ABSTRACT
The red rock lobster supports the most valuable in shore commercial fishery in New Zealand, with exports worth about NZ$200 million and is also valuable to recreational and customary Maori fishers. The stakeholder management group mitigates this problem by adopting management procedures (MPs), which allow a change in the total allowable commercial catch (TACC) every year if necessary, even with no stock assessment. Usually the MP evaluation process takes place in conjunction with a stock assessment and the fitted assessment model is used as an operating model. In theory, utility functions could be developed to score MPs by their various performance indicators. MP evaluation results are then analysed to determine the joint probability, for each tested MP, of meeting these minimum levels. In the rock lobster fishery, there has been a shift in thinking towards the strategic. Financial and scientific resources are limited: the costs of assessment, management and compliance are borne largely by levies on the commercial fishery.
