0.14cells denote no catch estimate and 2005 0.08 0.03 0.06 0.01 0.05 0.13 0.09 0.12 0.07 0.16 0.22 0.05 0.02 0.05 0.02 0.01 0.13 0.01 abbreviation2006 0.11 0.02 s 0.08for reef0.24 (Rf)0.08 0.07and 0.18region0.08 (RG).0.17 Table0.39 60.05.19. 0.20 Blacklip0.23 PropLge0.32 0.01 from the0.16 Western0.20 Zone0.03 and0.11 0.08SAUs,0.07 ordered0.02 by importance.0.09 Note0.05 empty 2007 0.12 0.12 0.12 0.18 0.02 0.09 0.12 0.21 0.09 0.11 0.09 0.14 0.40 0.03 0.02 0.10 0.10 0.15 cells2008 denote0.10 0.05 no0.03 PropLge0.02 estimate0.21 0.01 0.21and 0.22abbreviation0.89 0.13s for0.07 reef0.63 (Rf)0.09 and region0.02 0.19 (RG). 0.13 0.48 0.04 0.43 2009 0.21 0.21 2010 2011 0.15 0.12 0.31 2012 0.12 0.06 0.30 0.08 0.06 0.01 0.17 0.09 0.11 0.04 0.19 0.24 0.16 0.06 0.09 0.06 2013 0.11 0.09 0.20 0.11 0.08 0.15 0.11 0.09 0.19 0.03 0.25 0.09 0.07 0.01 0.02 0.45 0.05 2014 0.08 0.08 0.02 0.08 0.03 0.04 0.10 0.08 0.13 0.11 0.19 0.12 0.15 0.07 0.05 0.13 0.31 2015 0.14 0.18 0.40 0.16 0.11 0.06 0.14 0.18 0.20 0.16 0.05 0.12 0.04 2016 0.08 0.02 0.27 0.14 0.14 0.10 0.02 0.15 0.01

88 Stobart, B. et al. (2017) Western Zone Abalone Fishery

Table 6.20. Greenlip catch (tonnes MW) from the Western Zone and SAUs, ordered by importance. Note empty cells denote no catch estimate and abbreviations for reef (Rf) and region (RG).

High Medium Low

Table 6.21. Greenlip CPUE (kg.hr-1) from the Western Zone and SAUs, ordered by importance. Note empty cells denote no CPUE estimate and abbreviations for reef (Rf) and region (RG).Table 6.22. Greenlip catch (tonnes MW) from the Western Zone and SAUs, ordered by importance. Note empty cells denote no catch estimate and abbreviations for reef (Rf) and region (RG).

