Initial updated 2016 assessments for West Coast rock lobster and some initial constant catch projections

This document reports updated assessments for the five super areas which are considered as separate populations of the west coast rock lobster resource. The previous assessment was conducted in 2015 (see Johnston 2015). The “new” data available since the 2015 assessment are the commercial CPUE data (2 more seasons), FIMS catch-at-length and F% data for 2014 (i.e. 1 more year of these data) and for super area 8+ there are also FIMS data for the 2015 season. The poaching scenarios have also been revised.