DPI&F has thanked to fishers who have willingly participated in voluntary fisheries monitoring programs this tailor season, particularly those fishing Fraser Island. It is told that DPI&F´s monitoring team has carried out three trips per year to Fraser Island to collect information as part of its tailor monitoring programme.
Senior fisheries biologist Jason McGilvray explained that while on the island, DPI&F staff monitors the length and age of as many recreationally caught tailor as possible. He added that the latest trip to Fraser Island saw over 2000 recreationally caught fish being measured at popular fishing locations over a five-day period. He said that nearly 350 tailor frames were collected and processed in the makeshift laboratory.
He informed that the island´s ‘lab’ is actually a table and sink under a shady tree; it does the job and is actually a very pleasant place to work. According to him the information gathered from these fish frames and 3000 other collected this year allows scientists to establish the sex and the age of the fish, as well as their size.
It is informed that the information collected from this programmed can be used to monitor the stock in a general sense, for example to identify significant changes in length structure, sex ratio or age structure. McGilvary pointed out that this porgramme contributes to detailed stock assessments designed to detect major changes in the fish population size and to evaluate the appropriateness of fisheries management arrangements.
He opined that monitoring fisheries is needed to help ensure Queensland fisheries are profitable and sustainable for the years to come. Tailor is just one of the species which the public can assist to monitor.
