Publication Date

1984

Series Number

Fisheries Report 66

Publisher

Department of Fisheries and Wildlife Westen Australia

City

Perth

ISBN

0 7309 0361 3

ISSN

0726 0733

Abstract

Perth herring fishery over the last 30 years have been examined. While there are pockets of catches between Broome and Bunbury, those from the Swan Estuary and nearby inshore marine waters make by far the most important contribution to the fishery. In the Swan Estuary, the catches started rising in the 1950s in response to a demand by the rock lobster industry for bait and reached peak values in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Data are provided which demonstrate that catch per boat is a good index of catch per unit effort (CPUE) in the period since 1967 when market demand has tended to stabilise. The CPUE in the Swan Estuary reached a peak in August and September at the time when Perth herring start moving from the sea towards their spawning grounds in the upper estuary, except when large catches were taken in nearby marine waters. A case is made for considering the Perth herring found in the Swan Estuary and local marine waters as a unit stock. Data are presented which indicate that, if this approach is valid, recruitment declined in the early 1980s following a period of high catches in local marine waters during the late 1970s.

Number of Pages

22

Keywords

Perth herring [Nematalosa Vlaminghi (Munro)], Fishery, Western Australia

Disciplines

Aquaculture and Fisheries | Marine Biology | Natural Resource Economics | Natural Resources and Conservation | Natural Resources Management and Policy | Sustainability

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