Research opportunities for Honours and postgraduate students

Orange roughy are a long-lived (100-200 y.o.) deepwater species that was first discovered in New Zealand and Australian waters during the 1980s. Its large spawning aggregations made it vulnerable to over-exploitation, while the rapid development of the industry and poor knowledge about the species, meant fisheries authorities failed to manage the species effectively. Depletions of Australian and New Zealand stocks dispersed the fishing fleet across the globe leading to serial depletions in many other parts of the globe. In Australia orange roughy has been nominated for listing under the EPBC as an endangered species. Despite the value of the short lived fishery the behaviour and biology of roughy remains poorly known. Despite the fact that stock assessments for roughy have been dependent on acoustic surveys of spawning aggregations, typical spawning dynamics have never been documented.

The project would involve working up an analysis about orange roughy aggregation spawning dynamics on the Cascade Plateau off South-eastern Australia. Five years of acoustic, environmental and biological data have been collected and partially analysed. No other orange roughy aggregation has been observed as closely throughout its spawning cycle in a single year, let alone throughout the full spawning cycle for five sequential years. The data set contains a range of observations which shed light on roughy behaviour reported anecdotally by fishers but still undocumented in the scientific literature. Aspects of this data have major ramifications for the way stock assessments have been conducted on this species and may help explain the failure of the management process with this species.

The project would involve learning to use acoustic software and Excel to complete the analyses of temporal patterns in the annual spawning cycle of the Cascade Roughy. The project would also require a review of the contextual literature on the spawning behaviour of deep water fish and specifically orange roughy. It would involve working under the supervision of Dr Jeremy Prince, an adjunct Associate Professor with the Centre for Fish and Fisheries Research, who is an acknowledged international leader in the field of natural resource assessment.

The project will develop experience with the techniques and issues surrounding the assessment of, and research into, the biology of deepwater fish. The project will develop skills of quantitative analysis and could be used as the basis for further developing skills in quantitative stock assessment.