Towards Ecologically Sustainable Management of the Torres Strait Prawn Fishery. CRC Torres Strait Task T1.5 – Final Report

Abstract

This publication, which is the final report to the Torres Strait Cooperative Research Centre, provides an overview of all the research that was conducted as part of the Torres Strait CRC Task 1.5 - Towards Ecologically Sustainable Management of the Torres Strait Prawn Fishery

The objectives of the task were:

To develop cost-effective protocols to monitor and quantify the bycatch and environmental impacts of commercial prawn trawling.

To monitor the status of target species using both fishery dependent and fishery independent data.

To develop biological reference points for target species and undertake management strategy evaluation, in particular a risk assessment of fishing at various levels of fishing mortality.

This report focuses on the second component of objective 1 and details a comparative analysis of bycatch samples collected from areas of the Torres Strait that were both closed and open to prawn trawl fishing. The report also reviews the research conducted in relation to objectives 2 and 3 which are detailed in a separate report, Stock Assessment of the Torres Strait Tiger Prawn Fishery (Penaeus esculentus).