Teewah Mullet Haul

[Slider]

Was looking at the surf from my brother's balcony this morning when I noticed a school of mullet behaving erratically - and ten seconds later a local netter pulled up into my line of sight of the beach to explain my observation. To gain a better view I moved to the top of the dunes as I wanted to observe the mullet behaviour while being pursued by the 'predator' - scientific term.
The mullet were clearly skittish - breaking the surface and long fast leaping, heading rapidly south then rapidly north then back again - all over the shop. But no boats had been deployed at this stage which you would think be required before the mullet should become skittish. I have seen this before however.

Having again lost my line of sight, I went down on to the beach where a few old timers were fishing and we had a quick chat. The pros, they said, had been following the school for over half an hour at this point - this is what had made the mullet skittish. As mentioned, I have seen this behaviour before - the pros following schools and after a while the mullet recognise that they are being stalked and start to display the panicked behaviour. It sems amazing and the usual skeptics will disbelieve, but there is no doubt that they are seeing the pros - 6 or 7 boats and 10 or so vehicles and they switch on. This is further evidence of fish's anti-predator abilities to add to all the other evidence in relation to nets.

Shortly after a net boat is deployed with the urgency of a drag racer at Willowbank - waves over the windsreen of the Cruiser as it drives forwards into the surf with the drawbar on the front and the boat facing the ocean for a quick despatch. The boat circles the school which looks to be about 20 tonne at full speed and back to shore where it beaches at high speed. However, it quickly becomes apparent that most of the school is not inside the net and is fleeing south eastwards and leaving a milky trail of spawn in their wake. One can assume that this is as a result of their panic.

So, the net is slowly hauled in and I can see small dart riding waves within the net and some mullet. The pockets of the net, once within reach to hook up to a vehicle are hauled up on to the beach at 30ks an hour to the dry sand where they stay while nets are tidied, vehicles unbogged, abuse and threats made to Lindsay who has just been checking the bycatch - which is some small dart, small bream and some undersized mullet.

At this point I bail as it's getting heated, but the bycatch is dead and no attempt has been made to release them, which I understand is lawful practise as per the Qld Commercial Fisheries Handbook for the ocean haul fishery and including K8. Am waiting on confirmation of that as there was some doubt amongst the Fishery guys at Noosa.

All up, there would have been about 5 tonne of mullet beached along with a small bycatch. It has been pointed out to me that there is rarely bycatch in mullet nets and I don't disagree - these days. But 20 years ago there would have been a lot of dart, bream, whiting and tarwhine taken in a mullet net near Teewah and my family and others would be the ones trying to save them, but never any attempt by the pros who were only interested in the mullet. The lack of bycatch now is merely a symptom of the lack of fish that do get caught up - but whatever....

Talking with the old timers afterwards and the subject of spooking is raised by one of them - which is a turn up for the books that it wasn't me. He said that he used to work as a mullet netter at Kawana in the 70s and prawner off Caloundra. He went on to say that any pro netter worth their salt knows that you won't get anything in the vicinity of a previously shot net for days after. They were settling in for a drink when I left them as they reckoned there was no point fishing. A few other local's had been fishing a couple of kms north of Teewah this morning and had a few dart and bream in the bag early - before net time - but by lunch had not caught another fish and had settled in for a drink themselves.

No photos Kev - do you think I'm mad?

[Still_Dreamin]

fair observations I would have thought. Thinking about all those vehicles driving along the edge of the surf. Maybe the fish can sense the vibration. Was there much of swell to disguise this?

[Slider]

Very little swell Still Dreamin, but I think it's a visual cue that the mullet are relying on. The last time I saw such a reaction was when the mullet had been followed from the 3rd cut north to Teewah - 6kms or so. The boats and vehicles had pulled up and were stationary about 50 metres to the north of where a mate and I were spinning lures. As the mullet came past us as a cohesive school from the south and arrived at the very point on the beach where the netters were parked, they went nuts and scattered in all directions, except the direction they had been going. It was extremely obvious that it had to be the sight of the congregation of vehicles/boats that set them off.
I think also that the fact that there had been a previous attempt further south to herd the mullet with a boat had triggered their level of alertness. There is quite a deal of science that deals with vessel/gear noise and net avoidance by fishes which is believed to be both sound and sight driven. It could be a combination of factors and fish are known to utilise all of their sensory inputs to avoid predators.

