Reproductive characteristics of slipper lobster, cuttlefish and squid species taken as byproduct in a tropical prawn trawl fishery

Reproductive characteristics relevant to population sustainability were examined for eight abundant invertebrate species caught as byproduct by the Northern Prawn Fishery (NPF) in northern Australia. Slipper lobsters Thenus parindicus and Thenus australiensis differed in their size at maturity, with T. parindicus maturing at smaller size. Both species had similar reproductive seasonality, with most recruitment early in the year (January–March). Our estimates of carapace length (CL) at which 50% of females are mature (CL50) suggest that current management regulations (minimum legal size 52 mm CL) for Thenus are probably adequate for T. parindicus, but suboptimal for T. australiensis. However, T. australiensis only contributes a small proportion to the NPF Thenus catch. This species is likely to be protected as its preferred habitat is coarse substrate and deeper water (>40 m), which does not overlap greatly with the current commercial trawl effort distribution. Uroteuthis squid and Sepia cuttlefishes also varied in size at maturity and reproductive seasonality. Squid and cuttlefish populations are likely to be underexploited based on historical catches. Under current fishing levels, squid stocks appear to be resilient to the opportunistic targeting of spawning aggregations in similar NPF regions over several years.