No-take marine reserves in Moreton Bay were established to conserve and restore the structure and function of marine ecosystems and ensure sustainable social-ecological systems (Ross et al. 2019, this volume). Here, we review published literature to determine our current understanding of how no-take marine reserves (i.e. green zones) benefit fish, and shape ecological functions in numerous ecosystems within the Moreton Bay Marine Park. Over the past decade, 16 peer-reviewed studies have examined ‘reserve effects’ for fish and associated ecological processes in Moreton Bay; this work was mostly conducted in the central part of the Bay in coral reefs and seagrass meadows. Most studies showed enhanced fish abundance, diversity, or both, inside reserves and increases in the levels of functions performed by fish (e.g. greater grazing rates). The degree to which reserves enhance the abundance of fish and their functions was contingent on two key conditions. Reserves that were better connected (i.e. those in proximity to complementary habitat types and situated in a more complex seascape) and those located in clearer water typically perform better and may also be more resilient. Therefore, these two factors must be strongly considered during future deliberations about expanding or modifying reserves in Moreton Bay. We identify a number of information gaps that are likely to impede improvement to the current network of no-take reserves, namely, research on sandy and muddy bottoms, ocean beaches, fishing outside of reserves, and pivotal ecological functions other than herbivory. Reserve design and future rezoning can take advantage of the considerable body of evidence gathered on factors governing reserve performance for fishes, but reserve effects need to be examined for the numerous habitats that have been overlooked. How reserves shape a broader range of functions, productivity, habitat and ecological resilience needs to be investigated.

The Torres Strait tropical rock lobster, Panulirus ornatus (Fabricius, 1798), fishery is a culturally and economically important fishery. The Australian Commonwealth has an obligation under the Torres Strait Treaty to protect the traditional way of life and livelihood of Traditional Inhabitants, as well as promote employment opportunities for them. Management of the fishery is complicated by the high natural recruitment variability, and diving surveys have been used for the past 28 yrs to monitor changes in the size of the recruiting population. Here, we describe development of an empirical harvest control rule (eHCR) to achieve defined biological, economic and sociocultural objectives for the lobster fishery. A key principle is that fishery managers, fishers, and key stakeholders utilize pre–agreed upon and pretested rules to adjust management recommendations given updates of data. The performance of eHCR alternative candidates is evaluated using four alternative operating models, with 200 stochastic replicates each and 800 total simulations, accounting for observation error and implementation uncertainty. The eHCR adjusts recommended biological catches relative to a recent average, based predominantly on the logarithm of the slopes of recent trends in the preseason recruiting lobster, with lower weighting accorded to trends in recently-settled lobster and catch per unit effort (CPUE) from two fishing sectors. In addition, a maximum catch limit of 1000 t is set. The eHCR formula thus uses recent trends in survey and CPUE information to implement rapid, but precautionary, short- term adjustments needed to effectively manage a highly variable fishery.

Australia's lobster fisheries are relatively small in volume (9500t) compared with global production (289,000t), but are the country's most valuable in terms of both overall production and value of export (2014 Gross Value of Production of $610 million AUD). Further, they support commercial, recreational and indigenous fishers along most of the continent's coastline. Here we review similarities and key differences between these lobster fisheries, based on biological characteristics, fishery data collection, assessment and management methods, and supply chain considerations. A diverse range of palinurid lobsters occur in Australia, but only three genera, distributed across eight different management jurisdictions, support significant fisheries. Catches of western rock lobster Panulirus cygnus dominate landings (61%), followed by southern rock lobster Jasus edwardsii, tropical lobster Panulirus ornatus and the eastern rock lobster Sagmariasus verreauxi. Large-scale environmental influences such as climate change are impacting on these fisheries in similar or different ways forcing new management and raising the need for greater resilience in current supply chains. Although these are separate fisheries, the integrated nature of the dominant Chinese export markets suggests potentially important economic and market-related interactions. Our overview highlights the critical role of continued monitoring of recruitment pulses, in combination with robust harvest strategies, to ensure that harvests respond adequately and fisheries achieve biological and economic sustainability. Approaches that also include socio-cultural considerations (triple bottom line) are important given many fisheries include indigenous Australians. Our integrated analysis of Australian lobster fisheries highlights differences and similarities with spiny lobster fisheries worldwide and lessons from opportunities, including adapting to new free trade agreements, enhancing the reputation of wild lobsters as a whole, sharing expertise, and better alignment of supply and demand.