[Still_Dreamin]

Natural selection as described by Darwin. Those mullet that have not learnt the signals get netted, those that wisen up survive. This trait then gets passed down through genetics. Thankfully the netters gene pool appears to be shallower and maybe one day natural selection will see them a figment of the past

[Slider]

That's effectively it - wrt the mullet.
However, we know that experienced fish will demonstrate predator avoidance techniques to fish that are naive to the predator and that it only takes a single learning experience for those naive fish to then become experienced at avoiding that predator. At the same time, the predator becomes more adept at exploiting weaknesses in avoidance techniques and/or finds new ways of seeking prey. Is an 'evolutionary arms race' - as these circumstances are described.
However, when man is the predator and technological advancement allows for greater predatory 'power' than conventional evolution, then things get way out of wack. This is compounded by the fact that fish do not have an innate anti-predator response to man whereas they do to natural predators and these natural anti-predatory responses are passed down through genetics. This is why invasive species can have such a large impact on natural ecosystems when the invasion first occurs and prior to anti-predator responses being developed by the native species.

In an angling sense - is why we need to keep changing lures because the fish develop anti-predator responses after a while to a particular lure that is working.

[liltuffy]

Sounds to me like pro beach netters are the cane toads of our foreshores, hopefully crows will figure out how to flip over the two legged pro toads and and eat out their insides, before their prey are extinct.

Craig

[Tailorfisho78]

Slider
I hope you armed yourself with a camera and took plenty of photos of the above mentioned along with licence numbers and vehicle number plates so you can name and shame for not following simple guidelines. If what your saying is true these cowboys are giving the good betters a bad name

[mattooty]

I'd love to see footage of that next time! It sounds borderline unreal.
Observations aside, some raw footage would solidify your work and study.

[Shark Poker]

Hi All,
If you have not noticed, I started a thread yesterday re a possible solution to reduce netting. Maybe you could have a look.
Pauly

[Slider]

As mentioned in the original post - my holding a camera would not be wise as much as I would very much like to get pics or video. I would hope that such observations can be recorded on video in the future - by a professional commissioned by FQ I think would be the best way.

That netting style is standard fare - I haven't seen it done any other way around here, although the pockets did hit the beach at a higher speed than normal.

I think I've given a perfectly accurate account of what I and the other guys saw and what actually took place. Which part are you referring to though Mattooty?

Which thread and where Pauly?

[Shark Poker]

http://www.ausfish.com.au/vforum/sho...ducing-Netting

Thanks for your personal and articulate report, Slider.
My post is not about being aggressive it is just about facing a wave, and letting the tide turn.

[chisel]

Get a camera with a LONG zoom (eg. 60x optical zoom). Should be able to record pretty good footage from 100m+ away, with your presence unknown.

[Tailorfisho78]

As mentioned in the original post - my holding a camera would not be wise as much as I would very much like to get pics or video. I would hope that such observations can be recorded on video in the future - by a professional commissioned by FQ I think would be the best way.

That netting style is standard fare - I haven't seen it done any other way around here, although the pockets did hit the beach at a higher speed than normal.

I think I've given a perfectly accurate account of what I and the other guys saw and what actually took place. Which part are you referring to though Mattooty?

Which thread and where Pauly?

Slider

There is nothing wrong nor illegal with filming wildlife on the beach. If these netters are not doing anything wrong they should not have a problem with cameras being pulled out. If they do and turn on you at least you will have evidence for both the fishery inspectors and police. My experience with netters doing the wrong thing is they do not like cameras coming out and the half a dozen times I have been on the beach when a net goes out I can only remember once that they kept the net in about knee deep water the rest of them drag it high and dry and funnily enough every netting operation I have witnessed on qld beaches have had NSW registered number plates???

[Slider]

Still prefer it if someone else was holding the camera.

Anyway - looks like the mullet guys have bailed and it's unlikely that anyone will even try to find tailor schools to net. Therefore, the opportunities for recs might be slightly enhanced as a result and there's plenty of good gutters to explore. Doesn't mean there's a 'beach bliss' to be had (for those that remember that thread) but a feed should be available for those that work for one.

[mattooty]

If you're going to fight for reform, you can't hide behind others (with cameras). I applaud you for your strength and persistance in this regards, but what happens when you make headway and they start having their industry reformed based on your findings? Same result, albeit slightly down the track....