Season Zone Western Anxious Bay The Gap Avoid Bay Point Avoid Flinders Island Ward Island Drummond Taylors Island Reef Head Hotspot Baird Bay South Nuyts Point Westall Cove Memory Fishery Bay Cape Catastrophe Venus Bay SW Thistle Island Wedge North Nuyts Searcy Bay NE Thistle Franklin Islands Coffin Bay Neptune Islands Cape Bauer Rf DEntrecasteaux Bay Waterloo Sheringa Elliston Cliffs WZ Unassigned Pearson Island Sir Joseph Banks Greenly Island 1979 138.1 19.7 8.0 19.5 24.3 5.5 1.9 5.4 2.2 2.9 9.6 7.3 1.7 8.2 0.7 3.5 1.1 0.5 2.2 1.3 0.8 1.2 2.1 0.2 1.4 2.0 0.3 0.4 1.9 1.9 0.2 0.2 1980 123.6 17.1 7.2 9.2 18.4 10.5 5.2 5.8 2.6 7.3 7.0 3.1 0.6 5.6 0.5 3.8 3.2 0.7 2.1 0.8 1.0 1.6 0.3 0.2 1.4 0.4 0.5 4.4 1.8 1.4 1981 108.1 9.2 10.2 4.6 7.0 7.5 6.4 10.4 2.1 6.3 9.6 1.3 6.2 1.9 7.2 1.5 1.4 1.5 1.0 0.1 4.7 1.0 0.1 1.2 1.7 0.0 0.8 2.1 0.9 0.1 1982 158.4 10.5 13.3 16.8 22.1 6.9 4.6 10.4 4.1 13.7 4.6 8.1 1.0 6.4 2.8 6.4 2.1 2.5 3.9 1.9 1.7 4.0 1.0 1.3 2.6 1.9 0.4 0.0 1.5 1.0 1.0 0.0 1983 157.6 12.3 10.0 7.3 30.8 12.0 2.2 8.7 2.8 19.0 7.5 5.7 0.2 4.0 1.9 7.6 1.0 4.9 1.9 3.4 1.8 1.4 1.1 0.2 1.5 0.5 0.5 2.7 0.1 2.1 0.8 1.1 0.5 0.1 0.1 Table1984 158.8 6.2316.3. Greenlip4.9 6.2 14.4 CPUE13.1 (kg.hr3.6 6.8-1) 10.9from8.4 the3.9 Western6.2 6.1 Zone8.2 and3.1 3.6SAUs,1.2 ordered5.5 2.3 by2.4 importance.7.1 8.4 0.7 Note4.8 1.3empty0.6 cells2.7 1.7denote no2.6 CPUE1.3 estimate0.4 0.1 and0.1 1985 91.5 5.4 5.7 2.4 5.4 5.0 2.6 2.9 4.1 5.0 2.5 6.7 1.3 4.8 2.4 4.7 1.3 2.8 1.9 1.0 3.4 11.2 0.5 1.7 0.2 0.2 1.4 1.0 1.5 1.5 0.4 0.7 0.0 abbreviation1986 106.8 9.3 s 7.6for reef6.2 10.7(Rf) 5.8and3.0 region3.4 (RG).9.6 5.4 4.3 3.9 0.6 3.1 3.9 3.1 2.2 3.8 1.0 1.1 0.6 2.3 1.0 0.9 0.4 0.3 5.2 0.3 3.2 2.0 1.3 0.4 0.9 0.0 0.1 1987 104.5 9.1 8.1 2.7 5.7 6.0 3.8 5.0 8.2 4.8 3.6 4.0 1.3 8.0 3.7 3.6 2.7 3.5 2.8 2.2 1.1 3.3 2.2 0.1 1.3 1.3 3.1 1.4 0.0 0.8 0.3 0.3 0.3 0.1 1988 106.5 9.7 7.8 4.2 7.9 4.6 3.9 1.5 6.9 2.9 0.8 3.6 6.8 6.8 3.1 3.6 2.0 2.7 2.6 0.9 4.0 4.6 1.8 5.3 1.1 0.9 2.5 1.3 0.8 0.5 1.4 0.1 0.3 1989 82.5 9.4 4.4 3.3 7.4 3.5 2.1 1.8 4.2 3.2 4.5 3.2 4.0 4.5 2.6 2.2 1.5 2.0 1.3 1.8 3.2 1.4 1.6 2.6 0.4 1.1 1.0 2.2 0.0 0.7 0.5 0.3 0.0 0.5 1990 81.5 5.7 6.8 2.1 2.9 6.3 1.3 0.8 2.7 2.1 8.1 4.1 3.3 4.7 3.2 