Total allowable commercial catch review for Queensland spanner crab (Ranina ranina), with data to December 2023

Abstract

This report was prepared to inform on the total allowable commercial catch (TACC) of spanner crabs in managed area A for the forthcoming two quota years 1 July 2024 to 30 June 2025 and 1 July 2025 to 30 June 2026.

The harvest strategy used standardised commercial (sCPUE) and fishery independent survey (sFIS) catch rates from two years, compared against target rates, to calculate TACC. The average 2022–2023 catch rate indicators from two years, standardised using generalised linear models, were: sCPUE = 0.754 kilograms per dilly-net lift and sFIS = 5.913 crab per ground-line.

The stock indices were the ratio of the indicators compared to their targets. The calculated stock indices were less than 1, signalling catch rates were below target: sCPUE ratio = 0.546 and sFIS ratio = 0.567. The pooled index was 0.556 (average of the two stock indices). The pooled index means that the fishery was at 56% of its target.