Aquaculture & fishing

The future of the Weipa Billfish Club appears to be bright if the results from the club’s annual major tournament are any indication ... The 2022 Hastings Deering Weipa Billfish Tournament attracted 54 anglers in 16 boats, comprising five juniors, 10 women and 39 men.

Tweed Shire Council is urging Tweed River floodplain landowners to seek Council assistance in projects that can improve water quality, after recent testing detected acid-affected water in the river and red spot disease in local fish ... Recent testing has indicated acid sulfate soil (ASS)-related runoff from floodplain drains is affecting water quality in the Tweed River, with indications this is severely impacting fish health.

Log cabins and synthetic trees are part of a successful trial of fish-attracting structures in Queensland which could be just the boon freshwater fishers have been angling for ... the dam stretches over 500 hectares and the hunting ground was too spread out, the fish too hard to find.

A mural depicting the history of fishing on the Fraser Coast has been painted on the side wall of the Urangan Fisheries cold store which faces Fishermans Park ... “It links the Butchulla and European history of fishing in the region,” Councillor Zane O’Keefe said ... Watch the video.

New fishery management arrangements for Spanish mackerel will be introduced from October this year, helping to restore depleted stocks and protect good jobs in the fishing industry for generations to come. The changes will mean two three-week closed seasons in waters off the state’s north starting in October 2022, and two three-week closed seasons in southern waters starting in February 2023.

The presence of White Spot has been confirmed in an enclosed prawn facility in the north of NSW by NSW Department of Primary Industries (DPI) and the Australian Centre for Disease Preparedness. White Spot is a highly contagious viral infection that affects crustaceans and can cause major mortalities in farmed prawns ... “The detection is within an enclosed prawn facility and was identified during routine testing carried out by our DPI Biosecurity Team.: Minister for Agriculture Dugald Saunders

Narrandera is playing a huge part in the fresh water fish stocking season. NSW Department of Primary Industries is in the final stages of the 2021/2022 fish stocking season, which has so far seen more than 4.8 million fish, produced at NSW DPI hatcheries, released throughout the state.

It’s that time of year when irrigation channels are drawn down for maintenance works. Native fish such as Murray cod and yellas often find themselves stranded.

A large number of Murray Cod have been relocated from irrigation channels in the Wakool area, thanks to collaboration between numerous individuals and organisations ... At the end of the irrigation season, it is common for native fish to be left stranded in pools of water behind channel gates and irrigation syphons, and unfortunately, they perish.

The fee reduction is a practical and fast way for the State government to assist the South Australian Rock Lobster fishery, who were impacted by the COVID 19 pandemic and the disruption to the Chinese market.

Citizen science has made an important contribution to an FRDC-funded project to predict the impact of climate change on three fish species of increasing recreational and commercial importance in Tasmania ... Data from the project was gathered from several sources, including fish frames (skeletons) donated by recreational fishers at 16 drop off points around Tasmania, which yielded 801 frames in the 24 months to July 2021. Frames were also donated by commercial fishers and fish processors.

A trial using oyster spats from an Albany Hatchery is assessing if the water conditions of Wilson Inlet will support the growth of native flat oysters. Aquaculturist Zak Launay said conditions created with the 'exceptional opening' of Wilson Inlet last year had created a level of salinity suited to the growing of oysters.

Rodney Stevens. 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.

Today, on World Oceans Day, the Minister for Fisheries joined representatives from the Western Australia Fishing Industries Council and the Marine Stewardship Council to award Rare Foods Australia (RFA) internationally recognised status as a Wild Sustainable Fishery. This achievement by RFA, which operates the world's first abalone ranch near Augusta, becomes another of WA's sustainable fisheries success stories.

Loved for both their great taste and awesome sport fishing, the yellowtail kingfish (Seriola lalandi) is one of Australia’s most economically important fish species. Despite their importance, little is known about the species’ large-scale movements, fine-scale population structure or behaviours ... Project Kingfish aims to deploy satellite transmitters on mature-sized kingfish across the NSW east coast and key offshore habitats such as the Lord Howe Island Marine Park to gain further insights ...

Two new studies led by Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies (IMAS, UTAS) scientists provide an approach for accurately assessing the carbon storage capability of seaweed before it is factored into carbon offset initiatives, and highlight the need for further research into the impact of extending seaweed forests offshore into oceanic ecosystems.

The Northern Territory Space Strategy 2022-2026 builds on the success of Territory Space industry 2020 and establishes a vision for the Northern Territory to be recognised as the home of high altitude pseudo-satellites in the Indo-Pacific region, Australia’s premier space launch location and a leading regional centre for ground station facilities.

Dave Donald. While anti-fishing groups have long been opposed to recreational fishing, to claim they have colluded in a major way to “slash Spanish mackerel quotas” is a fabrication. Seeking to lay the blame for the depletion of Spanish mackerel stocks solely on Labor is another furphy as exceptionally poor fisheries management under BOTH major parties essentially created the current situation.

Katter's Australian Party Leader Robbie Katter has backed a Cairns game fishing leader’s condemnation of the state government for siding with anti-fishing groups to slash Spanish mackerel quotas ... Cairns Professional Game Fishing Association spokesman Dan McCarthy said the survey on the management measures for the east coast Spanish mackerel fishery released by DAF was skewed towards severe restrictions and used a very different stock assessment model and method to any ever used before.

Researchers, Investors, Project Developers and industry participants all play an important role to scale up ocean carbon project development that will bring new innovation to enable large scale emissions reduction, plus many co-benefits such as biodiversity and jobs.