Understanding the relationship between commercial prawn species population dynamics, fishing patterns and climate in the Shark Bay World Heritage area in Western Australia

There is growing concern that the sustainability of the prawn fishery in the Shark Bay World Heritage area of Western Australia may be at risk due to a higher proportion of small prawns in commercial catches and fishery-independent recruitment surveys. The causes of change in prawn size and the magnitude of recruitment remain unknown. In response to this, the current project will adopt a multi-disciplinary approach to: 1. understand the impact of environmental parameters on the biology and distribution patterns of western king and brown tiger prawns; 2. understand the relative contribution of autumn and spring spawning stock to recruitment and subsequent catch and prawn size composition; 3. determine if predictive models of prawn carrying capacity can be based on information on ecological processes and primary productivity; and 4. develop prawn size related performance indicators for the Shark Bay Prawn Harvest Strategy.