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Reliable catch information is scarce for most sharks and rays worldwide, with almost half of the stocks considered to be Data Deficient due to limited species-specific catch statistics. Western Australia (WA) hosts a diverse number of shark and ray species, some of which are considered to be threatened with extinction at a global level. Commercial catch statistics only account for shark and ray landings. The present study used the best available information to reconstruct unaccounted and unreported catches for 47 shark and ray taxa to better understand the impact of fishing. For some species, there was good agreement between reconstructed catches and reported landings, but overall reconstructed catches were 57% higher than those derived from official statistics alone, underestimating the actual extraction level for many species. The reconstructed catch time series provide the basis for the assessment of all species of sharks and rays captured in WA, including protected species that interact with commercial and recreational fisheries. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version of this article (10.1007/s13280-020-01495-6) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorised users.

The Shark Bay trawl fishery is Western Australia's most valuable prawn fishery (worth AUD$25 million in 2014). The 18-vessel fleet targets western king prawns ( Penaeus latisulcatus ), brown tiger prawns ( P. esculentus ) and also retains saucer scallops ( Ylistrum balloti ) and blue swimmer crabs ( Portunus armatus ). Increased fuel prices, falling prawn prices and lower catches of other species, following extreme environmental events, have impacted fishery profits. A biomass dynamics model with an economic component indicated that total revenue levels start to decline when annual effort increases beyond ~ 200 fishing days per boat. Annual effort required to achieve MEY, when based solely on prawn fishing, is 115–150 days per boat after accounting for fixed and variable fishing costs and annual fishing efficiency increases of 1–2%. From 2007–2014, the adjusted effort was 188–192 days per boat. Fishing occurred between March and November during 7–8 fishing periods, separated by 5–8 day (low catchability) moon closure periods. An empirical daily profit assessment (2007–2015), accounting for recruitment variation, daily prawn size compositions, monthly market prices for different prawn species and sizes, and daily fishing costs, showed vessels made profits on ~ 115–160 days and losses on ~ 15–55 days per year, when fishing occurred near the full moon. The fishery benefitted in 2013–2015 by starting later in the year and better targeting within-season effort. This management strategy within the effort-control framework, which improved profitability, maintained higher spawning stocks and reduced ecosystem fishing impacts, has wider application in prawn fishery management.

Aim: Trawling is the most widespread direct human disturbance on the seabed. Knowledge of the extent and consequences of this disturbance is limited because large-scale distributions of seabed fauna are not well known. We map faunal distributions in the Australian Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) and quantify the proportion of their abundance that occurs in areas 1) that are directly trawled and 2) where legislation permanently prohibits trawling—defined as percentage exposure or protection, respectively. Our approach includes developing a method that integrates data from disparate seabed surveys to spatially expand predicted benthos distributions. Location: Australia. Methods: We collate data from 18 seabed surveys to map the distribution of seabed invertebrates (benthos) in nine regions. Our approach combines data from multiple surveys, groups taxa within taxonomic classes and uses Random Forests to predict spatial abundance distributions of benthos groups from environmental variables. Exposure and protection of benthos groups were quantified by mapping their predicted abundance distributions against the footprint of trawling and legislated boundaries of marine reserves and fishery closures. Results: Trawling is currently prohibited from more area of Australia´s EEZ (58%) than is trawled (

