Assessment of the South Australian Marine Scalefish Fishery in 2016 MA Steer, AJ Fowler, R McGarvey, J Feenstra, EL Westlake, D Matthews, M Drew, PJ Rogers and J Earl SARDI Publication No. F2017/000427-1 SARDI Research Report Series No. 974 SARDI Aquatics Sciences PO Box 120 Henley Beach SA 5022 January 2018 Report to PIRSA Fisheries and Aquaculture Steer, M. et. al. (2018) MSF Assessment Report Assessment of the South Australian Marine Scalefish Fishery in 2016 Report to PIRSA Fisheries and Aquaculture MA Steer, AJ Fowler, R McGarvey, J Feenstra, EL Westlake, D Matthews, M Drew, PJ Rogers and J Earl SARDI Publication No. F2017/000427-1 SARDI Research Report Series No. 974 January 2018 II Steer, M. et. al. (2018) MSF Assessment Report This publication may be cited as: Steer, M.A., Fowler, A.J., McGarvey, R., Feenstra, J., Westlake, E.L., Matthews, D., Drew, M., Rogers, P.J. and Earl, J. (2018). Assessment of the South Australian Marine Scalefish Fishery in 2016. Report to PIRSA Fisheries and Aquaculture. South Australian Research and Development Institute (Aquatic Sciences), Adelaide. SARDI Publication No. F2017/000427-1. SARDI Research Report Series No. 974. 250pp. 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. 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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. SARDI Publication No. F2017/000427-1 SARDI Research Report Series No. 974 Author(s): MA Steer, AJ Fowler, R McGarvey, J Feenstra, EL Westlake, D Matthews, M Drew, PJ Rogers and J Earl Reviewer(s): S Mayfield, TM Ward, C Noell (SARDI) and J Presser, K Rowling, J McPhail (PIRSA) Approved by: S Mayfield Science Leader - Fisheries Signed: Date: 16 January 2018 Distribution: PIRSA Fisheries and Aquaculture, SAASC Library, Parliamentary Library, State Library and National Library Circulation: Public Domain III Steer, M. et. al. (2018) MSF Assessment Report TABLE OF CONTENTS TABLE OF CONTENTS .............................................................................................................................................. IV ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ........................................................................................................................................... XII EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ............................................................................................................................................... 1 1. INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................................................................... 5 1.1. OVERVIEW ...................................................................................................................................................... 5 1.2. DESCRIPTION OF THE FISHERY .......................................................................................................................... 6 1.3. MANAGEMENT ARRANGEMENTS ........................................................................................................................ 7 1.4. MANAGEMENT PLAN ........................................................................................................................................ 7 1.5. HARVEST STRATEGIES ..................................................................................................................................... 8 1.6. FISHERY PERFORMANCE INDICATORS ................................................................................................................ 8 1.7. ALLOCATION ................................................................................................................................................... 9 1.8. STOCK STATUS CLASSIFICATION ....................................................................................................................... 9 2. FISHING FLEET DYNAMICS ............................................................................................................................. 11 2.1. INTRODUCTION .............................................................................................................................................. 11 2.2. METHODS ..................................................................................................................................................... 11 2.3. RESULTS ...................................................................................................................................................... 13 2.3.1. Trends in Number of Active Licences ................................................................................................ 13 2.3.2. Trends in Commercial Catch.............................................................................................................. 13 2.3.3. Trends in Fishing Effort ...................................................................................................................... 15 2.4. DISCUSSION .................................................................................................................................................. 21 3. KING GEORGE WHITING STOCK ASSESSMENT ........................................................................................... 22 3.1. INTRODUCTION .............................................................................................................................................. 22 3.1.1. Fishery ............................................................................................................................................... 23 3.1.2. Harvest Strategy ................................................................................................................................ 23 3.1.3. Management Regulations .................................................................................................................. 24 3.2. METHODS ..................................................................................................................................................... 24 3.2.1. Data Sources ..................................................................................................................................... 24 3.2.2. ‘WhitEst’ Fishery Model ..................................................................................................................... 25 3.2.3. Assessment of Fishery Performance ................................................................................................. 26 3.3. RESULTS ...................................................................................................................................................... 28 3.3.1. Commercial Fishery Statistics ............................................................................................................ 28 3.3.2. Fishery Performance .......................................................................................................................... 38 3.4. DISCUSSION .................................................................................................................................................. 39 3.4.1. Context of this Assessment ............................................................................................................... 39 3.4.2. Determination of Stock Status............................................................................................................ 40 3.4.3. Stock Status ....................................................................................................................................... 42 3.4.4. Assessment Uncertainties ................................................................................................................. 44 3.4.5. Future Work ....................................................................................................................................... 45 4. STOCK STATUS OF KEY MARINE SCALEFISH SPECIES ............................................................................