Mirror dory (Zenopsis nebulosus) occur at depths of 50 to 600 m around southern Australia from northern NSW to central WA. They are caught by trawling in outer continental shelf and upper slope waters. The majority of landings come from depths between 300 and 600 m during the winter months when the fish aggregate for spawning along the NSW upper slope (Rowling 1994).

Mirror dory larger than about 30 cm are marketed, and most of the catch consists of mature fish between 40 and 60 cm total length (TL) and weighing between 1.0 and 2.5 kg. Mirror dory reach a maximum age of about 12 years and weight of 3 kg, but most fish in landed catches are between 4 and 10 years of age (Morison et al. 2012).

Predominantly a Commonwealth fishery, with seasonal landings of mature fish by NSW trawlers north of Sydney during the winter months. It is only present in the NSW fishery on an intermittent basis during the winter months. Commonwealth status of ‘not overfished’ is consistent with ‘fully fished’, which is more appropriate for the NSW fishery (Knuckey and Curtain 2001).

Predominantly a Commonwealth fishery, with seasonal landings of mature fish by NSW trawlers north of Sydney during the winter months. Commonwealth status of ‘not overfished’ is consistent with ‘fully fished’, which is more appropriate for the NSW fishery.

The stock structure in Australia is uncertain, one stock is assumed for assessment purposes despite the possible existence of two stocks east and west of Bass Strait (Morison et al. 2012).