Ensuring monitoring and management of bycatch in Southern Rock Lobster Fisheries is best practice Rafael León, Nicholas Perkins, Lachlan McLeay, David Reilly, Steven Kennelly November 2019 FRDC Project No 2017-082 © 2019 Fisheries Research and Development Corporation. All rights reserved. ISBN 978-1-925983-58-6 Ensuring monitoring and management of bycatch in the Southern Rock Lobster fisheries is best practice FRDC project 2017-082 2019 Ownership of Intellectual property rights Unless otherwise noted, copyright (and any other intellectual property rights, if any) in this publication is owned by the Fisheries Research and Development Corporation [and if applicable insert research provider organisation/s e.g. CSIRO Marine Research] This publication (and any information sourced from it) should be attributed to Leon, R., Institute of Marine and Antarctic Studies University of Tasmania, 2020, Ensuring monitoring and management of bycatch in Southern Rock Lobster fisheries is best practice, Canberra, May. CC BY 3.0] Creative Commons licence All material in this publication is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Australia Licence, save for content supplied by third parties, logos and the Commonwealth Coat of Arms. Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Australia Licence is a standard form licence agreement that allows you to copy, distribute, transmit and adapt this publication provided you attribute the work. A summary of the licence terms is available from creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/au/deed.en. The full licence terms are available from creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/au/legalcode. Inquiries regarding the licence and any use of this document should be sent to: [email protected] Disclaimer The authors do not warrant that the information in this document is free from errors or omissions. The authors do not accept any form of liability, be it contractual, tortious, or otherwise, for the contents of this document or for any consequences arising from its use or any reliance placed upon it. The information, opinions and advice contained in this document may not relate, or be relevant, to a readers particular circumstances. Opinions expressed by the authors are the individual opinions expressed by those persons and are not necessarily those of the publisher, research provider or the FRDC. The Fisheries Research and Development Corporation plans, invests in and manages fisheries research and development throughout Australia. It is a statutory authority within the portfolio of the federal Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry, jointly funded by the Australian Government and the fishing industry. Researcher Contact Details FRDC Contact Details Name: Rafael Leon Address: 25 Geils Court Address: Institute of Marine and Antarctic Studies, Taroona Deakin ACT 2600 Private Bag 49 Hobart TAS 7001 Phone: 02 6285 0400 Phone: 03 6228209 Fax: 02 6285 0499 Email: [email protected] Email: [email protected] Web http://www.imas.utas.edu.au/ Web: www.frdc.com.au In submitting this report, the researcher has agreed to FRDC publishing this material in its edited form. Contents Contents ..................................................................................................................... i Tables ........................................................................................................................ iv Acknowledgments ................................................................................................. xiii Abbreviations ......................................................................................................... xiii Executive Summary ............................................................................................... xiv Introduction ............................................................................................................... 1 General .................................................................................................................. 1 Definitions .............................................................................................................. 1 The Southern Rock Lobster Fishery ...................................................................... 2 Need ...................................................................................................................... 4 Objectives .................................................................................................................. 6 Methods ..................................................................................................................... 7 1. Comparison of current bycatch data collection and monitoring protocols and practices with industry best practice and exploratory data analysis ....................... 7 1.1 Comparing the consistency of current bycatch reporting compared to international best practice data collection standards ........................................ 7 1.2 Statistical exploration of the temporal and spatial consistency of bycatch data collection across the fishery and identification of key species, trends and patterns ..................................................................................................... 8 2. Risk assessment for bycatch, byproduct and TEPS across the Southern Rock Lobster Fishery ...................................................................................................... 9 2.1 An overview of the ecological risk assessment for the effects of fishing ..... 9 2.2 Productivity and Susceptibility Analysis (PSA) - an overview ................... 11 2.3 PSA for the Southern Rock Lobster fishery .............................................. 13 3. Quantitative analysis of risk posed to species identified as being at higher risk ............................................................................................................................. 19 3.1 Scaling up estimates to the commercial fishery ........................................ 19 3.2 Data poor stock assessments ................................................................... 24 Results ..................................................................................................................... 27 i 1.1 Comparing the consistency of current bycatch reporting compared to international best practice data collection standards ........................................... 27 1.2 Statistical exploration of the temporal and spatial consistency of bycatch data collection across the fishery and identification of key species, trends and patterns ................................................................................................................ 31 South Australia ............................................................................................... 31 Victoria ........................................................................................................... 36 Tasmania ........................................................................................................ 41 2. Results of the risk assessment for bycatch, byproduct and TEP species across the Southern Rock Lobster fishery ........................................................... 47 Byproduct species .......................................................................................... 47 Bycatch species .............................................................................................. 48 TEPS .............................................................................................................. 49 Priority species for further analysis ................................................................. 51 3.1 Scaling up of biomass estimates to the commercial fishery ........................... 53 Draughtboard Shark ....................................................................................... 53 Leatherjackets ................................................................................................ 55 Ocean Perch................................................................................................... 59 Blue-throat Wrasse ......................................................................................... 60 Conger Eel...................................................................................................... 63 3.2 Data poor stock assessments for medium risk species ................................. 66 Data poor stock assessments ......................................................................... 66 Victoria ........................................................................................................... 66 Tasmania ........................................................................................................ 72 Alternative approaches to determining reference points ...................................... 78 Inter-annual change in CPUE ......................................................................... 78 Victoria ........................................................................................................... 81 Tasmania ........................................................................................................ 84 Trends in the time-series of bycatch ............................................................... 86 Discussion ............................................................................................................... 88 Ensuring data collection and management is best practice ................................. 88 Improvements to the observer program .........................................................