Impacts of habitat repair on a spatially complex fishery

Restoring juvenile habitat remains a key fisheries management action, but a persistent challenge is identifying the areas likely to most efficiently improve fishery outcomes. A spatial simulation model is presented that estimates the anticipated improvement in harvest of the Eastern King Prawn fishery in New South Wales, Australia, following potential restoration. By integrating environmental, biological and fisheries information gleaned from previous studies, this model suggests zones with ample larval settlement but greatly diminished habitat for juvenile life stages (recruitment), and that are in close proximity to the main fishery grounds, are likely to provide the greatest anticipated improvements in harvest. Uncertainty analyses demonstrated the particular sensitivity of these outcomes to assumptions of larval dispersal, and zone-specific recruitment at unfished conditions. The work emphasizes the utility of spatial models for restoration planning, but also the dependence of these models on information provided from empirical studies. This work also highlights the implications of input-controlled fisheries in which total effort is regulated, as this will determine the form of, and to whom, benefits of potential restoration actions will accrue.