West coast rock lobster catch-at-length sample sizes

This document reports the samples sizes and the approximate number of samples associated with the catch-at-length data used in the assessment models for catch-at-length data as well as F% data. For the commercial trap and hoopnet data, the approximate number of samples is calculated by dividing the total sample size by 200, as this was the rough number of lobsters each sample was requested to be.

The decision that needs to be made is if any of these data should be excluded from the model fitting process due to sample size being too small?

The authors have shaded commercial trap and hoopnet data that have an approximate number of samples less than 5 (i.e. relates to less than 1000 total lobster sampled), and recommend that these data not be included in the model fitting process. These suggestions have been implemented in the operating models reported in Johnston and Butterworth (2011).