Other Rock Lobster Fisheries Sustainability

Southern rock lobsters occur over a vast area from the Chatham Islands, east of New Zealand to Augusta in the south west of Western Australia. The portion of the population in WA waters is at the outer limits of its range extension and as a result is probably prone to inconsistent recruitment. The southern rock lobster fishery in WA is centred around Esperance and has been commercially exploited since the late 1960s. Current catches in WA waters are about 80 tonnes per annum.

The WA southern lobster catches stabilised at about 20 tonnes per annum between the 1970s and 1980s, but since the 1990s commercial catches have rapidly escalated to their present level. The fishery is managed as three separate zones, and in two of those areas current effort levels are considered to be excessive and catches not sustainable.

In recent times a number of deep-sea crab species (in particular champagne and giant crabs) have become a focus of fishing attention, particularly in the Albany Zone. Currently, research is restricted to the monitoring of catch rates in the fishery, with some activity in the area of assisting with the design of a management plan for this fishery that is of an appropriate quality to satisfy Environment Australia requirements.

The project will:

* produce an annual assessment of the stock, utilising commercial catch and effort data, each year to be reported in the State of the Fisheries Report; and
* conduct annual presentations outlining research assessments of the fishery for professional fishers. These generally take place in August to October.

Time : Ongoing.