A recent assessment suggested that the pearl perch stock extending from Queensland into New South Wales waters needs a period of recovery. However, to make evidence-based decisions, fishery managers need knowledge of the pearl perch’s spawning dynamics to devise appropriate harvest strategies that increase egg production and, therefore, build the stock biomass.

To obtain a thorough understanding of these spawning dynamics, this project will:

• collect relevant biological information pertaining to the spawning dynamics of pearl perch;
• supplement current information with fishery-independent data to better define temporal and spatial spawning patterns over the entire extent of the species’ distribution; and
• identify areas likely to support spawning aggregations, if any, and to assess the movement to and from these spawning aggregations.