Towards an Initial Quota for the Queensland Mud Crab Fishery

Abstract

Mud crabs in Queensland (principally Scylla serrata) are captured by baited pots. They are found mostly in estuaries and adjacent foreshores. Their populations are spatially variable and separated between the east coast and the Gulf of Carpentaria.

No previous stock assessment has evaluated the sustainability of mud crab harvests in Queensland. This stock assessment is new, using the modified catch-MSY method of Haddon et al. (2018) from Martell and Froese (2013). The model used data from 1988/89 to 2017/18. This comprised of annual commercial harvests, and an estimate of recreational harvest derived from state-wide phone-diary surveys.

The assessment provides estimates of exploitable biomass in 2017-18 and recommends Total Allowable Catches for the east coast and Gulf of Carpentaria stocks. The recommendations considered the biological sustainability of the stocks. Other objectives, such as social and economic, were not addressed in the analysis. However, they are important considerations when setting limits on harvests.