A retrospective analysis of the effects of adopting individual transferable quotas in the Tasmanian red rock lobster,Jasus edwardsii, fishery

Individual transferable quotas (ITQ) were implemented in the Tasmanian red rock lobster fishery in 1998 and ten years later we assessed the impacts on the fishery. Particular attention was devoted to investigating the performances of the fishery with regard to three features identified as major impacts in the literature: rationalization of the fishing fleet, change in fishing strategy in order to maximise the fisher’s profit and concentration of fishing rights and activity. On average, the fishery reacted as expected and reached its objective in terms of reconstruction of the biomass, but the overall assessment in terms of resulting profitability is not very conclusive. There is no evidence of decrease of the profitability over the period of the study but the fishery is more reactive to external factors on its export market in China than to changes in its own structure.The first author is supported by a PhD scholarship co-funded by IFREMER and the joint CSIRO-UTAS Quantitative Marine Science program (QMS

Developing cost-effective industry based techniques for monitoring puerulus settlement in all conditions: phase 2

A review of the Tasmanian puerulus program undertaken in 2008 involving government, industry and an external review identified that the current puerulus collectors were all on the East Coast (with the exception of King Island); despite the southern and western regions supporting the largest catches in the fishery. The review identified as a priority to "investigate options for collection on the west coast using boat-based collection and using the commercial fleet to reduce cost of collection". In phase 1 of this project a design for a deep water collector was developed through consultation with industry and prototypes of this design were constructed and tested in aquaria with captured pueruli, on the seafloor adjacent to an existing inshore shallow collector site on the east coast of Tasmania, and in deep water on the south and southwest coasts of Tasmania. The prototype collectors were successfully deployed, retrieved and serviced by vessels in the commercial lobster fleet and vessel masters reported that the design facilitated safe and efficient handling on deck. The prototypes collected significantly more puerulus than adjacent routine collectors in deployments at the shallow site and collected puerulus for the first time on the deeper and more exposed southwest coast of Tasmania. This phase 2 of the project saw deployment of a refined collector design onto reefs around Tasmania over 2 puerulus settlement seasons and provided evidence that; (1) puerulus settle in larger numbers in shallow inshore waters; (2) puerulus settlement in deeper water varies in space, time and depth around the Tasmanian coast (eg. Puerulus settlement was higher on the south coast than on the east coast in the 2016/2017 settlement season and puerulus settlement in waters deeper than 100m appears to be very low). When deployed alongside traditional diver based collectors, the fisher-serviced puerulus collector captures and retains more puerulus than traditional diver-based methods and is more cost-effective per collector. However, refinements to the design would be required for its use in inshore puerulus monitoring due to siltation issues from mobile sediments in exposed inshore locations. Despite experiencing lower catch rates than inshore settlement monitoring, the number and consistence of settlement on offshore deeper water collectors enabled similar temporal patterns of settlement to be determined. The deep water collectors also retained puerulus for similar periods to the traditional collectors. Consequently, deep water puerulus collection is a feasible alternative to costly inshore diver-serviced monitoring programs and would be expected to indicate similar trends in recruitment. Industry involvement in servicing offshore collectors during routine fishing operations greatly increases the cost- effectiveness of this approach; particularly if this support was provided without the requirement for financial compensation

Will we see you again? Population evaluation of Palinurus elephas inside a marine reserve from Capture-Mark-Recapture data

To achieve an effective management of the marine exploited populations it is necessary to understand their dynamics and the processes driving short- and long-term changes. Key population parameters such as survival and movement can be estimated by means of capture-mark-recapture studies, based on the capture, tagging and re-encounter of the individuals at later times. The Cormack-Jolly-Seber model, which assesses the apparent survival i and the recapture rate pi of a population conditional on first capture, was applied to European spiny lobster Palinurus elephas data from the Columbretes islands marine reserve to evaluate the evolution of this population after closure to fishing over. Particularly strong winter conditions were reported for some years during the period of study whcih were reflected as an increase in the estimate of the encounter probability and a decrease in their survival rate. P. elephas showed a relatively high plasticity against short-term environmental effects, with the apparent survival quickly returning to pre-storm levels. Also a slight increase in survival was identified for this protected population over time. These preliminary results are discussed in terms of the factors affecting the dynamics of this population and the implications for the management of this exploited stoc

Ocean warming hotspots provide early warning laboratories for climate change impacts

