Kevin Rowling Australian Society for Fish Biology Conference 2018

Kevin Rowling

Kevin Rowling joined NSW Fisheries in 1976 to lead a research project on the developing ocean fish trawl fishery. This research studied the fisheries biology and population dynamics of many important commercial species including tiger flathead, jackass morwong, redfish, gemfish, ocean perch and royal red prawns, and provided input to management decisions for both the NSW and Commonwealth jurisdictions covering the trawl fishery. In the mid 1990’s his research role was expanded to include the deepwater dropline fishery which targets blue-eye, bar cod, hapuku and bass groper. In 1997 he was appointed to the position of Principal Scientist, Commercial Finfish Research, and supervised the development of monitoring and assessment programs for the important commercial fish species in NSW. In 1999 he completed a PhD on the fisheries biology of gemfish, and from 2002 to 2004 he was seconded to co-ordinate the development of the Fishery Management Strategy for the NSW Ocean Trawl Fishery. After returning to the wild fisheries research branch in 2005 he was involved in the development of an integrated resource assessment and monitoring program for commercial and recreational fish species, to meet the environmental reporting requirements of the Fishery Management Strategies in place in NSW. This research led to the production of a detailed “Status Report” which summarised the state of knowledge of NSW wild fisheries resources in 2008; the report was expanded and updated in 2010 and included detailed information on 108 species or species groups. Kevin Rowling continued to provide scientific advice to the NSW Ocean Trawl and Ocean Trap and Line Management Advisory Committees, and to Resource Assessment Groups for fisheries managed by the Commonwealth, until he was retrenched from NSW Fisheries in December 2012 as part of the closure of the Cronulla Fisheries Research Centre.