Western Rock Lobster Fishery Spatial Closure Impacts in Jurien Bay Marine Park

Jurien Bay Marine Park in Western Australia is the focus of an Ecospace model investigating spatial fishing closures. The model comprises 80 functional groups representing over 200 species and simulates five management scenarios over 20 years. This dataset record is provided by Parks Australia to highlight research relevant to Australian Marine Parks.

Use Cases

• Modeling biomass changes for western rock lobster based on varying sanctuary zone sizes mentioned in the description
• Analyzing predicted catch improvements for finfish species like pink snapper under combined protection and reduced fishing pressure scenarios
• Comparing the effectiveness of spatial closures placed on different habitat types such as reefs, seagrass, and sand
• Evaluating long-term ecosystem impacts of no-take zones as simulated over a 20-year period

Strengths

• Model includes 80 functional groups representing more than 200 species
• Simulates five distinct management scenarios, including sanctuary zones covering 0%, 4%, 25%, and 50% of the park area
• Provides specific predicted biomass increases, such as a ~20% increase for western rock lobster with 25% sanctuary zones

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment
• Data freshness should be verified; last updated date is 2026-07-16 23:22:03.686682

Provenance

Source

Parks Australia, referencing a source publication

Collection Method

Ecospace ecosystem model simulation

Time Range

Simulation period of 20 years

Freshness

Last updated 2026-07-16 23:22:03.686682; freshness should be verified

Geography

Jurien Bay Marine Park, central Western Australia (823 km²)