The extreme Western Australia 2011 marine heatwave had a lasting effect on the marine ecosystem and after seven years, only parts of the ecosystem have showed good signs of recovery. After the heatwave, scallop fisheries in the Abrolhos Is. and Shark Bay were closed for 3-5 years, while the Shark Bay crab fishery was closed for 18 months; these fisheries at the centre of the heatwave have shown some improvement due to better protection of spawning stock and improved environmental conditions. Also at the centre of the heatwave, Roe’s abalone suffered a catastrophic mortality and has not recovered as spawning stock remains very low. The Perth abalone stock which was outside the peak heatwave area had a major stock reduction but remained opened with reduced catches. The heatwave had a marked indirect effect on brown tiger prawns in Exmouth Gulf due to loss of seagrass habitat. The heatwave also resulted in a decline in western king prawn recruitment in Exmouth Gulf, to the north of heatwave centre, but an improved recruitment in the cooler waters of Shark Bay. Western rock lobsters near the heatwave peak also appear to have been indirectly affected and have not recovered. Factors influencing the recovery rate from the heatwave appeared to be: species near their upper temperature range and/or sensitive to warming temperatures; spatial overlap between the warming event and species distribution; whether spawning stock was affected to the point of recruitment impairment; life-cycle duration of invertebrate (or habitat) species affected; and management intervention. This study provides a framework for managing the consequences of heatwaves on fisheries by highlighting the value of early identification of the event and its effect on fisheries and having flexible harvest strategies for early management intervention. This is particularly important as long-term increases in water temperatures will increase the frequency of marine heatwave events and the fisheries stocks would have less time for recovery

Driven by a very strong La Niña event and a record strength Leeuwin Current, the 2011 Western Australian marine heatwave (MHW) raised sea surface temperatures (SSTs) along the Western Australian coastline by up to 5°C between November 2010 and March 2011. This single thermal perturbation led to several mortality events and recruitment impairment of commercially important species including Australia's single highest producing blue swimmer crab (Portunus armatus) fishery in Shark Bay. Monthly catch landings dramatically declined from 166 t in April 2011 to 24°C, and detrimental when they exceed 26°C as was the case during the 2011 MHW when SSTs reached 29°C inside Shark Bay. Partial recovery of the crab stock 18 months after the MHW was strongly associated with mean summer temperatures returning below 24°C. Together with a change in management to a quota system, the fishery returned to full recovery status in 2018 with sustainable catch levels of up to 550 t. Long term productivity of this fishery is now at high risk from climate change impacts with shifts in winter water temperatures being cooler by 2°C and occurring earlier by few months inside the Bay. This cooling trend appears to be impacting the spawning period with the timing of peak recruitment also occurring earlier, shifting from February to November. The impacts of the 2011 MHW highlighted the risk to stock sustainability through external drivers such as climate change that was previously poorly understood. The south-west region of Western Australia is considered a climate change hotspot with water temperatures rising at rates above global trends and at increased risk from further MHWs. Therefore, responding to climate change is now about managing risks to achieve a balance between fisheries sustainability and economic viability. Increased stock monitoring now provides biomass measures 12 months prior to the fishing season, a form of stock forecasting that stakeholders can utilize to better manage their fishing business and minimize economic loss. Development of a flexible harvest strategy is also underway which responds to recruitment variation and climate extremes.

Ocean temperature variability off the west coast of Australia is affected by the El Nino Southern Oscillation from the Pacific, the Indian Ocean Dipole, the Southern Annular Mode, and the regional air-sea coupling mode – the Ningaloo Nino. The modes of climate variability affect the strength of the Leeuwin Current, a warm, poleward-flowing eastern boundary current, and air-sea heat exchanges off the coast, impacting on the upper ocean heat balance and sea surface temperature (SST) variability. After the unprecedented 2010–2011 Ningaloo Nino (extreme marine heatwave) event, the region experienced more marine heatwaves in the following two austral summers, before SST off the coast eventually switched to a multi-year cold phase. This marine cold-spell (MCS) commenced with the 2015–16 El Nino and continued to 2019, when the Nino-4 W region SST was warmed up and Leeuwin Current was weakened. The upper ocean heat content in the southeast Indian Ocean was lowered (thermocline being elevated), due to the reduction of the Indonesian Throughflow transport, and alongshore northward winds strengthened during this period, which allowed thermocline waters to be more efficiently entrained into the surface layer to cool the SST. Thus, several factors might have contributed in the multi-year MCSs. The MCSs was associated with increased primary production in the Leeuwin Current and helped the recovery of benthic species of local fisheries such as Roe's abalone, saucer scallops and Shark Bay's blue swimmer crabs that were significantly affected by the damaging heat stress during the 2011–2013 marine heatwave period.

