Fisheries long term monitoring program : summary of stout whiting (Sillago robusta) survey results:1991–2006

In Queensland, stout whiting (Sillago robusta) is targeted by the Finfish (Stout Whiting) Trawl Fishery (T4), which is a demersal otter trawl fishery. Although also caught by the T1 otter trawl sector of the Queensland East Coast Trawl Fishery, they can not be retained. Stout whiting is also a commercial species caught by the New South Wales Trawl Fishery. The monitoring aims to provide a long-term data series of size and age structure representative of fish caught in the T4 fishery. These data feed into regular assessments of the fishery that are used to set an annual voluntary quota. This quota system has become part of the evidence allowing export approval to be granted under the Australian Government’s Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act (1999). In 2006, the quota was set at 1200 t. This report presents results of the 16 years of data available (1991 to 2006). Across all these years, stout whiting ranged from 70 to 245 mm in fork length and from 3.17 to 129.4 g in total weight. Age groups ranged from 0+ to 8+ years.