2.1. Study location and traps used
The study was done within a ∼7 km2radius in Wallis Lake(32◦1918S, 152◦3010E); an estuary in New South Wales (NSW),Australia. Starting 16 November 2010, fifteen replicates of four common recreational P. pelagicus traps were used: (i) collapsible“round pots”; (ii) collapsible “rectangular pots”; (iii) rigid “wire pots”; and (iv) “hoop nets” (Fig. 1 and Table 1). All traps had their meshes measured (inside stretched mesh opening – SMO) to ensure within treatment uniformity, and were submerged in a similar estuary for >3 h before use to reduce the potential for confounding impacts on efficiency. On each fishing day (n = 14), the traps were baited with ∼0.5 kg of sea mullet (Mugil cephalus) placed inside a wire-mesh bait bag (250 mm × 200 mm, with 10 mm × 10 mm mesh), before five replicates of each were set at random locations∼50 m apart to ensure independence (Williams and Hill, 1982) for3, 6 and 24 h.