To address increasing community expectations and deliver the ‘social licence to operate’, fisheries management in Western Australia (WA) has been systematically adopting a suite of reforms termed Ecosystem Based Fisheries Management (EBFM). EBFM extends beyond the fishery-level ‘ecosystem approach’ of considering ecological, social and economic objectives by taking a resource-level approach to coordinate management of all fishing sectors that capture a ‘resource’ (which can be defined as one or more species) to better deliver overall community outcomes. This initiative required refinements to harvest strategies to cover the broader EBFM scope and also to deal with the challenges associated with their application to the multi-sector, multi-species fisheries common in WA. The efficacy of these EBFM-based harvest strategies was assessed using four case study resources that cover the diversity of fishery management systems applied in WA. Key refinements include the use of indicator species for multi-species resources and establishing appropriate tolerance levels to determine the acceptable range of annual deviations in catch/effort that meet the levels specified by the harvest control rules or sectoral allocation decisions. While some refinements are ongoing, the case studies demonstrate that a single, comprehensive harvest strategy can collectively address all target species objectives and intra and inter-sectoral allocations at the resource-level plus any other relevant economic, social or ecological objectives (e.g. habitat and protected species interactions) at the appropriate level (resource or activity/sector). This holistic approach is already generating efficiency dividends through the adoption of tolerance levels that are minimising unnecessary management interventions. Similarly, fewer management elements now require pre-season negotiation which is also reducing administrative costs. The comprehensive but agile approach adopted by WA is likely to be especially relevant for other coastal jurisdictions with highly variable environments where fisheries often have multiple sectors, species, stakeholders and objectives that need to be considered.

An extreme marine heat wave which affected 2000 km of the midwest coast of Australia occurred in the 2010/11 austral summer, with sea‐surface temperature (SST) anomalies of 2–5°C above normal climatology. The heat wave was influenced by a strong Leeuwin Current during an extreme La Niña event at a global warming hot spot in the Indian Ocean. This event had a significant effect on the marine ecosystem with changes to seagrass/algae and coral habitats, as well as fish kills and southern extension of the range of some tropical species. The effect has been exacerbated by above‐average SST in the following two summers, 2011/12 and 2012/13. This study examined the major impact the event had on invertebrate fisheries and the management adaption applied. A 99% mortality of Roei abalone (Haliotis roei) and major reductions in recruitment of scallops (Amusium balloti), king (Penaeus latisulcatus) and tiger (P. esculentus) prawns, and blue swimmer crabs were detected with management adapting with effort reductions or spatial/temporal closures to protect the spawning stock and restocking being evaluated. This study illustrates that fisheries management under extreme temperature events requires an early identification of temperature hot spots, early detection of abundance changes (preferably using pre‐recruit surveys), and flexible harvest strategies which allow a quick response to minimize the effect of heavy fishing on poor recruitment to enable protection of the spawning stock. This has required researchers, managers, and industry to adapt to fish stocks affected by an extreme environmental event that may become more frequent due to climate change.

International audience; Marine snakes represent the most speciose group of marine reptiles and are a significantcomponent of reef and coastal ecosystems in tropical oceans. Research on this grouphas historically been challenging due to the difficulty in capturing, handling, and keepingthese animals for field- and lab-based research. Inexplicable declines in marine snakepopulations across global hotspots have highlighted the lack of basic information onthis group and elevated multiple species as conservation priorities. With the increasedinterest in research on marine snakes, we conducted a systematic survey of experts toidentify twenty key questions that can direct future research. These questions are framedacross a wide array of scientific fields to produce much-needed information relevant tothe conservation and management of marine snakes.

