EVALUATION OF AN INDIGENOUS FISHING CALENDAR USING RECREATIONAL CATCHRATES OF SNAPPER PAGRUS-AURATUS IN THE NORTH-ISLAND OF NEW-ZEALAND

Recreational fishers participating in a 12 mo diary survey provided pe r-trip data on number of snapper Pagrus auratus caught per unit effort (CPUE) in upper North Island, New Zealand. These data were analyzed f or seasonal trends, differences between lunar quarters, and for an ord inal relationship with the daily ranking (on a scale of 1 to 5) of the duration of active feeding as predicted by a Maori fishing calendar. A strong seasonal trend explained 30% of the variation in CPUE, with C PUE peaking in early April and subsequently declining until late Augus t. There was modest evidence of both a difference in CPUE between luna r quarters, and a relationship with the rankings of feeding duration g iven by the fishing calendar (p-values approximate to 0.1), but neithe r explained more than 2% of the variation in seasonally detrended CPUE . Days having the highest ranking of feeding duration sometimes had be low average CPUE, but were never among the extremely low CPUE days. Co nversely, days having the lowest ranking of feeding duration sometimes had above average CPUE, but never had extremely high CPUE.