A growing literature describes a wide range of negative impacts of climate change on marine resources and the people and communities they support, including species range changes, changes in productivity of fisheries and declines in economic performance (Doney et al. 2012; Poloczanska et al. 2013). These impacts, many of which are projected to increase in future, are compounded by growing pressures on marine resources (Halpern et al. 2008; Maxwell et al. 2013). An estimated 260 million people are involved directly or indirectly in global marine fisheries (Teh and Sumaila 2013) with many of the resources for capture fisheries already fully (&57 % in 2009) or over exploited (30 %) (FAO 2012). Nevertheless, production of marine resources will need to increase to accommodate the demands of a growing population, and the impacts of climate change on food security will need to be minimised (FAO 2009). Identifying opportunities and threats, and developing adaptation options in response to climate change impacts in the marine realm, is essential for optimising the benefits that society can continue to derive from the goods and services provided by marine resources

Risk Assessment of Impacts of Climate Change for Key Marine Species in South Eastern Australia. Part 2: species profiles

[Extract] Blacklip and greenlip abalone form the basis of valuable fisheries in Tasmania, Victoria, South Australia and New South Wales (Figure 1.1). The Tasmanian abalone fishery is the largest wild abalone fishery in the world, producing more than 25% of the global catch (Miller et al. 2009). In 2008, the fishery had a gross landed value of $ 90 million. Blacklip abalone (BA), Haliotis rubra, is the predominant species harvested in Tasmania with 2461 t landed in 2008, compared to only 122 t of greenlip abalone (GA), H. laevigata (Tarbath and Gardner 2009). Since 2003, the BA fishery has been divided into five zones: Eastern, Western, Northern, Bass Strait, and Central West (Tarbath and Gardner 2009). The GA fishery is restricted to the north of the state and is managed by regions and separately from the BA fishery. In Victoria, approximately 1,200 t was landed in 2007/08, however, the current TAC is 774 t (2010/11). Catches are dominated by BA (96%) and the fishery is structured into three zones: Western, Central and Eastern. The South Australian fishery harvests approximately 880 t of abalone each year, about 60% of this is BA with the remainder comprising GA. Like Victoria, the South Australian fishery is divided into the Southern, Central and Western zones. Current annual catches in NSW were less than 75 t in 2009/10 and consist exclusively of BA. The commercial fisheries are assessed on a variable combination of commercial catch, effort and size-composition data, fishery-independent surveys and length-structured models. In Tasmania, 105,500 abalone were taken by recreational fishers in 2006/07, weighing an estimated 49 t. The number of recreational licenses has tripled since 1995, with 12,500 recreational diving licenses issued in 2007/08 (Lyle 2008). Recreational catches in SA are small, probably less than 1% of the TACC (Jones, 2009)

Autonomous adaptation to climate-driven change in marine biodiversity in a global marine hotspot

While governments and natural resource managers grapple with how to respond to climatic changes, many marine-dependent individuals, organisations and user-groups in fast-changing regions of the world are already adjusting their behaviour to accommodate these. However, we have little information on the nature of these autonomous adaptations that are being initiated by resource user-groups. The east coast of Tasmania, Australia, is one of the world’s fastest warming marine regions with extensive climate-driven changes in biodiversity already observed. We present and compare examples of autonomous adaptations from marine users of the region to provide insights into factors that may have constrained or facilitated the available range of autonomous adaptation options and discuss potential interactions with governmental planned adaptations. We aim to support effective adaptation by identifying the suite of changes that marine users are making largely without government or management intervention, i.e. autonomous adaptations, to better understand these and their potential interactions with formal adaptation strategies. © 2019, Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences

Risk Assessment of Impacts of Climate Change for Key Marine Species in South Eastern Australia. Part 2: species profiles

