Review of fish and invertebrate by-catch in trawl fisheries in Division 58.5.2

This paper presents estimates of the total removals of fish and invertebrate bycatch by fishing season and fishing ground, from the D. eleginoides and C. gunnari trawl fisheries in Division 58.5.2. On average, 94 % of hauls in the D. eleginoides fishery and 93% of hauls in the C. gunnari fishery were observed. The percentage of observed hauls was used as a scaling factor to convert observed bycatch weights to estimates of total bycatch removed from the fishery. Bycatch in these trawl fisheries is very low. From 1996/97 to 2001/02, a total of 95 tonnes of bycatch was caught in the D. eleginoides fishery and 46 tonnes in the C. gunnari fishery. These values represent 1 and 2% respectively, of the total catch weight (target and non-target species) in each fishery. The composition of the bycatch is described by fishing ground and fishery. The operation of the ‘move-on’ rule, which aims to minimise localised depletion of bycatch is also discussed.