3.1 1.5 3.0 1.8 1.7 3.6 2.8 1.1 4.0 0.1 0.2 0.4 2.1 0.1 0.9 0.6 0.1 0.1 0.1 1991 74.3 6.5 8.4 1.9 3.3 4.0 3.2 1.2 4.2 1.6 7.1 3.2 2.5 2.9 2.3 2.8 2.3 1.6 1.9 1.1 1.6 1.7 2.2 1.6 0.5 0.3 2.0 1.0 0.3 0.5 0.3 0.2 0.0 0.1 1992 75.6 6.3 6.8 3.8 1.8 6.6 4.1 1.2 2.2 2.0 4.3 3.0 2.4 3.5 1.4 2.8 2.3 3.3 1.8 3.6 1.1 1.7 1.8 1.7 0.3 0.7 2.6 0.8 0.4 0.5 0.1 0.4 0.1 0.3 Table1993 74.4 6.244.9. Greenlip7.6 3.9 2.8 PropG15.2 4.9 from1.8 the5.4 Western1.0 4.5 2.5 Zone1.5 and2.2 SAUs,1.6 1.4 ordered1.7 2.9 by2.5 importance.1.9 1.3 1.5 Note2.9 1.3empty0.8 1.0 cells1.4 denote2.2 0.4 no 0.6 PropG10.5 0.0 estimate0.3 0.1 and0.0 1994 76.3 5.4 8.7 5.0 2.7 7.1 2.6 0.7 4.9 1.4 4.7 2.4 1.9 2.5 1.5 2.2 1.4 3.3 1.5-1 1.5 2.0 2.9 2.3 2.5 0.8 1.1 1.0 1.2 0.1 0.6 0.1 0.1 0.0 abbreviation1995 75.8 4.9 s 7.4for reef3.7 1.8(Rf) 9.9and3.3 region0.5 (RG).4.3 1.3Table3.9 62.4.25.2.9 Greenlip3.3 2.2 CPUE2.0 1.9 (kg.hr2.5 1.3) from2.4 1.6the 2.0Western2.1 1.8 Zone0.5 and2.4 SAUs,0.7 1.2 ordered0.2 0.4 by0.4 importance.0.4 0.2 Note empty1996 75.2 cells6.2 denote6.4 3.7 no0.9 CPUE7.6 e3.8stimate1.1 3.3 and1.7 abbreviation9.3 4.6 2.5s for1.6 reef1.6 (Rf)3.2 and2.6 region3.1 0.8 (RG).2.1 Table1.7 1.8 6.261.3 . Greenlip1.4 0.1 0.2 catch0.5 (tonnes1.1 MW)0.6 0.1from0.0 the0.2 Western0.1 1997 75.7 6.3 7.2 2.7 1.7 6.4 4.3 1.5 2.6 1.3 8.5 4.4 2.0 2.2 2.1 2.4 3.0 1.9 1.8 1.8 2.0 1.6 1.1 1.3 0.1 1.4 0.2 1.3 2.4 0.1 0.3 Zone1998 79.9 and6.7 SAUs,10.1 ordered1.4 0.7 by8.3 importance.5.0 0.6 3.1 Note0.9 8.3empty4.7 cells2.9 2.8denote2.6 no2.0 catch1.6 2.5estimate2.1 1.4 and2.0 abbreviation1.1 2.4 2.5 s for0.1 reef0.8 (Rf)0.3 and0.9 1.2region0.2 (RG).0.1 0.1 0.3 1999 82.6 4.6 12.6 2.6 1.6 9.1 5.7 0.6 1.8 0.5 8.6 3.0 5.7 2.7 2.8 1.1 2.5 1.8 1.9 1.5 1.4 1.0 0.8 2.0 0.1 0.4 1.3 1.0 3.2 0.4 0.3 0.2 0.2 2000 78.1 4.6 9.0 2.1 1.7 12.7 4.3 1.4 2.1 2.9 6.4 2.6 3.5 2.8 1.4 1.0 2.0 2.3 1.6 1.9 2.2 0.8 1.7 2.1 0.2 0.8 1.9 0.8 0.4 0.2 0.6 0.2 2001 77.4 6.1 8.8 2.6 2.7 10.5 3.5 0.7 4.3 1.9 8.2 4.3 3.7 3.9 1.4 0.4 1.2 1.0 1.4 1.4 2.4 1.7 1.2 2.0 0.0 0.6 0.7 0.5 0.0 0.1 0.2 0.1 2002 77.9 9.2 8.0 3.1 2.5 10.6 4.7 2.2 3.8 0.9 6.4 3.2 3.6 3.3 2.5 0.9 0.4 1.7 0.6 0.2 2.7 1.4 0.9 1.9 0.3 1.1 0.8 0.3 0.1 0.5 2003 82.5 8.7 11.6 2.9 1.9 8.4 3.2 