Knowledge to improve the assessment and management of Giant Mud Crabs (Scylla serrata) in Queensland.

The annual GVP of the Queensland Mud Crab Fishery is somewhere between $16 and $29M. Critical to the Harvest Strategy for the Queensland Mud Crab Fishery are processes for monitoring and assessing fishery performance. Currently, the empirical and estimated indicators for this fishery are based on non-validated harvest and effort and the fishery is assumed to be at low risk because of conservative management arrangements although this is not validated. This investment seeks to address some of the critical knowledge gaps in the Giant Mud Crab (GMC) lifecycle and gather appropriate quantitative biological information to develop (for the long-term) a means to cost-effectively monitor Queensland GMC populations that supports a data-moderate stock assessment approach to fisheries management.