FRDC rock lobster project

The VFA has recently worked closely with the Institute of Marine and Antarctic Studies (IMAS) under FRDC project 2019-075, to undertake a thorough review of the program.

As part of an FRDC Project, researchers from IMAS conducted a diary phone survey of recreational rock lobster catches in the 2020/21 season. The survey provided information on the Victorian recreational rock lobster catch, effort and catch rates that is not routinely collected and can validate data previously collected via the electronic catch reporting app VicRLTag. Further, a ‘wash-up’ phone survey was undertaken to collect information to complement the diary surveys and inform development of the new digital tagging program arrangements.

Summaries of the results from the project can be viewed as follows: