Commercial Catch Per Unit Effort (CPUE)

Pale Octopus standardised catch per unit effort (CPUE) relative to 2004/05 levels in weight per pot (total commercial) and in number per pot (50-pot sampling). Note that 50-pot sampling data were not collected in 2019/20.

*Given that Pale Octopus are known to seek pots for breeding and refugia and are likely to be targeted at breeding aggregation sites, there is a notable risk of hyperstable CPUE, whereby CPUE remains high despite potentially significant declines in the population size. Therefore, CPUE is not a reliable proxy for abundance in this fishery.