Originally Posted by Jarrah Jack
Don't push me Terry...............a week on the bench would do you good (trust me, I know!!)
Don't push me Terry...............a week on the bench would do you good (trust me, I know!!)
Seeing the mullet run is on again, usually on the Westerly and South West winds,,,,I can get mullet @ $2.00kg whole, good to eat and good for bait
Bondy
Tell me what by product you have seen in a Mullet "shot"? Please don't say your mate said... and tonnes of Bream, Jewies spotlighted at night, just some first hand eye witness fact will do.
OK, here is a shot of Mullet, don't know how many tonnes, but there was not one noticeable other species caught, of course there may have been "something else" but the numbers would be minute, no Whales, Dolphins, Turtles, no tonnes of Bream, not one Jewfish, just Mullet.
G'day Noelm,
Nice and cold down your way?
Might be a good mullet run this year. Thanks for the photo. I wonder if Ray Hollis or his sons are amongst the crew. I know Hollis has been targeting mullet around the Newcastle areas, Stockton Beach, Horsehoe Bay etc. Not sure down Woolloongong way though.
Cheers, Bondy
it is very cold down here, but that photo is in QLD (Caloundra area) can't remember exactly where though. The Mullet season down here is very much up in the air, we got the westerly winds, but the sea was huge, all sorts of strange weather going on here this year, no idea how the Mullet guys will go, maybe they won't get any at all.
True enough Noelm - there tends to be very little bycatch associated with mullet hauls. On occasions here, there are small dart, bream, tarwhine, tailor, but not usually very many. However, I wouldn't expect there to be either as the other species have generally already bolted for the hills with the first mullet net of the season.
If we netted inside the mouths of estuaries there would be even less bycatch and the surf species wouldn't need to bolt anywhere.
Wouldn't you think there would be a lot more small unwanted (by catch) inside the estuaries??
Where there is suitable habitat for sure. But the mullet school just inside the estuary mouths where it tends to be sand and this is where I propose they be netted - though the toadfish won't like it. Maximum efficiency for the netters because the mullet can't disperse and minimal disruption to the behavioural dynamics of other species. I have concerns about shorebirds that use these same areas, but the shorebird experts in this area are with me in that the overall benefits outweigh the negatives. It is only 2 months of the year and for a limited number of shots - less shots than are required on the open beach where shorebirds can be affected anyway and seabirds vastly more affected by predatory fish absence.
Slider,
The only thing about that proposal (netting the mouth) is the old mullet would not have enough time torid itself of the old muddy river smell and taste to the cleaner seawater taste. I could be wrong but 'm sure I read somewhere mullet required some time to take on that clean seawater characteristic smell.
Cheers Bondy
Just supposing Bondy that these fish are actually finding their way to local seafood distributors which I greatly doubt, they are more often than not netted 400 metres away which I can't imagine provides adequate 'flushing' anyway.
Speaking for this region, the mullet that are being supplied as seafood are mostly coming from the river or Noosa Lakes which as you quite rightly point out, taste a bit like mud.
So let us dispel this rumour that mullet that are netted for the roe are being consumed by local seafood consumers. The mullet taken from this beach which are never iced before being put on a Markwells Seafood truck and transported to south of the Tweed, do not find their way to 'local' seafood distributors anywhere near this region. They are far more likely to be sold as bait, which is appropriate given that they are never iced, and on occasions end up as cat food or fertiliser.
The tailor taken from this beach have flesh that is like mush before they even leave the beach in an uniced state and I'd feel terribly sorry for anyone that paid to eat the crap. The snub-nosed dart, golden trevally, giant trevally, - species that recs would pay a fortune to catch and which leave this beach in an uniced state, are sold for $5 or less a kg to wholesalers who eventually distribute to retailers who eventually sell to consumers .... and it's of a quality that is best served to a cat. Wonder why we're importing basa when we're wasting our own fish.
Just to follow up on that subject of our 'fresh' 'local' seafood being supplied by beach netters -
I've been watching the netting at Sandy Cape at the northern tip of Fraser Island now for about 30 years. The fellow who nets there most often and has a permanent camp there, generally stays for a week at a time. He'll net the day he arrives each trip and put the catch in an esky on the back of the ute. He rarely nets the following day because the fish haven't returned after being spooked by the net the previous day. Then he'll net on day 3 and put the catch in the esky on the back of the ute. No netting the next day, but on day 5 or 6 he'll net again and the catch goes on top of the previous catches in the esky. Depending on the tides he can leave the island straight after the 3rd shot or it has to be the next day before he can leave to take it to a wholesaler.
So there's no escaping the fact that the fish that were netted on day 1 can be up to 7 days old before they get to a wholesaler who then distributes to retailers who sell to the public as fresh local seafood. The netter is getting $6.50 for the whiting, so Mr and Mrs Jones who purchase this fish at a price that I'm guessing is quite a deal higher, are eating fish that could be 8, 9 or 10 days old.