Significance We conducted a systematic, high-resolution analysis of bottom trawl fishing footprints for 24 regions on continental shelves and slopes of five continents and New Zealand. The proportion of seabed trawled varied >200-fold among regions (from 0.4 to 80.7% of area to a depth of 1,000 m). Within 18 regions, more than two-thirds of seabed area remained untrawled during study periods of 2–6 years. Relationships between metrics of total trawling activity and footprint were strong and positive, providing a method to estimate trawling footprints for regions where high-resolution data are not available. Trawling footprints were generally smaller in regions where fisheries met targets for exploitation rates, implying collateral environmental benefits of effective fisheries management., Bottom trawlers land around 19 million tons of fish and invertebrates annually, almost one-quarter of wild marine landings. The extent of bottom trawling footprint (seabed area trawled at least once in a specified region and time period) is often contested but poorly described. We quantify footprints using high-resolution satellite vessel monitoring system (VMS) and logbook data on 24 continental shelves and slopes to 1,000-m depth over at least 2 years. Trawling footprint varied markedly among regions: from 50% in some European seas. Overall, 14% of the 7.8 million-km2 study area was trawled, and 86% was not trawled. Trawling activity was aggregated; the most intensively trawled areas accounting for 90% of activity comprised 77% of footprint on average. Regional swept area ratio (SAR; ratio of total swept area trawled annually to total area of region, a metric of trawling intensity) and footprint area were related, providing an approach to estimate regional trawling footprints when high-resolution spatial data are unavailable. If SAR was ≤0.1, as in 8 of 24 regions, there was >95% probability that >90% of seabed was not trawled. If SAR was 7.9, equal to the highest SAR recorded, there was >95% probability that >70% of seabed was trawled. Footprints were smaller and SAR was ≤0.25 in regions where fishing rates consistently met international sustainability benchmarks for fish stocks, implying collateral environmental benefits from sustainable fishing.

Catch predictions based on pre-recruit abundance have proven valuable in the stock assessment and management of major invertebrate fisheries in Western Australia for western rock lobster (Panulirus cygnus), pearl oyster (Pinctada maxima), abalone (Haliotis roei), prawn (Penaeus esculentus), scallop (Amusium balloti), and blue swimmer crab (Portunus armatus). Predictions are based on puerulus stage (post-larval) rock lobster from artificial collectors; 0+ and 1+ pearl oyster spat attached to commercial shell; dive survey of Roe's abalone; and trawl surveys of prawn (shrimp), scallop, and crab. These reliable predictions (R2 = 0.67–0.97) are used in stock assessment and management harvest strategies to ensure that fishing effort or catch quotas are set so that adequate breeding stocks are maintained. This pro-active management based on predicted abundance avoids the pitfall of heavy fishing on poor recruit classes, which is a common cause of recruitment overfishing. The catch-pre-recruit relationship provid...

The cover of seagrasses and macroalgae, landings and fishery-independent measures of spawning stock and recruitment for brown tiger prawns, were monitored immediately following a major cyclone in Exmouth Gulf, Western Australia in March 1999. Anecdotal evidence on the extent of seagrass from 1990 to 1998 suggests that the cyclone caused a major, immediate disruption and loss of the seagrass/macroalgal beds (to ≤2% cover), the critical prawn nursery habitat, and mangroves in the shallow inshore waters of the system. Prawn landings and recruitment to the fishery were not affected in the year of the cyclone, but were markedly lower in the two years immediately afterwards and then increased as the cover of macrophytes increased to over 40% in 2003. Tiger prawn landings and catch rates were not affected in Shark Bay, a system 500 km south of Exmouth Gulf that did not experience cyclonic disturbance. Seagrasses in Exmouth Gulf showed a succession of species from small colonising species (Halophila ovalis and Halodule uninervis) to larger, broad-leaved species (Cymodocea serrulata, Syringodium isoetifolium) only two years after the cyclone. The recruitment and landings of tiger prawns were correlated significantly with the total cover of macroalgae and seagrass. The large loss of seagrass and macroalgae reduced the settling habitat for postlarvae and the nursery habitat for juvenile tiger prawns, probably leading to the lower recruitment to the fishery. These findings suggest that the extent of seagrass and macroalgae are some of the factors defining the productivity of the tiger prawn fishery in Exmouth Gulf.

