Oral Presentation Australian Society for Fish Biology Conference 2024

Revisiting the performance indicator for the South Australian Giant Crab harvest strategy (111279)

Kevin Mark 1 , Lachlan Mcleay 1
  1. Department of Primary Industries and Regions, South Australian Research and Development Institute, West Beach, South Australia, Australia

The fishing activity of Giant Crab (Pseudocarcinus gigas) in South Australia is data poor, such that population modelling is not supported. From 2018, the harvest strategy for the fishery depended on a five-year average of the statewide yearly catch-per-unit-effort metric as the primary biological performance indicator (BPI). As part of reviewing and refining performance indicators within the management policy, SARDI considered a standardised index of relative abundance. We present the catch rate standardisation methodology and how the new BPI based on this standardised index is used for the new harvest strategy, now separately for two zones instead of statewide. Using an index that is standardised now constitutes best practice. Making the BPI now be a three-year average will improve management responsiveness without compromising stability of the indicator, which is appropriate for a long-lived and slow-growing species. The creation of separate BPIs for the two regions allows for more refined spatial management through separate harvest strategies to account for possible different trends in abundance in the fishery.