1.7 4.9 1.4 8.2 2.5 4.5 2.3 2.0 1.5 0.7 0.9 1.5 0.9 1.1 1.9 0.5 2.9 0.1 0.5 1.3 3.1 0.3 0.0 1.2 0.0 2004 79.2 8.7 9.9 5.6 1.5 5.9 5.7 0.4 2.6 0.9 6.6 3.0 4.8 2.3 2.7 2.1 1.8 0.9 1.2 0.9 1.6 1.0 1.6 1.9 0.1 0.1 0.5 1.3 0.2 0.0 3.5 Table2005 77.6 6.277.7. Greenlip10.3 6.8 0.8CPUE6.3 (kg.hr4.1 0.7-1) from3.4 0.9 the8.3 Western4.6 3.6 Zone3.0 and2.0 0.8SAUs,0.5 ordered0.4 1.0 by1.1 importance.2.7 2.1 0.8 Note1.4 0.1empty cells0.3 0.8denote no0.1 CPUE0.0 2.6 estimate0.2 and 2006 83.6 9.9 9.3 11.0 2.1 7.2 5.3 0.4 1.5 1.4 7.8 3.8 2.8 2.8 1.6 1.3 1.0 0.2 1.4 0.9 3.2 0.9 0.7 0.6 0.3 2.5 0.9 0.1 0.0 2.6 0.3 abbreviation2007 82.2 7.0 s 9.6for 12.0reef 1.4(Rf) 9.3and5.6 region0.4 (3.3RG).1.2Table6.7 63.0.28.3.4 Greenlip3.2 2.8 catch0.2 0.7 (tonnes0.3 1.3 MW)1.5 from1.8 1.4 the1.0 Western1.0 0.2 Zone0.3 and1.2 1.3SAUs, ordered0.1 by1.3 importance. Note2008 83.1empty7.5 cells7.8 13.1denote2.0 no4.9 catch5.5 1.7estimate3.9 0.8 and5.5 abbreviation2.1 4.4 2.6s for3.2 reef2.6 (Rf)1.8 and1.0 region1.2 1.6 (RG).1.8 1.2 1.0 1.2 0.8 1.0 0.4 1.1 0.5 0.0 0.4 0.3 0.0 2009 82.6 9.9 9.1 5.7 3.3 3.6 6.5 3.4 3.0 0.6 5.2 2.8 3.6 2.1 3.4 3.0 2.4 0.9 3.0 2.1 2.1 1.4 0.8 1.1 0.5 1.0 0.3 1.0 0.3 0.2 0.0 0.1 0.2 2010 76.9 13.7 6.8 3.7 6.4 3.2 3.2 2.8 2.9 4.9 3.5 0.8 5.1 1.0 1.9 1.4 1.5 1.7 1.3 1.6 2.3 1.3 1.7 0.9 0.8 0.2 0.4 0.8 0.7 0.4 0.0 2011 74.8 9.2 7.2 4.4 5.7 4.0 2.2 4.4 4.1 5.6 0.8 0.7 3.0 1.8 1.6 3.2 2.4 2.5 1.0 0.3 2.3 0.7 1.4 0.9 1.4 0.5 0.4 0.2 1.7 0.6 0.5 0.2 2012 73.4 8.5 6.0 6.4 4.4 3.7 3.3 6.2 6.8 2.6 1.6 1.9 2.7 1.5 1.8 1.5 2.0 1.8 1.3 1.0 0.8 0.8 1.1 1.2 1.5 0.6 0.6 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.2 0.2 0.0 2013 72.4 7.8 7.7 4.5 3.9 2.4 4.2 4.3 2.3 5.3 1.5 2.6 2.0 2.6 1.6 1.4 2.2 2.6 1.5 1.0 0.8 1.2 0.7 1.4 2.2 1.6 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.6 0.4 0.3 0.0 2014 71.7 8.1 8.9 3.9 4.2 3.6 3.0 6.4 3.1 3.6 1.3 3.6 0.8 4.2 1.7 3.1 2.3 1.3 1.0 0.8 0.1 1.2 0.4 0.5 0.2 1.2 1.0 0.0 0.7 0.4 0.6 0.1 0.2 0.0 2015 68.9 9.3 6.4 6.3 6.4 1.6 3.8 4.6 2.2 4.8 2.3 4.5 2.5 1.4 1.9 1.1 1.7 1.4 1.1 0.2 1.7 0.3 0.3 0.6 0.8 0.0 0.6 0.4 0.5 0.0 2016 69.6 7.8 7.6 4.8 5.8 4.5 3.3 4.0 3.6 4.1 1.6 4.4 1.8 1.9 1.9 3.4 1.1 1.2 2.0 0.1 0.8 1.0 0.2 0.4 1.0 0.0 0.3 0.5 0.5

