I & I NSW Wild research Program ( flindersi)

Exploitation Status Fully Fished

A significant in the NSW Trawl . The stock is shared with the Commonwealth and the status of fully fished is consistent with the Commonwealth assessment.

Scientific name Standard name comment

Sillago flindersi eastern school whiting

Sillago flindersi Image © Bernard Yau

Background but recent catches, mainly by Danish seiners operating from Entrance in eastern Bass Eastern school whiting (also known as redspot , have been less than 500 t. whiting) occur in ocean waters to a depth of about 100 m, from southern to Both eastern school and eastern (Westernport Bay) and north- frequently occur together in -trawl eastern . Although there is some catches off northern NSW and, historically, evidence suggesting that there are two stocks fishers reported landings of both species as in this range with the division between the ‘school whiting’. New catch reporting forms ‘northern’ and ‘southern’ stocks in the Sydney which were introduced in July 2009, require – Jervis Bay area, current management assumes separate reporting of the two species. a single stock. It is an inshore demersal species In the early years of the fishery, school whiting caught almost exclusively by or Danish were mostly discarded by the NSW prawn seining (in Victoria). trawlers, and minimum codend mesh-size Eastern school whiting are reported to attain restrictions limited the catch by trawlers to a length of 32 cm, but few are seen exceeding very low levels. However, with the development 25 cm. Maturity occurs at about 2 years of age of export markets in the 1970s, annual landings and 15 cm in length, and they reach a length of by the prawn fleet increased to about 600 t about 25 cm after seven years. The bulk of fish by the mid 1980s before declining to around in catches are between 15 and 20 cm in length. 400 t in the early 1990s due to a softening of the export demand. With increased domestic With annual landings by the NSW Ocean Trawl and export demand, landings again increased Fishery exceeding 800 t per year, school whiting significantly to exceed 800 t per year by the late are the most important species (by weight) in 1990s. This increase has been largely driven by the fishery. In the Commonwealth managed the fish trawl sector which developed fish- Southern and Eastern Scalefish and Shark trawl gear to target whiting such that annual Fishery (SESSF), there used to be an annual landings of whiting by fish trawlers now almost Total Allowable Catch (TAC) of over 1000 t equal those by prawn trawlers.

status of fisheries resources in nsw, 2008/09 Eastern School Whiting | p 125 wild fisheries research program

Additional Notes Landings by Commercial Fishery of Eastern School Whiting • Landings for this species are sometimes confounded with stout whiting (Sillago Ocean Prawn Trawl (Primary Species) robusta) as the two species have overlapping Fish Trawl (Primary Species) distributions. 1200 • NSW landings have been relatively stable between 800 and 1000 t in recent years. 1000 • The Commonwealth assessment includes 800

NSW catch data - the species was not 600 Landings (t) considered overfished, nor experiencing 400 overfishing (Wilsonet al. 2009). 200 • There is no minimum legal length for eastern school whiting, but the species is included in 0 97/98 99/00 01/02 03/04 05/06 07/08 a combined recreational bag limit of 20 for all Financial Year whiting species. Reported landings of eastern school whiting by NSW commercial fisheries from 1997/98. Fisheries which contribute less than 2.5% of the landings are excluded Catch for clarity and privacy. Recreational Catch of Eastern School Whiting Catch Per Unit Effort Information of Eastern School The annual recreational harvest of eastern Whiting Harvested by Ocean Prawn Trawling in school whiting in NSW is likely to be less NSW than 10 t. This estimate is based upon the 1.0 results of the offsite National Recreational and Indigenous Fishing Survey (Henry and Lyle, 2003) and onsite surveys undertaken by 0.8 I & I NSW. 0.6

Historical Landings of Eastern School Whiting 0.4 Relative Catch Rate 1200 0.2 1000 0.0

98/99 00/01 02/03 04/05 06/07 08/09 800 Financial Year Catch rates of eastern school whiting harvested using 600 ocean prawn trawling for NSW. Two indicators are

Landings (t) provided: (1) median catch rate (lower solid line); and 400 (2) 90th percentile of the catch rate (upper dashed line). Note that catch rates are not a robust indicator of

200 abundance in many cases. Caution should be applied when interpreting these results. 0