A bio-economic model was developed to evaluate aspects of proposed quota-based constraints vs the current effort control regulations for the tropical rock lobster, Panulirus ornatus, Fabricius, fishery in the Torres Strait (Australia/Papua New Guinea). The analysis integrates across biological, economic and social considerations. Model performance indicators have been chosen to reflect higher level policy objectives. The model simulation results indicate important trade-offs. There is lower overall fleet total profit (across all the subfleets), lower fishery total value added and lower total employment if the fishery is quota-constrained. This is due to an assumed rationalisation driven by incentives and current utilisation of capacity. The simulated re-allocation of quota from the commercial non-indigenous fleet allowing for greater potential indigenous fisher participation results in predicted increases in indigenous employment and would meet social objectives; however, due to limited capacity in the indigenous fleet, the simulated predicted lower catches led to lower total fishery profits and decreased total fishery value added within the supply chain. Investment in capacity could potentially offset this result.

A large gold mine has been operating at the Lihir Island Group, Papua New Guinea since 1997. The mine disposes of waste rock in nearshore waters, impacting nearby coral communities. During 2010, 2012 we conducted photographic surveys at 73 sites within 40 km of the mine to document impacts of mining operations on the hard coral communities. Coral communities close to the mine (similar to 2 km to the north and south of the mine) were depaurperate, but surprisingly, coral cover and community composition beyond this range appeared to be relatively similar, suggesting that the mine impacts were limited spatially. In particular, we found mining operations have resulted in a significant decrease in coral cover (4.4% 1.48 km from the disposal site c.f. 66.9% 10.36 km from the disposal site), decreased species richness and a predominance of less complex growth forms within similar to 2 km to the north and south of the mine waste disposal site. In contrast to the two 'snapshot' surveys of corals performed in 2010 and 2012, long term data (1999-2012) based on visual estimates of coral cover suggested that impacts on coral communities may have been more extensive than this. With global pressures on the world's coral reefs increasing, it is vital that local, direct anthropogenic pressures are reduced, in order to help offset the impacts of climate change, disease and predation. Crown Copyright (C) 2016 Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Most of the 2500 industrial-size mines operating around the world dispose of their tailings on land. For technical, spatial, and chemical reasons this is not always feasible, and attention has shifted to submarine tailings placement (STP) and deep-sea tailings placement (DSTP). Marine disposal presents numerous challenges that can have significant environmental impacts across a range of ecosystems. This review describes the processes at the basis of the disposal rationale and how these can affect its outcome, and outlines the ecological impacts that are associated with or interact with these processes. Mine waste disposal on to the seafloor appears to be poorly understood given the extent of its implementation. The uncertainty surrounding this method extends to our understanding of both biophysical processes and ecological impacts. For example, the potential role of vertically migrating species in transporting mine-disposed trace elements from deeper environments into the shallower surface layers has been largely overlooked, and, similarly, the nature, extent, and impact of secondary plumes that develop off the main tailings current are poorly described and quantified, as is their interaction with migrating biota. Furthermore, the vulnerability of deep-sea environments to human impacts and their potential for recovery remains largely unknown. Given the large degree of uncertainty around the impacts of this practice on a wide range of ecological communities, coupled with the high connectivity of both deep-water and pelagic environments, it is imperative that participating countries, the global scientific community, and managing entities act urgently to bridge these knowledge gaps, improve management practices, and take a more precautionary approach to the implementation of STP and DSTP.

Fishery-independent monitoring is invariably more costly than fishery-dependent monitoring but is justified on the basis of the value of the data for effective management, or is viewed as the only valid approach for setting Total Allowable Catches (TAC). However, the cost-benefit of fishery-independent monitoring is rarely explicitly assessed. Development of an integrated fishery model for the Torres Strait tropical rock lobster (TRL) Panulirus ornatus fishery provided the opportunity to assess the relative value of different combinations of fishery survey methods. Annual fishery-independent pre-season and mid-season surveys were compared with fishery-dependent data collection. All three methods are currently carried out or have been in place in the recent past. Typically, short-lived highly variable species such as TRL require both recruit and spawner biomass surveys. Using CPUE data only, and not carrying out either the pre-or mid season fishery independent surveys, resulted in lower and considerably less precise TAC estimates. When conducting both fishery-independent surveys a positive cost benefit ratio was realised if additional catch to the CPUE-based TAC estimate was greater than 14.8t (around 2% of TAC). TAC estimates based on independent fishery surveys were up to 20% greater than the model-predicted estimates using CPUE data alone. Including both independent fishery surveys returned a positive net present value over a 20 year timeframe even when randomly varying biomass, accounting for increasing survey costs, lower gross margins, and lower lobster prices.

