Newsletter
The Humble Prawn
The humble prawn has been the go to bait for fishers in Queensland forever. Here is a list of the species caught on prawns as listed in the Suntag Database. Species Number Tagged YELLOWFIN BREAM 6737 SPECKLED JAVELIN 2431 SNAPPER 979 GRASS EMPEROR 968 PIKEY BREAM 877 BARRED JAVELIN 729 DUSKY FLATHEAD 639 BARRAMUNDI 576 GOLDSPOTTED ROCKCOD 423 TARWHINE
A LONG TIME AGO IN AN IMPOUNDMENT NOT SO FAR AWAY
Eighteen years and 3 days before a Bass was recaptured about 1km below Somerset dam wall it was tagged in the lake and went over the dam wall sometime. This is the second longest time between tagging and recapture for a Bass. It was tagged at 260mm and recaptured at 425mm 6,577 days later. Growth rate of around 9mm/year shows
THE BIG PICTURE
There are many stories in the fish in the Suntag database that have been told through the Suntag Facebook. Every now and then it is good to stand back and look at the big picture. What is the longest time between tagging and recapture for different species? How many times have fish of different species been recaptured? How far have
ROCKY BARRA BOUNTY MEETS CRYSTAL BOWL
The Rocky Barra Bounty is a fishing tag and release event held on the Fitzroy River in Central Queensland around Oct each year. This year’s event has just been completed with 433 Barramundi caught (412 tagged and 21 recaptures). This included 6 fish tagged over 1m with the biggest at 1.25m tagged by Quintin Maclean (see photo of fish being
MOVING AROUND THE BURNETT
The flooding in the Burnett River in 2013 had a devastating effect on areas of Bundaberg. However the record flood also provided the opportunity for fish to move around like never before. This and other flooding allowed Bass tagged in impoundment to leave and move downstream. On the other hand Golden Perch tagging in the river moved upstream with a
WHAT ARE THE CHANCES?
If you wanted to do a video of a the recapture of a tagged fish the odds of pulling this of would be very long. By chance Andy Thomsen of Anysfishing on YouTube managed to do that. Recently Andy caught a tagged fish both on line and on video in the Proserpine area. To make it even more interesting the
ANOTHER YEAR IN THE LIFE OF SUNTAG
Suntag has been providing a service to the fishing industry for 27 years. In that time there has been a total investment of $15-20 million invested by government, corporates, other funders and researchers with in kind contributions by volunteer taggers and stocking groups. Those contributions have resulted in a database contained over 1.05 million fish records making it the largest
FOCUS ON THE GULF
Both the Australian and Queensland Governments have the development of the north on their agenda. Agricultural development is proposed for the Flinders and Gilbert Rivers in the Gulf of Carpentaria and mining development for the Weipa area. These will have some impact on the rivers, marine ecology and fish resources. Tagging has been going on in the Gulf area since
LOOKING INTO THE “CRYSTAL BOWL”
Infofish Australia is developing the “Crystal Bowl” to predict fish stocks. In 2011 the first predictions were made for Barramundi stocks in the Fitzroy River. In 2013 this was extended to predicting Barramundi in the Gladstone area and Threadfin the Fitzroy River. Barramundi in Herbert Creek in the Stanage Bay area will be added in 2015. Suntag forms an important
HOW OLD DO SARATOGA GET?
There have not been many Saratoga tagged and fewer recaptured. This fish was tagged in the Connors River (inland from Clairview) back in 2002 was recently recaptured 12.1 years later as shown in the photo. The fish was 630mm when tagged and 650mm when recaptured showing how slow these fish can grow. Just how old would a fish of 1m