88/89 93/94 98/99 03/04 08/09 Financial Year Commercial landings (including available historical records) of eastern school whiting for NSW from 1984/85 to 2008/09 for all fishing methods.

p 126 | Eastern School Whiting status of fisheries resources in nsw, 2008/09

Length Frequency of Eastern School Whiting Growth Curve of Eastern School Whiting

0.30 ●

1971/72−1973/74 25 ● ● ● ● ● n = 3032 ● ● ● ● ● 0.25 ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ●

20 ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● 0.20 ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● 0.15 ● ● ● ● ● ● ●

15 ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ●

Proportion ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● 0.10 ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ●

FL (cm) ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ●

10 ● ● ● ●

0.05 ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● 0.00

5 ● ● 5 10 15 20 25

● ● 0

0.30 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 1982/83−1989/90 n = 23 327 Age (years) 0.25 Age-length data with fitted growth curve for eastern

0.20 school whiting (internal data). Lengths are presented as fork length (FL). 0.15 Proportion 0.10 Further Reading 0.05 Broadhurst, M.K., D.J. Young, C.A. Gray and M.E.L. Wooden (2005). Improving selection in south 0.00

5 10 15 20 25 eastern Australian whiting (Sillago spp.) trawls: effects of modifying the body, extension and codend, Scientia Marina 69: 301-311. 0.30 1998/99−2004/05 Broadhurst, M.K., K.K.P. Dijkstra, D.D. Reid and C.A. n = 1210

0.25 Gray (2006). Utility of morphological data for key fish species in southeastern Australian -seine

0.20 and otter-trawl fisheries: predicting mesh size and configuration.New Zealand Journal of Marine and 0.15 Freshwater Research 40 (2): 259-272. Proportion

0.10 Broadhurst, M.K., R.B. Millar, M.E.L. Wooden and W.G. Macbeth (2006). Optimising codend configuration 0.05 in a multispecies demersal trawl fishery, Fisheries Management and 13 (2): 81-92. 0.00

5 10 15 20 25 Courtney, A.J., M.L. Tonks, M.J. Campbell, D.P. Roy, FL (cm) S.W. Gaddes, P.M. Kyne and M.F. O’Neill (2006). The length distribution of eatern school whiting landed Quantifying the effects of reduction devices in the 1970s comprised mainly larger fish (>20 cm fork in Queensland’s () shallow water eastern length (FL)) as smaller fish were discarded. Since the king prawn (Penaeus plebejus) trawl fishery.Fisheries expansion of markets in the 1980s the length distribution Research 80 (2-3): 136-147. of landed school whiting has been reasonably stable, comprising mostly fish between 15 and 25 cm FL. There Graham, K.J. (2008). The Sydney inshore trawl- is no minimum legal length for eastern school whiting in whiting fishery: codend selectivity and fishery NSW. characteristics. Fisheries Final Report Series No. 102. Cronulla, NSW Department of Primary Industries: 153pp.

Eastern School Whiting | p 127 wild fisheries research program

Graham, K.J., M.K. Broadhurst and R.B. Millar (2009). Effects of codend circumference and twine diameter on selection in south-eastern Australian fish trawls. Fisheries Research 95 (2-3): 341-349. Steffe, S., J. Murphy, D. Chapman, B.E. Tarlington, G.N.G. Gordon and A. Grinberg (1996). An assessment of the impact of offshore in New South Wales on the management of commercial fisheries. FRDC Project 94/053. Final report to Fisheries Research and Development Corporation. Sydney, NSW Fisheries Research Institute: 139 pp. Wilson, D., R. Curtotti, G. Begg and K. Phillips, Eds. (2009). Fishery Status Reports 2008: status of fish stocks and fisheries managed by the Australian Government. Canberra, Bureau of Rural Sciences & Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics.

Please visit the CSIRO website, http://www.marine.csiro.au/caab/ and search for the species code (CAAB) 37 330014, common name or scientific name to find further information.

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Disclaimer: The information contained in this publication is based on knowledge and understanding at the time of writing (April 2010). However, because of advances in knowledge, users are reminded of the need to ensure that information upon which they rely is up to date and to check currency of the information with the appropriate officer of Industry and Investment NSW or the user’s independent adviser. p 128 | Eastern School Whiting