Ecosystem-based fisheries management (or 'triple bottom line') assessments of the western rock lobster resource: Is there an optimal target for fishing?

In 2010 the fishery moved from effort-controlled maximum sustainable yield (MSY) to a quota-controlled, maximum economic yield (MEY) system. This study explicitly examined how different levels of harvesting across the MSY to MEY range affected each of ten EBFM criteria. We confirmed that these individual objectives were maximised at different total allowable commercial catches. However an example is provided for weighting of objectives from a possible management perspective that identified the upper end of the MEY range as likely to generate the optimum outcome for this fishery.