The introduction of individual transferable quotas (ITQs) into a fishery is going to change not only the amount of catch a fleet can take, but often also changes the fleet structure, particularly if total allowable catches are decreased. This can have an impact on the economic, social and environmental outcomes of fisheries management. Management Strategy Evaluation (MSE) modelling approaches are recognised as the most appropriate method for assessing impacts of management, but these require information as to how fleets may change under different management systems. In this study, we test the applicability of data envelopment analysis (DEA) based performance measures as predictors of how a fishing fleet might change under the introduction of ITQs and also at different levels of quota. In particular, we test the assumption that technical efficiency and capacity utilisation are suitable predictors of which boats are likely to exit the fishery. We also consider scale efficiency as an alternative predictor. We apply the analysis to the Torres Strait tropical rock lobster fishery that is transitioning to an ITQ-based management system for one sector of the fishery. The results indicate that capacity utilisation, technical efficiency and scale efficiency are reasonable indicators of who may remain in the fishery post ITQs. We find that the use of these measures to estimate the impacts of lower quota levels provides consistent fleet size estimates at the aggregate level, but which individual vessels are predicted to exit is dependent on the measure used. Crown Copyright (C) 2013 Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Climate change is postulated to influence marine resources worldwide with consequent ramifications for the management of commercially important fisheries. There is a need to understand the likely impacts of climate change affecting the biology of fisheries at each of the different levels: (a) individual (reproductive potential, larval settlement, spatial distribution); (b) population (carrying capacity, productivity, spatial distribution); (c) multi-species (replacement of one fishery by another) and (d) ecosystem (dependent predator species, shifts in community composition). When addressing these problems it is important to integrate information across a range of dimensions pertaining to the resource and stakeholders, using a combination of biological, economic and social research elements. This is necessary for a better understanding of the likely changes to catches and in turn the possible socio-economic implications. We assessed the impact and likelihood of a range of plausible climate impacts on a number of lobster life history parameters, using the Torres Strait tropical rock lobster Panulirus ornatus as a case study. The hypothesised high risk effects of climate change were implemented through modifications to the lobster stock assessment model. Projected catches and an input output model of the Australian economy were used to determine the flow-on effects of climate-change impacts affecting this lobster fishery. We highlight the potential of this combination of quantitative and qualitative approaches as a pragmatic first step to exploring climate-change impacts on a fishery and summarise implications for management. Our results suggest that there may be positive as well as negative consequences. Our integrated methodology is a step towards linking the interrelation between different variables and fishery productivity, and quantifying the resultant socio-economic effects to fishers, their communities and national economies. Crown Copyright (C) 2012 Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Evaluating the success of natural resource management approaches requires methods to measure performance against biological, economic, social, and governance objectives. In fisheries, most research has focused on industrial sectors, with the contributions to global resource use by small-scale and indigenous hunters and fishers undervalued. Globally, the small-scale fisheries sector alone employs some 38 million people who share common challenges in balancing livelihood and lifestyle choices. We used as a case study a fishery with both traditional indigenous and commercial sectors to develop a framework to bridge the gap between quantitative bio-economic models and more qualitative social analyses. For many indigenous communities, communalism rather than capitalism underlies fishers’ perspectives and aspirations, and we find there are complicated and often unanticipated trade-offs between economic and social objectives. Our results highlight that market-based management options might score highly in a capitalistic society, but have negative repercussions on community coherence and equity in societies with a strong communal ethic. There are complex trade-offs between economic indicators, such as profit, and social indicators, such as lifestyle preferences. Our approach makes explicit the “triple bottom line” sustainability objectives involving trade-offs between economic, social, and biological performance, and is thus directly applicable to most natural resource management decision-making situations.

