Lessons from long-term monitoring of tropical rock lobsters to support fisheries management

Abstract

Fishery-independent scientific surveys are highly valuable for monitoring lobsters and other fisheries. Yet, there are relatively few long-term monitoring surveys to support the provision of management advice. A number of challenges can prevent the continuity of long-term monitoring series. This paper uses the 35-year continuous annual dive surveys for Australia’s Torres Strait tropical rock lobster (TRL) to overview strengths and limitations of a long-term scientific survey, as well as lessons learnt from having overcome a range of challenges. Fishery-independent surveys are more reliable than fishery-dependent data and are more robust to external shocks such as market drivers and fuel prices. The primary purpose of the surveys is to provide a reliable index of stock abundance together with data to inform on size and age structure, plus model parameters and reference points. Here, we also highlight additional survey benefits including: yielding positive gains relative to cost, facilitating an adaptive management approach that serves as an early warning system, reducing and resolving inter-sector conflicts, reduced frequency of stock assessments, providing data from associated habitat monitoring, improved stakeholder buy-in, utility for development of Operating Models for Management Strategy Evaluation, contribution to achieving certification, contributing to biodiversity agreements and consistent cross-jurisdictional monitoring. We analyse lessons learnt from challenges such as changes in resource management, budget cuts, increased health and safety requirements, maintenance of capability and staff capacity, stakeholder buy-in, need to validate survey results, a pandemic and changing climate. Our experiences highlight why long-term scientific surveys are considered the gold standard for fisheries monitoring and we provide insights for building and maintaining key marine monitoring series.