To my way of thinking there is a principle here that is all wrong and especially when these fish are being taken from waters that are included in the Fraser Island World Heritage area. Anglers who travel to Sandy Cape to catch a feed and fail because it's being netted, don't do so cheaply as it tends to be a fairly expensive business to comfortably camp at Sandy Cape. Tourists who travel to what they believe to be a pristine World Heritage area in the hope of seeing some wildlife like seabirds, dolphins, fish, don't see anything other than a very pretty place that is devoid of marine life. But old mate is laughing because it gives him somewhere to net after he's spooked the fish on Teewah Beach or in the Noosa River or lakes. He deliberately works it on a cyclic basis cause he knows there's no point netting the same place 2 days in a row.
We have the best seafood in the world and we're doing stuff like this to it, exporting the good gear and importing rubbish. It's all f##### up!
Don't quite grasp all this spooked fish business myself, why wouldn't the fish be "spooked" in an estuary mouth, thus rendering the whole place void of fish after a shot? Why aren't the next school of Mullet "spooked" after a recent shot? While I am sure a few fish might get spooked and take off, 10 mins later, they don't care what just happened.
Slider,
I understand where you're coming from and you have a few points.
I can only speak from my own experience in the past when I was involved down south. The fish caught where placed in plastic nallybins. (20kg boxes) and ice was shoveled onto the fish for transportation to the nearest facility (Wallis lake Fish Coop), Fish were taken from Seals Rocks. Mullet was not the prime target at that location, target was Bream and Luderick.
I hour in sunlight (without ice) equates to 1 day loss of shelf-life.
Commercial netters always have to have another job to supplement their income. It's the middle man and end seller that always makes a profit.
I have seen mullet netters further south take reasonable precautions, plenty of mullet caught were iced down asap after capture and offloaded / sold via Newcastle Fishermans Coop. There a few cowboys in the industry that give the rest a bad rapport, just like in any occupation , business or trade.
Male and Female were sold whole &/or fillets.
These days female mullet are not sold whole direct to the public except in fillet form. Roe has been removed and sold to Saudi Arabia and some other country which name escapes me. Roe commands a high dollar return than the mullet ...source Markwell Fisheries at Chinderah NSW.
(Also on Landline some time ago, very imformative). I also read an article in a publication put out by AFMA and FRDC relating to sea mullet exports and processes.
I agree in essence it should be much better , unfortunately only the best stuff goes overseas and probably subsidised and we Aussies get crap in return unless we catch our own...fresh is always best.
Cheers, Bondy
The upstream mullet would be spooked by the net, but they already are by the river nets and the ones 400m north of the mouth and especially when there are efforts by the netters to herd the mullet towards the netting zone. So nothing changes in that sense as far as the mullet are concerned - they still have to exit the estuary to spawn and they do. The major difference is that over time the mullet that escape the nets inside the mouth will recognise that there isn't any danger 400m north of the mouth and they would be able to move through the gutters to the north which is their spawning grounds and their historical and instinctive dynamic.
Species like tailor would be far less affected by alarm cues emitted by netted mullet due to no netting along the open beach and over time would resume their inshore spawning migration where maximum recruitment can occur and where there main prey exists and the resulting larvae are in proximity to estuaries where they must go to live for the first 12 months of their lives.
Other fish inside the estuary mouth would be spooked, but they don't have a whole ocean to flee to and would flee upstream or hide in the mangroves. Their behavioural dynamics are far less affected due to the confines of the estuary and their feeding and spawning behaviour not severely impacted upon.
The only way to prevent spooking fish with nets is to stop netting altogether which I'm not proposing and this method is the lesser of two evils.
It may have been the case once that fish spooked by nets only reacted for a 10 minute period and then resumed normal activity. But over time they make associations between netting trauma and the location that it occurs and they actively avoid those areas. All animals do that including humans - make associations between the sounds/vision/smell experienced and location/time/environmental conditions - and react according to necessity. If the association is of a mortal variety, then the reactions are naturally stronger than any other. Risk assessment in fishes of danger vs feeding is exhaustively documented.
For example - to train a dog, you can't speak English to it and make it understand that you don't want it to chew your slippers. You chastise the dog after each slipper chewing act and it eventually associates the chastising with the slipper chew - and hopefully stops. Simlarly, the dog doesn't understand the word 'dinner', but associates the sound of the word and the fact that it is usually fed when it hears that sound. Just as fish associate the sound of fishing vessels or alarm cues from netted fish with nets.
With fish, there is a perception among humans that they have a very short memory. This is far from the case as fish have been demonstrated to have memories that can last for years and a single event can be retained in their memory for years and especially if that event is of a mortal variety. Even sea urchins react to predators such as otters in this way. All very well documented in behavioural ecology of predator - prey relationships of a huge variety of terrestrial and aquatic species.
The other aspect here is that the sandy area inside the mouth isn't really very good habitat for many species to actually live in. Flathead probably do and toadfish, but this area is used more as a thoroughfare for fish to enter and exit the estuary. So we wouldn't really be chasing fish away from a specific habitat that is essential for their survival - such as the surf gutters are for a number of species.
Hope that answers your question Noelm and thank you for asking - I do want to be able to spell out all the relevant scenarios involved, even if only in brief. The intricacies are very complex and I don't think anyone wants to read about all of them.
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