Stock assessment of pelagic bait fishes in southern Queensland with special reference to pilchards (Sardinops sagax)

Abstract

The pilchard fisheries of Australia expanded rapidly during the 1980s and 1990s and the need for biological information to facilitate ecologically sustainable development of the fisheries led to the initiation of projects funded by the Fisheries Research and Development Corporation (FRDC). The aims of the projects described for southern Queensland were: to examine the species composition of purse-seine catches; to describe the size structure of the species caught by purse-seining and determine the age-structure of the pilchard population; to identify the location and timing of clupeoid spawning; to estimate the spawning biomass of pilchards using the Daily Egg Production Method; to examine the potential impacts of a purse-seine fishery on populations of bait fish and on other stakeholders; to develop and assess methods for preventing the encirclement and mortality of dolphins in purse-seine nets and to examine the potential yield of a purse-seine fishery for pilchards.