Chris Setio
BSc (Hons) UNSW
School of Biological Earth and Environmental Science
University of New South Wales
Sydney NSW 2052
AUSTRALIA
Email: c.setio at unsw.edu.au
Research Interests
- Fisheries Restocking
- Stocking density of restocking programs
- Effects of restocking on established communities at stocking site
- Bottom-up ecosystem effects in the marine environment
Current Project
My primary interest deals with optimal stocking density and ecosystem effects of released eastern king prawns (Penaeus plebejus) into an enclosed coastal lake. I touched on this during my honours project following the last stocking event of a stocking program that occurred on the south coast of New South Wales. Subsequently, I was able to observe the influence of stock enhancement and environmental variability on the epifaunal assemblage in the enclosed lake over time and key out whether stocking had an influence on the assemblage. This research drove me to realise that stocking as a fisheries management tool has had limited research into the appropriate stocking density to be used in a stocking event.
As a result of this I have currently taken a project to produce a responsible stocking program for eastern king prawns (EKP) to be trialed at Lake Tyers in Victoria. Currently I am working on calculating the productivity and flow of energy through Lake Tyers as well as calculating the bioenergetic requirements and growth of the EKP to be incorporated into a draft-stocking model to be used in a trial-stocking event in the summer of 2012. After the trial stocking, the survival, fitness and harvest of the prawns will be monitored and the success of the stocking calculated. Another component of my project is discerning the spatial and ontogenic variation in the diets of EKP across oceanic and estuarine zones. Both of these components will be incorporated into the final stocking model for the use of stocking EKP in other locations along the coast.
