Development of a trawl fishery for deepwater metanephropid lobsters off the northwest continental slope of Australia: designing a management strategy compatible with species life history

A trawl fishery has developed on the northwestern continental slope of Australia since 1983 for four species of metanephropid (Metanephrops australiensis, M. velutinus, M. boschmai, and M. sibogae). Monitoring of commercial trawl catches between 1986 and 1989 has provided information about catch and effort trends, species distributions, catch composition, growth rates, and reproduction. These data are compared with those on Nephrops norvegicus. Management and harvesting strategies for the fishery are discussed, with consideration of the available fishery statistics and biological information