Trophia has been contracted by the New Zealand Ministry of Fisheries (MFish) to characterise the red gurnard (Chelidonichthys kumu) fishery in GUR 1 and to make recommendations on the use of standardized commercial CPUE to monitor abundance. The specific objectives for this project include:

1. To characterise the GUR 1 fishery by analysing existing commercial catch and effort data and data from other sources; and to make recommendations on appropriate methods to monitor or assess the status of this Fishstock.

Currently MFish does not have reliable means to monitor the abundance of the GUR 1 Fishstock. The purpose of this project is to characterise the GUR 1 fishery and to develop the best possible index of abundance based on standardized commercial CPUE, including data up to the 2004/05 fishing year. If successful the index will be updated every three years and used in conjunction with the age structure of the catch (2-3 years in every 5), to monitor the fishery.

This work is funded by MFish project GUR2005/01