89 Stobart, B. et al. (2017) Western Zone Abalone Fishery

Table 6.29. Greenlip CPUE (kg.hr-1) from the Western Zone and SAUs, ordered by importance. Note empty cells denote no CPUE estimate and abbreviations for reef (Rf) and region (RG).

High Medium Low

Table 6.30. Greenlip PropG1 from the Western Zone and SAUs, ordered by importance. Note empty cells denote no PropG1 estimate and abbreviations for reef (Rf) and region (RG).Table 6.31. Greenlip CPUE (kg.hr-1) from the Western Zone and SAUs, ordered by importance. Note

emptySeason cells Zone Western Anxious Bay denoteThe Gap noAvoid Bay CPUEPoint Avoid Flinders Island estimateWard Island Drummond andTaylors Island abbreviationReef Head Hotspot Baird Bay sSouth Nuyts for Point Westall reefCove Memory (Rf)Fishery Bay andCape Catastrophe regionVenus Bay SW Thistle (RG).Island Wedge North Nuyts Searcy Bay NE Thistle Franklin Islands Coffin Bay Neptune Islands Cape Bauer Rf DEntrecasteaux Bay Waterloo Sheringa Elliston Cliffs WZ Unassigned Pearson Island Sir Joseph Banks Greenly Island 1979 20.3 21.2 15.7 21.8 20.7 24.0 31.2 11.7 15.3 18.2 30.0 20.4 22.8 17.7 19.5 17.9 21.3 26.6 20.9 14.3 17.6 27.8 12.8 16.6 1980 18.4 17.4 18.7 18.6 18.8 22.3 23.5 11.7 15.9 16.4 27.7 15.7 13.5 19.0 19.3 19.6 22.4 19.5 13.7 14.2 17.9 20.5 1981 18.7 16.2 19.0 16.9 17.7 20.8 29.1 13.5 15.7 17.8 29.8 16.9 18.4 15.8 15.6 15.8 20.6 17.4 18.0 12.5 12.2 26.3 13.9 12.3 1982 18.9 17.1 17.5 20.8 20.5 21.5 28.3 14.7 17.6 16.2 24.7 18.6 16.3 16.7 17.7 16.5 17.4 19.0 19.9 31.2 17.6 13.0 20.8 16.4 24.1 13.8 21.2 1983 16.4 18.6 16.0 16.0 17.9 19.1 23.5 11.6 14.2 13.5 21.8 18.0 12.2 11.4 13.3 12.8 15.6 14.8 29.6 21.4 9.2 13.7 11.7 18.9 11.3 23.3 1984 17.2 17.8 15.8 14.2 15.4 16.4 18.9 13.0 19.7 13.3 21.5 20.5 16.8 21.6 14.5 13.9 14.2 15.9 16.1 20.8 19.8 22.8 21.0 13.1 21.5 16.4 10.0 23.8 1985 15.7 14.2 14.8 11.5 15.9 16.0 19.7 9.5 15.1 14.6 20.6 20.3 14.4 16.5 16.5 13.0 13.6 15.1 14.0 15.2 20.4 9.3 12.0 17.3 11.2 20.8 Table1986 617.6.32.18.5 Greenlip15.7 17.5 PropG118.3 17.2 24.6from11.5 the19.8 West20.3 ern28.2 Zone18.7 and17.9 SAUs,15.0 12.2 ordered13.3 15.0 by12.8 importance. 12.1 Note12.8 empty cells18.9 denote 16.9 no 18.7 PropG114.7 estimate and abbreviation1987 17.0 18.9s for15.4 reef15.1 (Rf)16.2 and17.7 region20.9 14.2 (RG).18.0 12.3 20.9 20.7 24.2 19.9 15.6 10.3 13.5 17.7 13.1 19.2 15.8 20.8 17.6 18.0 18.7 20.3 1988 16.2 18.6 14.7 22.2 19.3 16.3 18.6 11.5 13.7 14.6 16.3 17.2 15.5 14.2 10.8 12.0 15.8 17.4 14.6 18.5 13.9 17.2 28.8 18.5 15.7 11.1 14.9 1989 16.4 22.9 12.9 20.3 19.8 19.7 17.1 13.6 13.3 14.7 23.6 19.7 14.5 17.2 13.3 12.0 11.3 12.5 11.9 20.7 12.9 12.5 14.4 11.3 23.1 11.1 1990 17.7 22.7 17.8 16.6 15.3 19.3 15.4 15.6 27.2 22.8 14.0 15.2 14.2 16.8 15.7 16.8 14.0 20.6 14.0 16.3 12.3 16.3 14.6 1991 18.8 23.3 17.6 19.2 17.1 18.8 26.7 15.5 12.3 27.6 24.8 16.8 14.9 17.3 16.3 15.1 14.6 14.4 14.7 17.9 14.5 17.1 19.2 22.2 1992 17.6 19.4 17.3 25.0 15.6 19.1 21.9 17.2 13.9 12.8 22.7 15.4 20.2 15.1 14.4 15.3 14.7 12.7 13.0 23.0 16.9 12.6 17.1 18.6 15.9 1993 17.8 21.1 17.7 25.1 17.0 19.0 20.2 12.9 17.6 10.1 18.7 18.2 17.5 14.6 16.0 13.1 13.3 14.3 18.5 19.6 15.3 13.7 14.2 20.7 18.8 19.5 