There are concerns about the status of South Australia’s Southern Garfish Fishery which have been principally based on evidence that the size and age composition of the stock is severely truncated as a result of sustained levels of high exploitation. A Garfish Working Group (GWG) comprising representatives from industry, SARDI and PIRSA was established to provide recommendations to management to promote the recovery of the resource. This group developed an operational objective to develop harvest strategies that reduce the current exploitation rate of ~65% to 30% by 2020. Gear restrictions and effort reduction were considered to be important components of the rebuilding strategy, however finding a fair and equitable balance between these two strategies naturally presented a few challenges amongst the commercial fishers. Through a series of gear selectivity trials and testing various effort reduction (closures) scenarios using an extension of the GarEst fishery model, the GWG were presented with a range of management options that would achieve their short and long-term operational objectives. Although achieving the targeted exploitation rate of 30% by 2020 was the principle objective of the management strategy evaluation, the model simulation also provided biomass, egg production and economic information to assist the GWG’s assessment and consideration of the management alternatives. This talk will discuss how this management strategy evaluation model was developed and used to streamline the decision making process amongst the relevant stakeholders.