Updated 2016 Reference Case Tristan da Cunha rock lobster assessment

This paper provides details of an updated (“MAR 2016”) assessment of the rock lobster resource at the island of Tristan da Cunha, which takes account of the most recent data available. This assessment is a refinement of previous assessments in that it takes explicit account of the separate data available from the powerboats, the Edinburgh and the annual biomass survey. Results are similar to previous assessments but do estimate that the decline in abundance over recent years has come to an end with a slight increase in exploitable biomass expected for the 2016 season. Results presented are for rescaled standardised CPUE which take recent fishing efficiency changes into account