Overview and update of Australia’s scientific tagging program in the Patagonian toothfish (Dissostichus eleginoides) fishery in the vicinity of Heard and McDonald Islands (Division 58.5.2)

Australia has conducted a scientific tagging program in the Dissostichus eleginoides fishery in 58.5.2 since the 1997/98 season. This program has yielded data which has assisted with understanding growth rates of toothfish, small and large scale movements, stock structure and local abundance. This paper serves as an overview of the tagging dataset, and an update to previous summary papers. Tagging effort and recaptures are very concentrated in a relatively small area of this species’ habitat in this Division. Furthermore, as toothfish appear to have complex patterns of movement in space and time; being generally sedentary, but occasionally moving large distances, using tagging data to assess the status of stock in 58.5.2 remains difficult, and is likely to remain so until sufficient data to provide unbiased estimates of movement rates between areas and fisheries can be included in an integrated assessment framework.