Roving survey on K’gari

August 24, 2023

With unseasonably warm water, fishers found tailor hard to come by. However, we still measured 140 fish and removed 27 pairs of tailor otoliths (fish ear bones).

As a large number of boat-based fishers were heading offshore targeting reef fish, we also collected biological data and otoliths from pearl perch, snapper, and red emperor for our routine monitoring program for these species.

Fishery Monitoring scientists were joined on the island by an Agri-Science Queensland scientist who’s investigating the biology of deepwater fish species, a project funded by the Fisheries Research and Development Corporation (FRDC).

We assisted this project by collecting otoliths, gonads ,and tissue samples from several deepwater species including flame, ruby and rosy snappers.

The information we collect helps us to assess the status of these fish stocks and kickstarts the FRDC deepwater finfish species project to find out more about these interesting fish.

Thanks to all the fishers who donated their fish frames or let us measure their fish during our roving survey on K’gari (Fraser Island) last week!

For more on our monitoring work, check out this YouTube video https://brnw.ch/21wBVLI