Updated assessments and projections under alternative future catch levels for the horse mackerel resource

The age-structured production model assessment of Johnston and Butterworth (2007) is updated to take account of further catch and survey data. In addition length-frequency data from surveys and the Desert Diamond, and a GLM standardised CPUE series from the Desert Diamond are now included when fitting the model to the data. The assessments do indicate an increase in abundance of about 20% over the last five years, primarily as a result of good recruitment. However, long term projections under different levels of future catches remain fairly similar to those of Johnston and Butterworth (2007)