Endeavour prawn stock assessment
Assessment charts
© Queensland Government
© Queensland Government
Why did we assess the endeavour prawn stock?
In 2023, Fisheries Queensland completed the first stock assessment of the east coast endeavour prawn stock.
The 2023 endeavour prawn assessment used a delay-difference biomass model based on previous stock assessments. The assessment used the most current biological, survey and commercial catch data to estimate the:
- biomass of the biological stock
- fishing pressure on the biological stock.
In the 2023 assessment for endeavour prawns, 14 scenarios were run, covering a range of modelling assumptions. Results for the project team preferred scenario indicated that biomass in 2021 was between 54% and 87%, most likely at 69% for the east coast endeavour prawn stock north of 22 degrees latitude.
Stock assessment project team
The project team had a wide range of skill sets and included:
- managers, scientists, monitoring and data specialists from the Department of Agriculture and Fisheries
- 2 industry representatives.
The team operated under a terms of reference (PDF, 207.9KB) to ensure a transparent and evidence-based approach.
We thank the project team for contributing their time and knowledge, and engaging constructively over the course of a 17-month project.
We acknowledge the significant time commitment and deep operational and technical expertise of our industry representatives. The project has benefited greatly from their input. Future assessments should continue to engage with industry members to further enhance assessments and build collaboration between industry and government.
Next steps for fishery management
Under the Queensland harvest strategy policy (PDF, 1.46MB) and Trawl fishery harvest strategies 2021–2026, management strategies are applied to keep stocks above the limit reference point (20% biomass) and set a target reference point to manage stocks toward.
The trawl fishery working group:
- provides advice on implementing the fishery harvest strategy
- considers what management changes may be needed to respond to the stock assessment
- may suggest future research or monitoring activities to improve the confidence of the stock assessment.
The working group includes representatives from harvest, post-harvest and conservation sectors.
More information
Read the Stock assessment of Queensland east coast endeavour prawn (Metapenaeus endeavouri and Metapenaeus ensis) Australia report—with data to December 2021.