The dataset is a compilation of records of sea turtles caught in prawn trawls in the Northern Prawn Fishery (NPF). There are 316 records of five species. The records are from research voyages, scientific observers on commercial prawn trawlers and crew member observers on commercial prawn trawlers. More specifically, the data sources were as follows: (a) CSIRO and collaborative research voyages on RV Southern Surveyor; (b) crew member observers on NPF commercial vessels, 2003-2005 (FRDC project 2002/035, collaboration between CSIRO and AFMA, funding by FRDC); (c) scientific observers on NPF commercial vessels (FRDC project 2000/173, collaboration between CSIRO and the Australian Maritime College (AMC), funding by FRDC); (d) crew members and scientific observers on NPF commercial vessels (FRDC project 1998/202, collaboration between BRS, CSIRO, AFMA, funding by FRDC and NORMAC); (e) crew member observers and scientific observers on NPF commercial vessels and RV Southern Surveyor (FRDC project 1996/257, collaboration between CSIRO, DPIQ and AMC, funding by FRDC).

38kHz Simrad ES60 acoustic data collected during commercial fishing of spawning blue grenadier off the Tasmanian coast in 2005. FV Peterson was one of three factory freezer vessels collection acoustic and biological data as part of the FRDC project. Acoustic data is held by the CSIRO Marine Science Acoustic Group (Hobart). Additional data: gps embedded in ES60 .raw files, Wildlife computers MK9 temperature/depth loggers attached to headline of trawl net, AMFA (Australian Fisheries Mangement Authority) observer biological data (species, length, weight, sex, stage)(contact AFMA Observer section), AFMA trawl shot log - filled in by ships officers for each trawl shot, showing catch, location etc (contact AFMA Observer section). Complementary data sets as per above collected by vessels FV Ocean Dawn and FV Aoraki during the 2005 season.

38kHz Simrad ES60 acoustic data collected during commercial fishing of spawning blue grenadier off the Tasmanian west coast in 2002. FV Ocean Dawn was one of three factory freezer vessels collection acoustic and biological data as part of a FRDC project. Acoustic data is held by the CSIRO Marine Science Acoustic Group (Hobart). Additional data: gps embedded in ES60 .raw files, AMFA (Australian Fisheries Mangement Authority) observer biological data (species, length, weight, sex, stage)(contact AFMA Observer section), AFMA trawl shot log - filled in by ships officers for each trawl shot, showing catch, location etc (contact AFMA Observer section). Complementary data sets as per above collected by vessels FV Aoraki and FV Petersen during the 2002 season. ES60 history files only. No cruise track or digitised echogram data available. Note cruise dates here indicate the period for which we hold data. This is a subset of the voyage duration. The actual start/end dates of this voyage are not known. This information is probably in the trawl log sheets of which we have copies.

38kHz Simrad ES60 acoustic data collected during commercial fishing of spawning blue grenadier off the Tasmanian west coast in 2002. FV Ocean Dawn was one of three factory freezer vessels collection acoustic and biological data as part of a FRDC project. Acoustic data is held by the CSIRO Marine Science Acoustic Group (Hobart). Additional data: gps embedded in ES60 .raw files, AMFA (Australian Fisheries Mangement Authority) observer biological data (species, length, weight, sex, stage)(contact AFMA Observer section), AFMA trawl shot log - filled in by ships officers for each trawl shot, showing catch, location etc (contact AFMA Observer section). Complementary data sets as per above collected by vessels FV Aoraki and FV Petersen during the 2002 season. ES60 history files only. No cruise track or digitised echogram data available. Note cruise dates here indicate the period for which we hold data. This is a subset of the voyage duration. The actual start/end dates of this voyage are not known. This information is probably in the trawl log sheets of which we have copies. This cruise was at the tail end of the season - fishing warehou. Only 300 tonne caught.

38kHz Simrad ES60 acoustic data collected during commercial fishing of spawning blue grenadier off the Tasmanian west coast in 2002. FV Ocean Dawn was one of three factory freezer vessels collection acoustic and biological data as part of a FRDC project. Acoustic data is held by the CSIRO Marine Science Acoustic Group (Hobart). Additional data: gps embedded in ES60 .raw files, AMFA (Australian Fisheries Mangement Authority) observer biological data (species, length, weight, sex, stage)(contact AFMA Observer section), AFMA trawl shot log - filled in by ships officers for each trawl shot, showing catch, location etc (contact AFMA Observer section). Complementary data sets as per above collected by vessels FV Aoraki and FV Petersen during the 2002 season. ES60 history files only. No cruise track or digitised echogram data available. Note cruise dates here indicate the period for which we hold data. This is a subset of the voyage duration. The actual start/end dates of this voyage are not known. This information is probably in the trawl log sheets of which we have copies.

NWSJEMS study outputs are accessed using this application which is normally distributed on DVD with the accompanying datasets. ViewNWS is a user interface and dataset which was designed for the presentation of environmental, social and economic data, the very factors that depict the state of an ecosystem as it evolves in response to natural forcing and human use. There are several ViewNWS Management Strategy Evaluation (MSE) displays which include maps, digital images and time series data. The software is written in Visual Basic and uses ESRI Map Objects for the spatial component.

The dataset comprises GIS grids of fishing effort of the Northern Prawn Fishery (NPF) estimated from vessel monitoring system (VMS) data. The VMS is operated by the Australian Fisheries Management Authority (AFMA). It periodically records the location of each vessel in the fishery. Note that the activity of the vessel at the time is not recorded. The system's primary purpose is to monitor compliance with fishing regulations, but the data can also be used for research. To estimate fishing effort from the VMS records, we estimated the track of each fishing vessel by joining successive vessel locations with lines. We divided the track into apparent trawling and non-trawling sections (e.g. based on date, time and vessel speed), and calculated the time each trawling section spent in each cell of a GIS grid covering the managed area of the fishery. This method for estimating fishing effort from VMS data has limitations. Because a vessel may have taken a path other than a straight line between the polls, our straight line path (a) may only partially match the real path of the vessel, (b) may underestimate the length of the path traversed by the vessel, and (c) may underestimate the speed of the vessel. Note that (a) and (b) would affect which particular grid cells the trawling time was allocated to, but not the total trawling time that was added to the grid. The use of vessel speed to filter out non-trawling activity is imperfect because vessels may carry out other activities at speeds less than the maximum trawling speed.

In 1997 and 1998, we tagged and released 18013 red-legged banana prawns in the Joseph Bonaparte Gulf. The location of recaptures was documented for 916 tagged prawns in 1997 and 512 tagged prawns in 1998. Tag recapture information and commercial fishery logbook information was used to test whether red-legged banana prawns moved continuously to deeper waters or whether they moved first to deep water but then returned to shallower waters. The analysis is based on compartment models of recaptures per unit of fishing effort.