Assessing the management-related benefits of fixed-station fishery-independent surveys in Australia's Southern Shark Fishery

Monte Carlo simulation is used to assess the benefits of different levels of survey intensity for a programme of fixed-station surveys using gill-nets, in terms of the ability to satisfy the management objectives for gummy shark, Mustelus antarcticus, in Bass Strait, Australia. The simulations consider the entire management process: data collection, data analysis, stock assessment, and setting of total allowable catches (TACs). The use in assessments of survey results rather than future commercial catch rates leads to a marked improvement in the ability to satisfy the legislative management objective for Australian fisheries of Ecological Sustainable Development, especially if future catch rates are not related linearly to abundance or if catchability is density-dependent. The benefits of more than six stations per survey site appear limited, however, because of the possible impact of variability in survey results due to factors unrelated to sampling. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.