3 year ban in SA

[frozenpod]

The quantity of fish caught is a small % of the total biomass hence there is more than enough fish to spawn.

The success of the spawning and the survival of the eggs and fingerlings is the key factor.

You can clearly size the size gap in the vic fish from when there was years of failed spawning due to dredging.

[frozenpod]

I'm all for upping the size limit to 35cm and a no take policy during spawning.

But as already suggested. Keeping the environment they live and spawn in pristine condition is key.. and I must say vicfisheries are certainly putting in a lot of effort so good on them..


On another note..
Doesnt the fish from SA the same ones that migrate down to us, or do we get a different batch of fish that visit us every year?
Or was it the fish we get here that visit them after. I remeber it was something like that..

Cheers

Victorian snapper move during colder months. Some go west to the Bight and some go east to NSW. The pinkies generally stay local till the reach breeding size.
Like most fish they have a minimum and maximum temperature range. Not many snapper around in sub 16c or over 24c. Interestingly Snapper and KGW are becoming more common in Tasmanian waters. Particularly the NE coast and East coast.
Temperature, food, clean water, salinity. That is all fish look for.

Yes Eastern and Western Snapper. Eastern East of the prom, western west of the prom

The Western snapper seem to have more and more remaining in vic waters ie winter reds. It was almost impossible to catch snapper passed late Feb early March yet these days they are caught all year round in PPB.

I would say this is in part effecting SA numbers.

[frozenpod]

I'm all for upping the size limit to 35cm and a no take policy during spawning.

But as already suggested. Keeping the environment they live and spawn in pristine condition is key.. and I must say vicfisheries are certainly putting in a lot of effort so good on them..


On another note..
Doesnt the fish from SA the same ones that migrate down to us, or do we get a different batch of fish that visit us every year?
Or was it the fish we get here that visit them after. I remeber it was something like that..

Cheers

The problem is the survival rate of released fish. Snapper as do most reef fish suffer barotrauma and do not release well.

If you increased the minimum size to 35cm what is the point of releasing a 32cm fish that will die.

In some parts of the world they have moved to you keep what you catch regardless of the size for this reason.

If we needed to reduce the number of snapper taken from the water (and based on the VFA information we don't) it would better to reduce the bag limit rather than increasing the minimum size.

[re-tyred]

Again from egg count research. You only need a small number of fish to repopulate a fishery. It is all about conditions for survival to adult fish.


" a small snapper will produce a seemingly respectable 30,000 eggs in a season while a large female might spawn an incredible 75 million or more eggs each season! And if it should survive to the known maximum of its longevity, a female could potentially spawn nearly 4 billion eggs in her lifetime."

[purple5ive]

I'm all for upping the size limit to 35cm and a no take policy during spawning.

But as already suggested. Keeping the environment they live and spawn in pristine condition is key.. and I must say vicfisheries are certainly putting in a lot of effort so good on them..


On another note..
Doesnt the fish from SA the same ones that migrate down to us, or do we get a different batch of fish that visit us every year?
Or was it the fish we get here that visit them after. I remeber it was something like that..

Cheers

The problem is the survival rate of released fish. Snapper as do most reef fish suffer barotrauma and do not release well.

If you increased the minimum size to 35cm what is the point of releasing a 32cm fish that will die.

In some parts of the world they have moved to you keep what you catch regardless of the size for this reason.

If we needed to reduce the number of snapper taken from the water (and based on the VFA information we don't) it would better to reduce the bag limit rather than increasing the minimum size.

I didnt think of it like that, make sense defenitely.
I usually fish 10m and under and even then for the pinkies not bug snapper..so it didnt occur to me about the deep water fish not surviving..

Cheers