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Executive Summary
The project sampled Spanish mackerel captured by recreational
and commercial fishers from four spatially discrete coastal regions (Townsville,
Mackay, Rockhampton and south-east Queensland) on the Queensland east
coast. Data was collected on the length, sex and age structure of catches
as well as information on what fishing gears were used to harvest Spanish
mackerel.
The information presented in this report is a summary
of biological catch sampling that was facilitated by the voluntary participation
of fishers from recreational and commercial fishing sectors. Recent preliminary
assessments of the status of east coast Spanish mackerel fishery identified
a distinct lack of suitable information with which to parameterise assessment
models. Further the outcomes of the assessments were bleak with outputs
surrounded with uncertainty and the fishery concluded to be fully exploited.
Advice to management was to proceed cautiously and conservatively until
better quality information was available to parameterise assessment models
with greater certainty. This project has collected some of this needed
data and information.
Recent catch data for the recreational and commercial
fishing sectors indicates that between 680-850t and 380-720t are landed
per annum by each sector respectively. Previous to this research
no information was available to describe the biological characteristics
of the recreational sector harvest and information describing the characteristics
of the commercial sector harvest was limited both spatially and temporally.
The project identified biological characteristics of harvested
catches of Spanish mackerel on the east coast of Queensland vary with
both fishing sector and coastal region. The commercial fishing sector
lands a more selective component of the east coast Spanish mackerel resource
than the recreational fishery. In harvesting Spanish mackerel, commercial
fishers are faced with marketing considerations with landed catches dominated
by specific length and age ranges of mackerel. Conversely, recreational
fishers largely harvest mackerel opportunistically targeting mackerel
when and where they are available for exploitation. Consequently, the
landed catches of the recreational fishing sector tend to be more diverse
in length and age structure. Regional analysis demonstrated biological
characteristics of commercial catches were stable between regions relative
to the variable nature of the recreational catch characteristics between
the same regions.
On the basis of data collected by the project and some
data collected by the RFISH program of the Queensland Fisheries Service,
the appropriateness of current size limits and bag limits are discussed.
In conclusion, the project has defined important resource
parameters that will ensure future stock assessments of the east coast
Spanish mackerel fishery are completed with far greater certainty than
is currently available. Further, the project has collected data that describes
the harvesting selectivity's of both the recreational and commercial fishing
sectors that will allow future monitoring of the status of this important
resource to be better targeted.
Download a complete copy of the report (Adobe Acrobat file 1.27MB).
For a hard copy of the report contact CRC Reef on info@crcreef.com.
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