Rodney Stevens, Clarence Valley Independent

As the son of a professional fisherman growing up during the 1970s in Maclean, Peter Pryor never dreamed of seeing tropical species including Barramundi and Red Emperor caught in the Clarence River.

The president of the Clarence River chapter of Oz Fish said until the early 2000s, local waters were never warm enough to accommodate fish previously only caught in tropical Northern Australia.

“My father Arthur was a professional fisherman who trapped snapper in the Sandon River and trawled for school prawns in the river in season,” he said.

“Dad used to get the odd Yellow Fin Tuna, the odd Marlin.

“But I never saw any of the tropical reef species that fishermen are getting more frequently these days.”

Oz Fish is a not for profit organisation dedicated to the protection and restoration of Australia’s waterways.

The first sign he saw of tropical species landed locally, Mr Pryor said was when he was working for Peter and Shirley Shirren, former owners of Yamba Bait and Tackle around the year 2000.

In those days, Mr Pryor said the East Coast Current occasionally reached a maximum temperature of 25 degrees.

“I saw my first Coral Trout that came out of the Clarence, and it actually came off the middle wall, caught by a young man from Chatsworth, who was still at school,” he said.

“Since then, I have seen a few more Coral Trout caught…I know a bloke who speared four in consecutive years off the same rock at North Solitary Island.

“I’ve also seen Large Mouth Nannygai, which is a tropical species, caught here, Red Emperor, and a friend Shayne Walker caught a Coronation Trout, which are a type of Coral Trout.

“Mangrove Jack also seem to be a lot more plentiful than what they used to be.”

Fishermen took notice, Mr Pryor said when a 1.13 metre Barramundi weighing 17kg was caught last October in the river at Maclean 

“A professional fisherman landed it in a pocket net while prawning in the Clarence River at Maclean; I was astounded,” he said.

The Clarence River Fishermen’s Co-operative posted a photo of the Barramundi on its Facebook page, stating it was ‘hard to believe’.

“Came as a shock to the fisherman and us,” they posted.

When a Richmond River professional fisherman saw the photo, Mr Pryor said he commented that a few Barramundi had been caught there.

The only previous Barramundi caught in the Clarence Mr Pryor had heard of were two caught in prawn nets in Lake Wooloweyah on the same day, several years ago.

“People seem to think that those two had been released, that someone has had a fish tank with some ‘Barra’ in it and they released them into the river,” he said.

Gold Coast fishermen have been reporting increasing catches of good-sized Barramundi in local waterways since 2017.

Warmer waters are seeing tropical fish venture further south, Mr Pryor said, which he saw on the Bureau of Meteorology during summer.

“The rate of warming of the ocean in recent years has been unprecedented,” he said.

“The East Coast Current got up to 28 degrees and stayed there for over two months this year.

“When I was working on prawn trawlers in the 1980s it rarely got to 25 degrees.”

As the ocean continues to warm, Mr Pryor said he expected increased catches of tropical fish species locally.

“There currently aren’t large amounts of them, but they are being caught locally and they’re tropical reef fish that belong on the Great Barrier Reef, they certainly don’t belong down here,” he said.

“They are slowly making their way south we just don’t want the Box Jellyfish and the crocs to come with them.”

For more information or to join Oz Fish go to their Facebook page or visit www.ozfish.org.au

This article appeared in the Clarence Valley Independent, 8 June 2022.