Saucer scallops, Amusium balloti, are targeted by Shark Bay prawn and scallop trawl fisheries where regulatory discarding can occur during summer and winter months that may adversely impact the recruitment of this resource. Survival of repeatedly discarded saucer scallops was thus estimated for the Shark Bay trawl fisheries using short-term tag—recapture experiments under various fishing and environmental conditions. Estimates of apparent survival of discarded scallops was significantly higher during the postspawning winter period (>90%) than during the prespawning summer period (20–90%), but no differences in survival between fishing grounds or between postcapture treatment groups (air exposed vs. those kept in a holding tank) were observed. This suggests that thermal stress from large differences in seasonal temperatures was more critical to scallop survival than differences in scallop reproductive condition. Thus past (pre-2004) management regulations that imposed regulatory discarding during ...

An industry-modified Nordmore-grid was tested on its own and with a composite square-mesh panel as a secondary bycatch reduction device (BRD) at two different positions (aft and forward) in codends. Compared to the control codend (which had no BRDs), all three combinations (Nordmore-grid only, Nordmore-grid and aft composite square-mesh panel and Nordmore-grid and forward composite square-mesh panel) reduced catches of prawns (mostly western king prawns, Penaeus latisulcatus). However, prawns were found to escape out of the Nordmore-grid—not through the composite square-mesh panels. The Nordmore-grid with the aft composite square-mesh panel significantly reduced the weight of bycatch (by 49%) and the numbers and weights of several commercially and non-commercially important bycatch species (by up to 75.7%). No other significant differences were detected. The results are discussed in terms of the likely factors influencing the performance of the various designs, including the behaviour of fish in codends, influences of hydrodynamics on their escape and the importance of the positioning of BRDs in codends.

We give a geostatistical analysis of western king prawn logbook data collected from the Shark Bay prawn fishing fleet in Western Australia for the 2000 and the 2004 fishing seasons, aggregated into total catch, together with three weight sub-classes and grouped into lunar months. For each of the two years we discuss both the spatial correlation between the weight classes and the spatial correlation for corresponding months in the two years under consideration. Finally, we use a cost function that takes account of the different weight classes to compare the financial return by location between 2000 and 2004.

In this paper we use scallop survey data and lognormal ordinary kriging (Chiles and Delfiner 1999) to obtain a spatial mapping of estimated scallop density in the Red Cliff and NW Peron regions of the Shark Bay managed scallop fishery in Western Australia. The results can then be used, together with the annual preseason scallop survey, to inform the management decision as to the opening time of the subsequent scallop fishing season. The Shark Bay Scallop Fishery is Western Australia’s largest scallop fishery. Its outer boundaries encompass the waters of the Indian Ocean and Shark Bay between 23 34' south latitude and 26 30' south latitude and adjacent to Western Australia on the landward side of the 200 m isobath, together with those waters of Shark Bay south of 26 30' south latitude (Department of Fisheries 2002). The scallop catch depends primarily on the strength of recruitment from the breeding season of the previous year. Spawning commences in mid-April and meat condition declines as spawning continues, so the process of setting the opening date of the season needs to balance breeding stock and the seasonal decline in meat condition. In order to determine the opening date for the fishing season a pre-season survey is conducted in November and December of the previous year. The survey covers the three fishing regions Red Cliff, NW Peron, and Denham Sound but, as there has been little fishing activity in Denham Sound during the years considered, only the Red Cliff and NW Peron regions are used.