The Torres Strait Tropical Rock Lobster Fishery is exploited by a mix of Islander and non‐Islander fishers. While the former group dominates in terms of numbers of fishers, a disproportionate share of the nominal quota is held by the substantially smaller non‐Islander fleet. In 2011, the nominal quota allocation was 54:46 between Islanders and non‐Islander, with the Islander share increasing substantially since 2005 through a buy‐back of around half the non‐Islander fleet. Despite this increase, there is pressure within the Islander communities to further increase their share of the total quota. In this paper, we consider the relative value of a unit of quota to the Islander and non‐Islander fleets and the likely impact this will have on potential quota trade. We estimate production frontiers for the two groups of vessels to derive estimates of the marginal value product of the different fleet segments. From this, we determine if there are efficiency arguments for transferring additional quota to the Islander fleet. We conclude that economic incentives for individual Islanders to purchase quota from non‐Islanders are limited, and that some other form of reallocation system may be more successful in achieving the objective of an increased quota share to Islanders.

The Torres Strait Tropical Rock Lobster Fishery is exploited by a mix of Islander and non-Islander fishers. While the former group dominates in terms of numbers of fishers, a disproportionate share of the nominal quota is held by the substantially smaller non-Islander fleet. In 2011, the nominal quota allocation was 54:46 between Islanders and non-Islander, with the Islander share increasing substantially since 2005 through a buy-back of around half the non-Islander fleet. Despite this increase, there is pressure within the Islander communities to further increase their share of the total quota. In this paper, we consider the relative value of a unit of quota to the Islander and non-Islander fleets and the likely impact this will have on potential quota trade. We estimate production frontiers for the two groups of vessels to derive estimates of the marginal value product of the different fleet segments. From this, we determine if there are efficiency arguments for transferring additional quota to the Islander fleet. We conclude that economic incentives for individual Islanders to purchase quota from non-Islanders are limited, and that some other form of reallocation system may be more successful in achieving the objective of an increased quota share to Islanders.

This analysis of all carapace length measurements collected between 1989 and 2009, during scientific surveys, describes the variation of tropical rock lobster, Panulirus ornatus, somatic growth in Torres Strait. Multiple models of carapace length frequency distributions were compared by maximum likelihood to determine which hypotheses were most supported by the data. The best model assumed sex and cohort-specific Von Bertalanffy's parameters. These estimates are consistent with results derived from tagging data collected in the 1980s and provide new information on parameters' uncertainty. In the past two decades, growth rates have fluctuated inter-annually without displaying any distinctive trend. Associated uncertainties are large, suggesting that sampling will need to be intensified in order to detect an effect of climate change.

The tropical rocklobster fishery in the Torres Strait, based on the species Panulirus ornatus, is currently managed by input controls. The Australian Commonwealth government’s aim is to transition to a quota management system (QMS) for this fishery. The fishery is complex in terms of international boundaries, multiple jurisdictions and management objectives regulating a mix of commercial and traditional indigenous fishers and a commercial non-indigenous sector. One key objective is to promote indigenous fisher participation to meet their aspirations of achieving a greater control of the region’s fisheries resources. A Bayesian Network analysis has been applied that considers the variability in participation of indigenous fishers under key economic and socio-cultural drivers, such as the availability of a government employment program, lobster prices, social capital and capacity, and infrastructure availability. The model identifies three distinct indigenous fisher groups: full-time, active part-time, and casual lobster fishers. Scenario analyses suggest that changes in the government employment program will have a substantial impact on the relative proportion of fishers in these groups. Similarly, changes in the provision of logistics, infrastructure, and building social capital and capacity are expected to have a significant impact on the occurrence of full-time fishing. As the Commonwealth has an obligation under the Torres Strait Treaty to protect the traditional way of life and livelihood of Islanders as well as promoting employment opportunities for Traditional Inhabitants, it is important that management authorities consider both the effect of management changes for the fishery as a whole and for each indigenous fisher group separately.

