Sustainability of reef fish numbers in SEQ

[theoldlegend]

I quite often see photos of very good reef fish taken on charter boats. No problem with that, but does anybody have any reliable info as to how many years it takes for snapper, red emperor and the like to reach maturity and spawn? Are these fish territorial?

Read in the June "Sunfish" mag that David Bateman poses a good question about the declining snapper numbers and sizes over the years. He says that over the years the legal length has been increased with the result that a lot have to be released in order to get one legal one. The released ones don't seem to have much of a survival rate.
He proposed reducing the legal length so as to reduce the numbers being returned.

I don't tie myself to trees or anything like that, but just asking. ??? ???

[rando]

Reduce the size limit and all legal fish go in the kill tank. Increase the size limit and SOME released fish will survive, the latter is bettwer imo
Rando

[The_Walrus]

The low survival rate for released snappers applies to deep water captures.
It seems that snapper of whatever size can't handle the barotrauma.
So for snapper, a reduced size limit may in fact be better as a management strategy as they'll be less killed in order to get legal sized ones.


Luc

[devocean]

I often feel the same about coral trout numbers when I see pro boats unloading hundreds of live trout. However I talked to some spearoes and they reckon they still see hundreds of trout out the outer reefs. Makes you wonder where they all come from hey?

[markpeta]

From what I have heard that the size limits are based roughly on 2 breed cycles before the size limit.

[Volvo]

Maybe the drought weve been experiencing over the last ten years or so have sumthin to do with Fish numbers???..
I can remember many moons ago simmilar argument come up and then we had cyclonic conditions where it P!!ssed down rain fer near two weeks, rivers run and couldnt move on the water fer floating logs etc..Two or so weeks later when water started clearing change could be seen near straight away..
Mindya trying to feed the rest of the World with our Fish mightnt help much either??...
As for David Bateman having a point??..Who knows?? Only Time will tell..
But can tell you that when Snapper move in somewhat closer to our reefs up here for Spawning its an experience n a halfe if you happen to be about with a line in the water... :o....n one of the best moves having been made to date is closures to all during Spawning me thinks :)..

[cHiCo]

Have ya ever had a think about how much ocean there really is out there???

[Sportfish_5]

Good call Chico. We fish 2/5ths of 5/8ths of whats out there.


Greg

[mackmauler]

Dont think they cant be fished out, go try the gold coast if your from up north, one would think the place had been nuked.

[Mick]

Also must consider that fish become more cluey and that they are actualy around but not bighting those things with hooks in them. For example, there are 100 fish under your local jetty and you go down there with some fresh bait at the right time on the right tide but don't catch anything. Then you go to a secret remote bombie off shore that also has 100 fish on it. Its the wrong time, wrong tide and the bait is 2 months old but you catch 50 fish.
I think fish adjust better then what we realise. Fish that live close to human interaction and close to heavily fished areas are harder to catch then fish that live in the opposite type areas.

[Sportfish_5]

Yeah mick spot on and that was the point i tried to make but did not word correctly. The areas that are well known have been hit hard and hit for a long time but there is a lot of water with good country at the bottom within reach if you dont follow the rest.

Greg

[hundgie]

Hi all Im a little envious of you guys in queensland at the moment,looks like your having a priety good time on the snapper at this time of year.I have been viewing your site for 18 months now but have only recently started to post my thourghts.When i was 15 years old i used to fish for snapper with my old man at places like the banks(shoalhaven heads) and the hump(north of wollongong)my best snapper back then(and still is now) was 15lb and we used to catch plenty of fish around that size as well as trag,jew,kingies,yellow fin and marlin.Now days im 29 years old and i struggle to even come close to what we did back when i was 15,and im not the only one who has this problem,some old guys i know who taught me every thing i know cant believe how much things have changed.And please dont get me wrong if i were you guys i would be keeping my share of big snapper to,but i dont think i would kill as many as we did in the old days.I dont think you need to fill the freezer every time you go out and you dont have to target the same species at the same spot every time you go out.Like i said dont me wrong im no greenie im just telling it like it is.

[Volvo]

hundgie, looks like you n me caught em all out n moved on mate :-X..
Used to fish off Conno beach about mile or so out myself for the ole Snapperies and Trag, and yes no probs then:)..
Mindya have heard they are still about offshore but not in close??..
Not gettin ya wrong either mate as ya tellin it as you see it...
Cheers

[hundgie]

Yeah cheers for your comments volvo,I also agree about offshore fishing,shaw they are still there but not in as many numbers and you might go for weeks trying without any result.Thats why i dont even bother any more,would rather target kingies which are making a welcome return since the banning of king fish traps and big flatties on sp's up the river,also starting to target drummer which will be a real hoot when i catch my first bigen.

[ratsack]

Have ya ever had a think about how much ocean there really is out there


Have ya ever had a think about how many ocean going trawlers are out there. We will reduce the fish numbers if allowed.

[hundgie]

Some of the trawlers out there are alright(the ones that dont waste any of there catch and dont over fish certain species)but i have no time for long liners,who knows whats going to eat the bait.I used to work on a charter boat and every now n then we tune in and listen to the long liners working off sydney,I once herd one of them braging how he had to dump a load of albacore because he just came across a school of yellow fin but didnt have enough space in the ice room for them so he dumped his entire load of albies so he could refill with y'fin.

[Mick]

Hey this might be off the topic a bit, but why is it that the creatures we want to live with us in healthy numbers (eg snapper, coral trout) don't, and the creatures we try to eliminate (eg mosquitoes, flies, canetoads) we can't.

[devocean]

No market for em mick. Maybe we could free dry the sandies and mozzies in duck creek and send em to Japan as crushed up seahorse

[Volvo]

Export Canetoads , now there's a money maker..just need to find buyers ::)..