Updated analyses of the Fisheries Independent Monitoring Survey data of the Rock Lobster resource of South Africa to include the 2014/15 season

Analyses of FIMS data are updated to include data for the 2014/15 season. Results show an increase in the last season’s index for the FIMS relative abundance indices in the Cape Point and Saldanha Bay Zones and a drop for those of Dassen Island and Lambert’s Bay. There is a large decrease for Lambert’s Bay from the previous 2013/14 season, although that earlier estimate had a large standard error. Dassen Island shows only a slight decrease in the last season’s index compared to the 2013/14 season but it is still appreciably larger than the very low estimates for the 2010/11 to 2012/13 seasons. The percentage of females in the last season has increased in the Cape Point, Saldanha Bay and Lambert’s Bay Zones and is slightly down in Dassen Island Zone.