Tasmanian Abalone Haloitus ruber

1
Tasmanian AbaloneHaloitus ruber

• Fish 323

2
(No Transcript)
3
(No Transcript)
4
(No Transcript)
5
(No Transcript)
6
(No Transcript)
7
(No Transcript)
8
(No Transcript)
9
Overview

• Life History
• The industry
• Management
• History

10
Life history

• Adults found in shallow water up to 50 feet
• Grazers
• Broadcast spawners mature 4-10 years
• Pelagic larvae for several weeks
• Effective dispersal distance appears to be short
• Settle in cracks and crevices and stay they until
  they begin to mature

11
Key feature

• Adult movement very low
• Effective dispersal appears to be (in Tasmania at
  least) 10s of meters
• Abalone consist, therefore of thousands of
  meta-populations, that are loosely connected
• Food availability determines growth rate and size
  at sexual maturity habitat specific
• Appropriate size limit depends on growth rate

12
The industry

• Abalone (everywhere) are harvest by diving
• In Tas there are 125 licensed divers, each with
  about 20 tonnes of quota
• Price 30/kg - 600,000 in revenue
• Average catch rate 50 kg/hr
• Product is canned and fresh goes primarily to
  Hong Kong, Singapore and Taiwan
• Tasmanian abalone is the highest value and 25 of
  the world market

13
(No Transcript)
14
(No Transcript)
15
(No Transcript)
16
(No Transcript)
17
Management

• Limited entry (125) divers. Quota holders 400
  individual shares.
• Of a TAC set in 5 regions of Tasmania
• Size limits set by area set above the age of
  first reproduction
• This is the most common form of regulation for
  invertebrate fisheries

18
History

• Aboriginal diving early Chinese workers did
  some harvesting
• Commercial industry started in the early 60s
  with the first access to scuba gear
• 5 inch size limit and mandatory catch reporting
• By 1966, 1,000 tons and 144 divers
• Price 0.50/kg avg income 8,000
• 1968 limited entry, 120 divers 100 fee

19
More history

• 1974 licenses transferable by sale
• Value reached 100,000 by 1980
• 1985 ITQ system
• 1989 33 reduction in TAC
• 1997 20 increase in TAC
• Mid 2000s split between diving and quota
  ownership

20
Tony Harrison 1970
Two lessons were quickly learnt in far away
Tasmania we were near the head of the field,
secondly scientific knowledge was only one
pre-requisite for effectively managing fisheries.
Fisheries can be quite well managed with just a
basic understanding of the biology and behaviour
of the target species. They cannot be managed at
all without the political will to make
appropriate laws and a culture that accepts the
rule of law and is prepared to act accordingly.
In 1970 I saw little evidence of the Parliaments
in Europe and America being prepared to regulate
fishing effort that was already acknowledged as
being excessive. I returned much wiser but
comforted that at least so far as abalone was
concerned we had made most of the right moves so
far. A key role of the Director of Fisheries was
to strengthen that political will and to ensure
that when it is exercised the management measures
are effectively applied.
21
Particular problems of abalone

• Difficulty of stock assessment
• How to measure abundance?
• Need for small scale management
• High value and illegal harvesting

22
Stock assessment

• Early analysis used trends in CPUE
• What determines CPUE?

23
Abalone Catch per Hour
24
Abalone catches
25
Lesson

• Fishermen will move their effort so that the rate
  of return (economic, social) is the same in all
  locations
• Fretwell ideal free distribution
• So unfortunately CPUE tells you about
  alternative opportunities, not abundance
• Jeremy Prince and price

26
Jeremy Prince (on right)
27
CPUE before and after
28
Need for small scale management

• Small scale spatial variation in growth rate,
  maximum length and length at sexual maturity
• Normal pattern is for prime areas to be
  depleted first, because the growth rate is fast,
  abalone large, and sexual maturity above the size
  limit
• Do not recover because of small scale dispersal
  of larvae
• Slow growth areas stunted, where individuals
  dont reach the size limit, are never fished
• The size limit needs to differ for each bed

29
Why has the Tasmanian abalone fishery been
successful?

• TAC has been low enough that even without small
  scale management it is not overharvested
• Poaching minimized by isolation, small population
  size, divers with strong financial interest in
  policing the grounds
• Early application of limited entry and ITQ

30
Experience Elsewhere

• California closed and white abalone listed as
  endangered poaching
• BC closed for 30 years poaching
• New Zealand more successful, much like Tasmania
  but in some areas TAC has been too high and is
  being reduced.
• Japan cooperatives have beds do considerable
  planting of hatchery reared
• Mexico TURFs for cooperatives are successful

31
World wild abalone production
32
Aquaculture production
33
The proposal, TURFS

• Owners keep poachers out
• Owners do bed by bed assessment
• Territorial rights to allow owners to set the
  size limit for each bed
• Owners restock depleted beds by transfer from
  healthier areas
• Prince estimated double of potential yield

34
The most important form of marine conservation
used in Palau, and in many other Pacific islands,
was reef and lagoon tenure. The method is so
simple that its virtues went almost unnoticed by
Westerners. Yet it is probably the most valuable
fisheries management measure ever devised. Quite
simply, the right to fish in an area is
controlled and no outsiders are allowed to fish
without permission. Bob Johannes The words of
the Lagoon 1981
35
Where such tenure of marine fishing grounds
exists it is in the best interest of those who
control it not to overfish. Self-interest thus
dictates conservation. In contrast, where such
resources are public property, as is the general
case in Western countries, it is in the best
interest of the fisherman to catch all he can.
Because he cannot control the fishery, the fish
he refrains from catching will most likely be
caught by someone else. Bob Johannes The words
of the Lagoon 1981
36
Lessons from abalone

• Illegal fishing a problem with high value species
• Spatially structured stocks are difficult to
  assess
• Small scale management is necessary or would
  improve yields
• Traditional fisheries management tools are
  inappropriate and have rarely worked

37
Overview re elements of fisheries

• Biology small scale local populations
• Fishery small scale few individuals high value
  strong cohesion
• Management
• Allocation done now through ITQs and size limit
• Stock assessment rely on historical cpue and
  some research surveys of individual sites
• MCS important because of high value

38
What life history characteristics cause abalone
to be found in spatially discrete stock
units? What is the most common method of
regulating abalone harvest and why does habitat
dependent growth rates make this less effective
than it could be? Why is poaching such a problem
with abalone stocks? Why do licenses become so
valuable in ITQ fisheries? What are the
characteristics of a fishery regulated by
ITQs? Why is stock assessment of abalone so
difficult? Why is the CPUE for abalone so similar
over much of Tasmania. Why is CPUE for abalone on
the west coast of Tasmania higher than on the
east coast? What is the Ideal Free
Distribution? What causes CPUE in abalone to be
higher at deeper depths than shallower ones? Why
has the Tasmanian abalone fishery been more
successful than the California fishery?    
Names to know Tony Harrison Jeremy Prince