Trawl by-catch species composition and impact of trawling on soft bottom habitats was investigated in Shark Bay over four seasons. Spatial and temporal variability in faunal abundance and assemblages were investigated for sites with varied levels of trawl intensity, including areas permanently closed to trawling. Environmental conditions were found to be more important in determining differences in faunal assemblages between sites than trawl intensity. In total, 241 fish and 360 invertebrate species were recorded in Shark Bay during this study. The 20 most abundant fish species contributed to 80% of the total number of fish caught overall and these occurred at 73 to 100% of the sites sampled whilst the 20 most abundant invertebrate species contributed to 88% of the total number of invertebrates caught and these occurred at 62 to 100% of sites sampled. Depletion experiments during two time periods were undertaken to determine the catchability (vulnerability) of fish and invertebrate species within these assemblages to better understand trawl impacts. These results, combined with the spatial and temporal distribution patterns of individual species, indicate that long-term trawl impacts can be mitigated by restricting trawling within current trawl areas that constitute 20–40% of the fishery area and for daily monitoring of the trawl fleet with the Vessel Monitoring System for adherence to permanent, spatial and temporal closures.

The present paper is the first description using geostatistical modelling of recruitment (0+) and residual (1+) scallop variability from an annual survey in a semi-tropical embayment. Geostatistical modelling provides a useful tool to explore and interpret distribution patterns and can provide information to determine potential behaviour of fishers. It may also aid in determining the time it will take from the beginning of the season to reach a catch-rate threshold, which is the management strategy implemented in the Shark Bay scallop fishery since 2004. High variability in recruit abundance and spatial distribution was observed among years, whereas patterns of residual abundance and distribution were less variable because of the fishing patterns of both the scallop and prawn fleets. Comparisons of commercial catch patterns indicated that high survey-abundance areas correlate with higher catches, validating that survey results are a good tool for fishers to utilise to target their fishing practices to optimise and maximise catch efficiencies. The study highlighted the inherent annual variability of scallop recruitment abundance and distribution that are primarily considered to be environmentally driven. However, both recruits and residual scallops contribute to the whole catch, so retaining residual scallops from year to year is important.

The performance of square-mesh codends (as opposed to the conventional diamond mesh) was examined as a discard and by-catch reduction device for the Shark Bay saucer-scallop trawl fishery. Of the three different-sized square-mesh codends (50, 55, 60 mm) tested against the standard 100-mm diamond-mesh codend, the 50-mm square-mesh codend performed poorly with relatively high retention of small (

Stock assessments to support sustainable management in data-limited fisheries present a challenge to fisheries scientists and managers. This is the case with the Shark Bay Crab Fishery, which has expanded rapidly in the past 10 years, to become Australia’s highest-producing blue swimmer crab fishery. The resource is harvested commercially by two sectors, the Shark Bay crab trap and trawl fisheries (combined catch of ~800 t), as well as supporting a small but important recreational fishery. Commercial catch and effort data have been collected for the fishery since the early 1980s, commercial trap-monitoring data since 1999, and fishery-independent trawl-survey data since 2001. There is conflicting evidence on the impact that significant increases in catch and effort over the past decade has made on this fishery, such as legal catch rates remaining relatively constant, but declines occurring in the abundance of large crabs. There has also been concern over the level of latent effort in the fishery, with the trap sector currently operating at 70–80% of its potential effort and the capacity for further increases in crab landings by the trawl fleet. Since July 2011, the relative abundance of all size classes of crabs declined significantly. The reasons for this unexpected decline are yet to be understood, but are likely to be linked to adverse environmental extremes (flooding and very warm water temperatures) during the summer of 2010–2011, associated with a very strong La Niňa event. Preliminary assessment indicated that the spawning stock that led to the low recruitment was within historic ranges. The current challenge for the research and management of this fishery is to clarify the causes for this recent decline, and establish suitable biological indicators that will determine the appropriate level of catch and harvest strategy to ensure the future sustainability of the stock.