1994 18.3 19.1 18.9 21.1 13.8 24.5 17.2 15.4 23.7 16.5 12.8 14.6 14.8 17.1 12.4 18.4 15.2 22.1 14.2 17.1 16.4 19.4 15.5 24.9 Table1995 617.5.33.20.6 Greenlip18.6 18.7 PropG111.5 19.2 18.6from the15.9 Western11.2 21.0 Zone16.2 14.8 and15.6 SAUs,16.0 14.0 ordered16.3 18.0 by20.4 imp26.3ortance.11.2 13.6 Note17.1 17.2empty cells26.0 11.1 denote14.6 no PropG1 estimate and 1996 17.4 18.3 19.6 19.0 11.7 19.1 17.4 13.2 16.4 9.4 21.0 17.0 14.2 13.4 16.2 15.4 17.0 16.3 -16.81 25.7 12.8 16.7 17.8 13.9 abbreviation1997 17.8 23.0s for16.2 reef15.7 (Rf)13.0 and20.4 region19.5 (RG).16.9 Table8.7 19.2 6.17.234. 14.2Greenlip14.0 17.3 CPUE18.4 20.1 (kg.hr18.0 17.6) from20.9 the13.6 Western15.3 14.3 17.5Zone and SAUs, 10.8 ordered 21.9 by importance. Note empty1998 cells18.4 22.8 denote21.7 16.7no CPUE21.9 estimate19.6 and16.6 abbreviation10.1 21.4 17.6 13.6s for14.5 reef18.8 (Rf)17.7 and14.7 region17.8 18.1 (RG). 12.0 10.6 17.5 14.8 11.9 1999 19.1 21.4 21.3 20.9 15.7 22.8 18.6 18.3 20.9 19.2 17.7 16.6 21.5 14.2 14.3 13.5 16.6 14.4 17.4 17.5 13.0 2000 20.0 23.2 21.1 16.7 17.1 22.3 23.0 19.3 21.0 13.0 21.7 18.2 16.5 18.1 19.4 17.1 16.8 19.9 27.8 18.0 16.1 17.6 17.2 2001 20.9 24.5 23.1 18.8 21.2 23.4 20.5 19.6 15.9 22.8 20.6 15.2 19.1 23.5 17.5 23.9 19.1 20.0 18.5 11.6 2002 22.2 25.8 23.9 22.1 22.7 27.2 20.7 19.4 23.5 22.6 18.4 17.8 18.6 25.4 14.9 21.0 17.5 17.0 2003 23.8 27.8 25.6 25.2 23.8 25.9 26.6 26.2 11.3 25.6 21.0 19.2 22.6 24.9 25.2 10.5 25.1 16.6 21.4 25.4 2004 22.6 28.7 25.6 28.0 16.6 25.3 28.4 25.5 23.1 19.8 18.0 20.1 22.7 23.0 23.0 13.5 23.3 14.4 19.7 2005 22.7 24.4 26.5 22.8 29.2 27.5 25.7 24.0 21.9 15.0 20.1 26.3 16.2 18.9 13.1 21.2 Table2006 622.3.35.27.2 Greenlip25.3 26.1 PropG119.9 26.8 20.4from the20.4 Western 22.6 Zone19.8 14.1 and20.3 SAUs,23.6 ordered21.7 by importance. 15.0 Note empty cells21.4 denote no PropG1 19.3 estima te and 2007 22.3 27.6 25.0 23.6 17.5 26.4 22.6 24.8 15.6 21.3 21.2 16.0 17.8 27.7 -1 25.5 15.0 17.4 14.0 20.5 17.0 abbreviation2008 22.2 28.5s for23.0 reef27.2 (Rf)20.0 and23.0 region20.1 21.0 (RG).23.6 Table20.1 6.21.636. 17.6Greenlip16.8 23.8 CPUE22.5 18.0 (kg.hr ) from the15.5 Western19.9 13.6Zone and SAUs, 14.3 ordered by importance. Note empty2009 cells19.8 24.9 denote21.7 20.5no CPUE18.0 17.6 estimate19.0 22.0 and21.8 abbreviation23.9 21.3 15.6s for15.9 reef19.2 (Rf)21.8 and16.6 region 24.9 (RG).27.8 11.8 15.2 10.6 2010 19.4 20.7 20.0 17.5 22.6 19.6 20.6 17.7 22.9 18.1 21.3 15.6 16.4 25.9 21.2 18.4 18.9 24.3 12.4 22.8 19.7 10.6 12.7 2011 19.5 21.1 24.2 21.2 18.2 23.1 19.5 15.1 24.6 17.5 13.5 15.1 24.7 22.9 20.0 18.8 10.8 22.7 10.9 19.6 2012 19.7 22.1 20.1 20.9 18.2 20.4 22.7 16.2 23.4 12.4 25.7 22.8 16.2 15.0 18.2 14.7 18.5 20.3 18.4 11.5 22.6 14.5 25.3 2013 18.6 21.5 21.5 20.5 17.9 15.8 23.4 19.0 15.4 16.6 22.7 18.1 18.2 17.0 15.1 14.9 14.2 17.6 12.6 17.3 16.8 26.1 10.1 2014 17.0 19.5 17.3 16.7 14.0 16.8 18.9 14.4 17.3 13.2 19.8 27.1 17.8 13.5 13.0 14.9 17.6 16.2 16.2 23.1 20.9 2015 19.9 23.7 17.8 20.0 21.3 16.3 29.1 16.2 16.3 14.3 21.7 30.3 19.3 12.8 17.3 15.7 20.7 18.0 22.6 18.3 2016 19.1 19.0 18.6 20.8 17.7 20.2 17.8 12.4 19.1 14.5 24.3 31.1 13.9 17.8 19.4 17.9 18.3 22.8 17.3