[Extract] Blacklip and greenlip abalone form the basis of valuable fisheries in Tasmania, Victoria, South Australia and New South Wales (Figure 1.1). The Tasmanian abalone fishery is the largest wild abalone fishery in the world, producing more than 25% of the global catch (Miller et al. 2009). In 2008, the fishery had a gross landed value of $ 90 million. Blacklip abalone (BA), Haliotis rubra, is the predominant species harvested in Tasmania with 2461 t landed in 2008, compared to only 122 t of greenlip abalone (GA), H. laevigata (Tarbath and Gardner 2009). Since 2003, the BA fishery has been divided into five zones: Eastern, Western, Northern, Bass Strait, and Central West (Tarbath and Gardner 2009). The GA fishery is restricted to the north of the state and is managed by regions and separately from the BA fishery. In Victoria, approximately 1,200 t was landed in 2007/08, however, the current TAC is 774 t (2010/11). Catches are dominated by BA (96%) and the fishery is structured into three zones: Western, Central and Eastern. The South Australian fishery harvests approximately 880 t of abalone each year, about 60% of this is BA with the remainder comprising GA. Like Victoria, the South Australian fishery is divided into the Southern, Central and Western zones. Current annual catches in NSW were less than 75 t in 2009/10 and consist exclusively of BA. The commercial fisheries are assessed on a variable combination of commercial catch, effort and size-composition data, fishery-independent surveys and length-structured models. In Tasmania, 105,500 abalone were taken by recreational fishers in 2006/07, weighing an estimated 49 t. The number of recreational licenses has tripled since 1995, with 12,500 recreational diving licenses issued in 2007/08 (Lyle 2008). Recreational catches in SA are small, probably less than 1% of the TACC (Jones, 2009)

Governance mapping: a framework for assessing the adaptive capacity of marine resource governance to environmental change

Marine social-ecological systems are influenced by the way humans interact with their environment, and external forces, which change and re-shape the environment. In many regions, exploitation of marine resources and climate change are two of the primary drivers shifting the abundance and distribution of marine living resources, with negative effects on marine-dependent communities. Governance systems determine ‘who’ makes decisions, ‘what’ are their powers and responsibilities, and ‘how’ they are exercised. Understanding the connections between the actors comprising governance systems and influences between governance and the environment is therefore critical to support successful transitions to novel forms of governance required to deal with environmental changes. The paper provides an analytical framework with a practical example from Vanuatu, for mapping and assessment of the governance system providing for management of coral reef fish resources. The framework enables a rapid analysis of governance systems to identify factors that can encourage, or hinder, the adaptation of communities to changes in abundance or availability of marine resources

¿Proporciona la setación de los Pleópodos un índice de madurez en hembras de Langosta de Tasmania, Jasus Edwardsii?

Processes affecting the estimation of the size at onset of maturity (SOM) using ovigerous setae were investigated in southern rock lobsters Jasus edwardsii. Comparison of estimates of SOM based on ovigerous setae in samples collected during summer months (December-March) with those based on the presence of external eggs from winter months (June-August) indicated that ovigerous setae provide an accurate classification of maturity. Females with partially developed setation on pleopods are frequently observed in research catch-sampling projects and their maturity status was unclear. Our results show that these females with partially developed setae are most appropriately classed as immature, based on comparison between estimates of SOM determined by presence of external eggs or setae. The seasonal timing of field sampling affected estimates of SOM based on ovigerous setae, though tag-recapture data indicated that this was not associated with a loss of setae during a second annual moult. Estimates of SOM for populations of Jasus edwardsii around Tasmania can be based on maturity classification using ovigerous setae but care should be taken to ensure that seasonal timing of sampling is consistent.Los procesos que afectan la estimación de la talla de inicio de madurez (SOM) utilizando sedas ovígeras han sido investigados en la langosta de Tasmania, Jasus edwardsii. La comparación de estimas de SOM basadas en sedas ovígeras en muestras obtenidas durante los meses de verano (diciembre-marzo) con aquellas basadas en la presencia de huevos externos durante los meses de invierno (junio-agosto) indicaron que las sedas ovígeras proporcionan una clasificación acurada de la madurez. Hembras con setación en los pleópodos parcialmente desarrollada son observadas frecuentemente en proyectos de investigación de muestreo de capturas pero la determinación de su estado de madurez no era clara. Nuestros resultados muestran que esas hembras con sedas parcialmente desarrolladas pueden ser consideradas como hembras inmaduras, basándose en la comparación entre las estimas de SOM determinadas por la presencia de huevos externos o de sedas. La selección del momento de muestreo de campo en relación con la estacionalidad afecta las estimas de SOM basadas en sedas ovígeras, no obstante, datos de marcado y recaptura indicaron que ello no estaba asociado con una pérdida de sedas durante una segunda muda anual. Estimas de SOM para poblaciones de Jasus edwardsii alrededor de Tasmania pueden ser basadas en la clasificación de madurez mediante sedas ovígeras, pero debe tenerse en cuenta que la realización estacional del muestreo de campo sea consistente