Climate change presents significant challenges to modelling and managing aquatic resources. Equilibrium assumptions common in many modelling approaches need to be replaced by formulations that allow for changing baselines and integration of ongoing changes and adaptations by species, ecosystems and humans. As ecosystems change, so will the ways humans use, monitor and manage them. Consequently, adaptive management loops and supporting tools deserve more prominence in the management toolbox. Models are critical tools for providing an early understanding of the challenges to be faced by integrating observations and examining possible solutions. We review modelling tools currently available to incorporate the effect of climate change on marine and freshwater ecosystems, and the implications for management of natural resources. System non-linearity can confound interpretations and hence adaptive management responses are needed that are robust to unexpected outcomes. An improvement in the ability to model the effects of climate change from a social and economic perspective is necessary. The outputs from 'end-to-end' and socio-ecological models can potentially inform planning, in both Australia and the Pacific region, about how best to build resilience to climate change. In this context, the importance of well directed data-collection programs is also emphasised. Lessons from this region, which is advanced with regard to modelling approaches, can guide increased use of models to test options for managing aquatic resources worldwide.

Commercial catch-per-unit-effort (CPUE) data are often standardized to construct indices of stock abundance. The value of such standardization lies in the improvement in the proportionality between the derived index and true abundance. Using the Torres Strait rock lobster ( Panulirus ornatus ) fishery in Australia as an example, we first standardized the commercial CPUE data using a generalized linear model (GLM) and then fitted observation error models to the resulting abundance indices and independent abundance data (as estimated by research diver surveys) to examine the proportionality. While the GLM standardization greatly improved proportionality in comparison with the nonstandardized commercial catch rates, it could produce biased results if the model did not explicitly incorporate variables that had caused changes in fishing efficiency. As most catch–effort standardizations do not model the fishing power component simultaneously, this result may serve as a warning to the potential bias in stock abundance indices extracted from GLMs that are underfitted.

The shared Torres Strait rock lobster (Panulirus ornatus) fishery provides important income for commercial and traditional fishers in Australia and Papua New Guinea. The lobster stock is first fished in Torres Strait by divers from both countries and then becomes vulnerable to Australian prawn trawlers, followed by Papua New Guinea trawlers during its annual breeding migration. Lobster catch sharing arrangements are governed by the Torres Strait Treaty ratified in 1985, but the sequential trawling of breeding lobsters has been controlled by bilateral agreements. A trawl ban was implemented in 1984 in both countries to conserve the breeding stock, but some trawling has been conducted in the Gulf of Papua since then and there is renewed interest in Papua New Guinea to resume trawling. To evaluate the impact of trawling migratory breeding lobsters on the lobster fishery, a model that combines a cohort depletion model with a stock recruitment relationship was developed in this study. The model showed that when the fishery is fully or over-exploited by the dive fishery, trawling breeding lobsters would reduce both the spawning stock and the total catch of the fishery. The reduction in catch would increase with increasing fishing mortality. If trawling occurred on the Papua New Guinea side only, a redistribution of catch between Australia and Papua New Guinea would result in a small gain in catch for Papua New Guinea at the expense of the Australian dive fishery. But when fishing mortality reaches a certain level, any trawling in any country will incur catch loss to both countries. For the long-term sustainability and maximum production of the fishery, regulations should be implemented in both countries under a co-management scheme of a shared fish stock.

The ornate rock lobster (Panulirus ornatus) is distributed across Torres Strait between Australia and Papua New Guinea and supports the most important commercial fishery to Islanders in the region. The long-term sustainability of the fishery is of importance not only to local island communities but also to the bilateral relationship between the two countries. In this paper, we developed an age-structured fishery model to assess the current stock status and estimate the long-term sustainable catch. The model was fitted to catch statistics and survey-based population estimates through a weighted maximum likelihood approach. Natural mortality was estimated at 0.732 yr−1, and fishing mortality ranged from 0.19 to 0.65 yr−1 from 1989 to 2005. The maximum sustainable yield was estimated at about 640 tonnes whole weight with a corresponding fishing mortality of 0.5 yr−1. A stock–recruitment model was established based on outputs of the stock assessment model. To obtain the maximum sustainable yield, spawning stock should be maintained at 120×104 lobsters. The lobster spawning stock has been fished down below this level twice since 1989, in 1999 and 2002, and was higher than this level in 2004 and 2005. These results suggest that the Torres Strait lobster stock is not over-fished and that the current harvest strategy is likely to maintain the stock at or above the level that would support the maximum sustainable yield if the current cap on fishing effort remains in place.