Estimated factors affecting apparent survival of the red-legged banana prawns in Joseph Bonaparte Gulf

The Northern Prawn Fishery harvests red-legged banana prawn (Penaeus indicus) for human consumption. As a result, understanding what factors influence prawn survival is critical to optimize the fishery's long-term sustainable goals and achieve optimal outcomes for all consumers of this product. One of the co-principal investigators who conducted numerous studies in this newly developed fishery over 25 years ago agreed to permit data access. Descriptive statistics, multiple linear regression, generalized linear models, and Welch's two sample t-test were used to analyze the data. The findings indicated statistically significant relationships between categorical variables and survivability. Furthermore, the results suggested that factors such as the depth at which the red legged prawns were caught and recaptured, as well as the initial size of tagging, may influence their size increment. Although the findings of this study may not be applicable to today’s modern prawn fishery, the fishery is constantly evolving, and more research is needed to determine which factors are changing and which remain constant.