New Zealand Journal of Marine and Freshwater Research abstracts

---

Movement patterns of the southern rock lobster, Jasus edwardsii, off South Australia

Adrian Linnane
Wetjens Dimmlich
Tim Ward

SARDI Aquatic Sciences Centre
P.O. Box 120, Henley Beach
SA 5022, Australia
email: linnane.adrian@saugov.sa.gov.au

Abstract  Movement patterns of the southern rock lobster Jasus edwardsii were determined from 14 280 tag-recapture events across South Australia between 1993 and 2003. In total, 68% of lobsters were recaptured within 1 km of their release site and 85% within 5 km. The proportion of lobsters moving >1 km in marine fishing areas (MFAs) ranged from 13% to 51%. Movement rates were noticeably high in the south-east and at Gleesons Landing lobster sanctuary off the Yorke Peninsula but patterns of movement differed spatially. In the south-east, lobsters moved distances of <20 km from inshore waters to nearby offshore reefs whereas at the Yorke Peninsula, individuals moved distances >100 km from within the sanctuary to sites located on the north-western coast of Kangaroo Island and the southern end of Eyre Peninsula. In total, 85% of all lobsters released inside the sanctuary moved distances >1 km. Movement was highest in immature females within most MFAs. Females also remained at large an average of 124 days longer than males. The high variation in lobster movement observed across South Australia highlights the need for locally derived, regionally specific data when assessing the proposed location and subsequent modelling of marine protected areas. This is of particular importance to inshore areas, where movement rates of lobsters were highest.

Keywords  lobster; Jasus edwardsii; movement; South Australia; marine fishing area; marine protected area

M04109; Online publication date 31 May 2005 Received 7 May 2004; accepted 9 February 2005
New Zealand Journal of Marine and Freshwater Research, 2005, Vol. 39: 335-346
0028-8330/05/3902-0335 © The Royal Society of New Zealand 2005

PDF file of entire paper: Print-quality (1295K) | screen-quality (1284K)

---

This year's abstracts | Journal home page | All abstracts | Publishing home page