The vertical distribution and feeding of sixteen species of chiton was examined on a boulder slope at West Island, South Australia. There is a trend of increasing abundance and diversity of species with depth, with most species present at 4–5 m depth where boulders are partly buried by sediment. Six species are herbivorous, seven omnivorous and three carnivorous. There are generalist and specialist feeders within those feeding types. Specialist feeders include species which eat predominantly drift seagrass (one species), crustose coralline algae (four species), Petroderma crusts (one species), sponge (one species) and amphipods (one species). A comparison of the distribution with depth of abundance of food organisms attached to the upper and under-surface of boulders with the depth distribution of chitons, shows that the food supply is unlikely to limit the abundance of chitons or affect their distribution. However, drift seagrass and algae, eaten by several species, are abundant only at 4–5 m de...

Impacts of bottom fishing, particularly trawling and dredging, on seabed (benthic) habitats are commonly per-ceived to pose serious environmental risks. Quantitative ecological risk assessment can be used to evaluate actualrisks and to help guide the choice of management measures needed to meet sustainability objectives.2.We develop and apply a quantitative method for assessing the risks to benthic habitats by towed bottom-fish-ing gears. The method is based on a simple equation for relative benthic status (RBS), derived by solving thelogistic population growth equation for the equilibrium state. Estimating RBS requires only maps of fishingintensity and habitat type–and parameters for impact and recovery rates, which may be taken from meta-ana-lyses of multiple experimental studies of towed-gear impacts. The aggregate status of habitats in an assessedregion is indicated by the distribution of RBS values forthe region. The application of RBS is illustrated for atropical shrimp-trawl fishery.3.The status of trawled habitats and their RBS value depend on impact rate (depletion per trawl), recovery rateand exposure to trawling. In the shrimp-trawl fishery region, gravel habitat was most sensitive, and though lessexposed than sand or muddy-sand, was most affected overall (regional RBS = 91% relative to un-trawledRBS = 100%). Muddy-sand was less sensitive, and thoughrelatively most exposed, was less affected overall(RBS = 95%). Sand was most heavily trawled but least sensitive and least affected overall (RBS = 98%).Region-wide, >94% of habitat area had >80% RBS because most trawling and impacts were confined to smallareas. RBS was also applied to the region’s benthic invertebrate communities with similar results.4.Conclusions. Unlike qualitative or categorical trait-based risk assessments, the RBS method provides a quanti-tative estimate of status relative to an unimpacted baseline, with minimal requirements for input data. It could beapplied to bottom-contact fisheries world-wide, including situations where detailed data on characteristics ofseabed habitats, or the abundance of seabed fauna are not available. The approach supports assessment againstsustainability criteria and evaluation of alternative management strategies (e.g. closed areas, effort management,gear modifications). Fil: Pitcher, C. Roland. CSIRO; Australia Fil: Ellis, Nick. CSIRO; Australia Fil: Jennings, Simon. Fisheries and Aquaculture Science; Reino Unido. University Of East Anglia; Reino Unido Fil: Hiddink, Jan G.. Bangor University; Reino Unido Fil: Mazor, Tessa. CSIRO; Australia Fil: Kaiser, Michel J.. Bangor University; Reino Unido Fil: Kangas, Mervi. Western Australian Fisheries and Marine Research Laboratories; Australia Fil: McConnaughey, Robert A. National Ocean And Atmospheric Administration. Alaska Fisheries Science Center; Estados Unidos Fil: Parma, Ana María. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Centro Nacional Patagónico; Argentina Fil: Rijnsdorp, Adriaan D.. IMARES Wageningen UR; Países Bajos Fil: Suuronen, Petri. FAO Fisheries and Aquaculture Department; Italia Fil: Collie, Jeremy S.. University of Rhode Island; Estados Unidos Fil: Amoroso, Ricardo Oscar. University of Washington; Estados Unidos Fil: Hughes, Kathryn M.. Bangor University; Reino Unido Fil: Hilborn, Ray. University of Washington; Estados Unidos