90 Stobart, B. et al. (2017) Western Zone Abalone Fishery

Table 6.37. Greenlip PropG1 from the Western Zone and SAUs, ordered by importance. Note empty cells denote no PropG1 estimate and abbreviations for reef (Rf) and region (RG).

High Medium Low Table 6.38. Greenlip PropG1 from the Western Zone and SAUs, ordered by importance. Note empty cells denote no PropG1 estimate and abbreviations for reef (Rf) and region (RG).

Season Zone Western Anxious Bay The Gap Avoid Bay Point Avoid Flinders Island Ward Island Drummond Taylors Island Reef Head Hotspot Baird Bay South Nuyts Point Westall Cove Memory Fishery Bay Cape Catastrophe Venus Bay SW Thistle Island Wedge North Nuyts Searcy Bay NE Thistle Franklin Islands Coffin Bay Neptune Islands Cape Bauer Rf DEntrecasteaux Bay Waterloo Sheringa Elliston Cliffs WZ Unassigned Pearson Island Sir Joseph Banks Greenly Island 1979 0.353 0.24 0.52 0.30 0.23 0.29 0.21 0.28 0.39 0.43 0.47 0.44 0.34 0.47 0.41 0.30 0.51 0.31 1980 0.407 0.40 0.63 0.48 0.30 0.39 0.57 0.31 0.52 0.44 0.25 0.33 0.36 0.66 0.63 0.65 0.33 0.59 0.26 0.40 0.59 Table1981 0.393 6.390.30. Greenlip0.45 0.28 0.25 PropG10.31 0.70 from0.30 the0.33 Western0.29 0.56 0.51 Zone and0.36 SAUs,0.43 0.52 ordered0.55 by0.39 importance.0.71 Note0.43 empty0.35 cells denote0.29 no 0.43 PropG1 estimate and 1982 0.436 0.38 0.62 0.43 0.36 0.27 0.32 0.54 0.37 0.32 0.28 0.65 0.50 0.74 0.73 0.61 0.63 0.45 0.50 0.28 0.39 abbreviation1983 0.445 0.36 s 0.61for reef0.43 (Rf)0.41 0.30and region0.27 (RG).0.32 0.41 0.31 0.31 0.38 0.55 0.63 0.69 0.47 0.54 0.92 0.37 0.39 0.51 0.70 0.44 0.82 1984 0.418 0.35 0.50 0.38 0.39 0.39 0.23 0.40 0.46 0.33 0.18 0.42 0.28 0.45 0.49 0.71 0.68 0.45 0.59 0.73 0.44 0.54 0.55 0.37 0.43 0.35 0.73 1985 0.476 0.28 0.71 0.47 0.49 0.37 0.39 0.30 0.56 0.37 0.26 0.36 0.50 0.27 0.68 0.72 0.70 0.48 0.63 0.52 0.40 0.45 0.23 0.56 0.49 0.57 1986 0.452 0.38 0.66 0.50 0.61 0.30 0.28 0.27 0.60 0.40 0.28 0.19 0.34 0.73 0.64 0.70 0.31 0.46 0.42 0.18 0.66 0.31 0.40 0.49 0.51 1987 0.422 0.19 0.64 0.38 0.45 0.48 0.33 0.26 0.56 0.21 0.20 0.17 0.16 0.67 0.57 0.68 0.38 0.63 0.54 0.41 0.13 0.66 0.32 0.69 0.17 0.48 0.34 1988 0.4 0.29 0.59 0.42 0.37 0.26 0.31 0.15 0.56 0.38 0.16 0.37 0.34 0.55 0.55 0.57 0.40 0.57 0.34 0.23 0.61 0.39 0.18 0.35 0.26 0.59 0.43 1989 0.404 0.31 0.58 0.32 0.47 0.31 0.32 0.31 0.58 0.29 0.31 0.22 0.13 0.40 0.55 0.64 0.69 0.58 0.50 0.67 0.24 0.29 0.46 0.29 0.71 0.27 0.49 Table1990 0.452 6.400.30. Greenli0.60 0.36p 0.37 PropG10.47 0.59 from0.09 the0.48 Western0.30 0.49 0.30 Zone0.52 and0.28 SAUs,0.61 0.69 ordered0.61 0.65 by0.56 importance.0.59 0.37 0.29 Note0.44 0.32empty cells denote0.39 no 0.57 PropG10.31 estimate and 1991 0.462 0.20 0.62 0.38 0.65 0.29 0.42 0.29 0.53 0.37 0.38 0.39 0.32 0.31 0.68 0.73 0.67 0.56 0.64 0.38 0.25 0.23 0.61 0.16 0.52 abbreviation1992 0.444 0.25 s 0.68for reef0.48 (Rf)0.46 0.34and 0.43region0.32 (RG).0.50 0.34 0.30 0.27 0.29 0.35 0.64 0.72 0.71 0.41 0.66 0.66 0.37 0.27 0.57 0.21 0.46 1993 0.505 0.28 0.63 0.64 0.60 0.37 