Abalone stocks exist as a large number of metapopulations or sub-stocks each with peculiar growth and mortality characteristics. Hence different populations respond differently to exploitation through fishing. The sustainability of this fishery is linked to effective management of these meta-populations. For this reason, abalone catch and effort data should be collected on as fine a spatial scale as possible.

South Australia's catch and effort data is collected on the finest spatial scale of any abalone fishery in Australia. However, to date, analysis of the fine scale components of the data has been superficial simply as a result of the lack of tools to rapidly summarize and present data visually. Spatial and temporal analyses of these data will assist in the assessment of how individual sub-stocks have responded to fishing.

Across South Australia there are 35 abalone fishers fishing 7 different Total Allowable Catches (TAC's) on two species across 196 reporting areas. While the complexity of the data has to date precluded comprehensive analysis it also offers the potential for powerful insights into the dynamics of the fishery after more than 10 years of quota management.

In all fisheries, levels of catch and catch rates are two indicators used to attempt to evaluate and assess the response of stocks to exploitation through fishing. Declines in catches or catch rates are often interpreted as indicators of recruitment or growth overfishing and similarly increases in catches and catch rates may be interpreted as providing evidence that stocks are being sustained in the face of fishing or may even be under-exploited.