To provide quantitative measures of the impact of proposed Marine Protected Areas in South Australia on commercial landings of rock lobster, and to provide tools for the negotiation of specific MPA boundaries, so as to minimise the impact on rock lobster production, while still allowing protection of marine biodiversity.
Final report
A state and federal collaborative program (NRSMPAs) to establish marine protected areas (MPAs) is underway nationwide. This project examines no-take zones designated for state territorial waters which lie predominantly inside 3 nautical miles from shore.
In South Australia, the lobster industry peak bodies, in conjunction with state marine conservation NGO’s, have endorsed the position that harvesting rights (pots owned with associated license to fish) should be bought back (and thus be permanently removed from the fishery) in order that the effort displaced out of newly created no-take zones did not increase levels of exploitation in the remaining still-fishable habitat. This alliance of fishing industry and conservation lobby recommended a policy in state government, now adopted, that effort displaced from no-take areas should be removed in a one-off state government purchase of those harvesting rights.
The principal output of this project is an estimate of the number of licensed lobster pots needing removal to balance the average net yearly catch loss due to MPAs established. To achieve this aim there are two stages, namely Objectives 1 and 2 of this project. The first stage is to estimate the average historical catches per year in each spatial sub-block. The second stage, is to account for catch benefits from established no-take areas that lessen the loss of long-term catch.
Keywords: Marine Protected Areas, lobster fishery, catch loss, displaced effort, buy-out, emigration, stock-recruitment, density dependence