0.47 0.49 0.58 0.36 0.36 0.30 0.48 0.42 0.53 0.60 0.74 0.49 0.58 0.49 0.28 0.64 0.41 0.33 0.65 1994 0.55 0.31 0.66 0.63 0.65 0.52 0.63 0.48 0.50 0.64 0.57 0.32 0.42 0.38 0.58 0.80 0.59 0.42 0.69 0.70 0.50 0.52 0.66 0.38 0.48 0.38 0.43 0.36 1995 0.521 0.22 0.67 0.42 0.61 0.45 0.59 0.45 0.61 0.43 0.38 0.46 0.62 0.50 0.62 0.62 0.56 0.46 0.50 0.68 0.50 0.52 0.63 0.51 0.62 0.31 0.41 0.54 1996 0.557 0.32 0.65 0.33 0.47 0.58 0.64 0.63 0.57 0.40 0.58 0.42 0.58 0.31 0.69 0.83 0.75 0.44 0.76 0.55 0.51 0.69 0.37 0.38 0.33 0.55 1997 0.567 0.31 0.67 0.42 0.61 0.50 0.62 0.53 0.60 0.46 0.59 0.50 0.65 0.34 0.59 0.72 0.81 0.57 0.58 0.61 0.49 0.66 0.62 0.57 0.54 0.41 1998 0.582 0.33 0.78 0.55 0.65 0.58 0.63 0.61 0.61 0.54 0.61 0.38 0.57 0.38 0.68 0.79 0.72 0.36 0.61 0.41 0.54 0.66 0.57 0.44 0.00 0.51 1999 0.583 0.45 0.72 0.54 0.63 0.55 0.60 0.63 0.47 0.52 0.46 0.46 0.57 0.47 0.59 0.83 0.83 0.43 0.68 0.48 0.57 0.48 0.46 0.47 0.37 0.80 2000 0.643 0.42 0.79 0.70 0.72 0.57 0.78 0.69 0.73 0.69 0.48 0.40 0.62 0.51 0.82 0.95 0.73 0.50 0.64 0.75 0.42 0.56 0.64 0.46 0.38 0.62 2001 0.609 0.57 0.73 0.69 0.81 0.55 0.62 0.74 0.68 0.61 0.48 0.66 0.53 0.52 0.78 0.60 0.65 0.40 0.75 0.44 0.77 2002 0.602 0.54 0.73 0.70 0.67 0.50 0.73 0.79 0.52 0.69 0.59 0.40 0.52 0.30 0.65 0.77 0.59 0.52 0.57 0.65 0.45 0.28 0.67 0.75 2003 0.61 0.43 0.75 0.57 0.65 0.50 0.77 0.66 0.62 0.64 0.63 0.47 0.71 0.40 0.57 0.87 0.79 0.70 0.47 0.44 0.42 0.26 0.72 0.70 0.72 2004 0.576 0.29 0.75 0.67 0.75 0.38 0.79 0.77 0.46 0.62 0.57 0.35 0.53 0.50 0.65 0.98 0.85 0.77 0.76 0.42 0.45 0.38 0.34 0.65 0.70 0.55 2005 0.668 0.43 0.83 0.84 0.91 0.41 0.80 0.74 0.77 0.75 0.66 0.58 0.46 0.67 0.80 0.55 0.72 0.38 0.75 0.61 2006 0.672 0.54 0.71 0.81 0.91 0.57 0.79 0.76 0.76 0.59 0.54 0.54 0.44 0.85 0.41 0.59 0.53 0.80 0.62 2007 0.638 0.56 0.77 0.85 0.90 0.47 0.70 0.81 0.61 0.91 0.43 0.38 0.40 0.51 0.93 0.45 0.47 0.35 0.44 0.84 0.63 2008 0.591 0.51 0.77 0.67 0.75 0.31 0.56 0.79 0.61 0.78 0.33 0.33 0.46 0.28 0.71 0.94 0.79 0.66 0.45 0.54 0.27 0.43 0.69 2009 0.636 0.51 0.80 0.72 0.81 0.48 0.61 0.75 0.56 0.83 0.38 0.60 0.41 0.58 0.74 0.92 0.84 0.87 0.72 0.78 0.46 0.71 0.50 0.47 0.61 0.93 2010 0.601 0.53 0.65 0.69 0.84 0.38 0.50 0.80 0.58 0.72 0.26 0.50 0.41 0.60 0.82 0.83 0.64 0.49 0.71 0.56 0.23 0.42 0.80 2011 0.654 0.55 0.79 0.71 0.74 0.60 0.48 0.62 0.75 0.74 0.44 0.40 0.60 0.77 0.82 0.74 0.62 0.73 0.50 0.70 0.34 0.73 2012 0.65 0.61 0.79 0.79 0.84 0.48 0.52 0.61 0.63 0.71 0.27 0.63 0.37 0.50 0.74 0.83 0.82 0.86 0.75 0.33 0.64 0.61 0.33 0.93 0.59 2013 0.588 0.56 0.70 0.64 0.73 0.50 0.48 0.50 0.54 0.67 0.49 0.45 0.61 0.66 0.82 0.71 0.66 0.48 0.41 0.62 0.31 0.84 0.46 0.56 0.56 0.76 0.88 2014 0.563 0.50 0.63 0.62 0.71 0.44 0.45 0.56 0.46 0.53 0.19 0.52 0.47 0.55 0.68 0.72 0.75 0.89 0.47 0.45 0.63 0.87 2015 0.667 0.55 0.74 0.74 0.71 0.51 0.79 0.71 0.63 0.62 0.43 0.65 0.58 0.73 0.86 0.92 0.80 0.72 0.77 0.67 0.57 0.64 2016 0.662 0.60 0.73 0.64 0.77 0.58 0.72 0.61 0.65 0.55 0.42 0.66 0.62 0.66 0.76 0.89 0.74 0.72 0.65 0.67 0.69 0.56 0.84

91