Consideration of control rules as part of fisheries management plans is
becoming a common practice. Control rules may be simple or complex and
utilise model- or observation-based indicators of the status of the stock to
control exploitation through limitation of effort or catches. Rules that
control harvest (HCR) often utilize commercial fishery data in the
calculation of future catches. However, commercial fishery data may be
inaccurate and that can compromise the effectiveness of the HCR in
maintaining the stock for secure future harvesting. The idea of
fishery-independent HCR has arisen because of these problems. Indicators of
the status of a stock are derived from standardised fish surveys, commonly
trawl surveys repeated annually. A management strategy that relies on such
information also requires adoption of appropriate and effective control
rules that utilise such information. Here, we draw attention to diverse HCR,
including fishery-dependent examples that have been considered, tested or
already adopted for fisheries management. Our intention is to stimulate
ideas for HCR that are usable with, or adaptable to fishery-independent
indicators.