Community Data Report - 2020 SCF Research & Sustainability Competition

STEFAN SAWYNOK / INFOFISH AUSTRALIA

2020 concluded a triumvirate of successful events taking the cumulative total of fish reported to 3097.  Despite COVID restrictions and weather.

• Inshore effort dominated in the wind conditions with inshore catch being closer to 2019 (6% higher than 2019) and offshore being closer to 2018 (3 fish difference)

• Overall men returned a similar result to 2018 but the improvement in effort from Juniors and Women added 385 fish to ensure that overall results were closer to 2019

• Women responded to the opportunity in 2020 recording the highest overall catch rate of 9.6 fish/fisher/day.

• The ratio of Barred Javelin to Speckled Javelin increased in the favour of Barred Javelin and 3 separate year class recruits were detected (1 year, 2 year and 3 year).  Barred Javelin is now being monitored as an indicator of Climate Change influence on the estuary.

Inshore vs Offshore

Fishing conditions play a big role in results and poor conditions in 2020 saw a 73% drop in offshore catches, returning a similar result to 2018 in terms of fish reported.  In both cases the active fishing window was similar.  The more interesting result comes in the inshore category.  

Good conditions and greater participation saw a jump of 43% in the inshore category from 2018 to 2019.  In 2020 though when conditions forced fishers to focus on inshore options there was only a further 6% rise in catches on 2020.  While COVID restrictions likely played a part in overall effort it may be that the inshore areas are reaching their peak productivity in terms of fishing and this is closer to the longer term result.  2021 will be very interesting to watch to see if total catch numbers vary significantly from 2019/2020.

Development of Juniors

The development of Junior fishers in the Sunshine Coast region should be seen as one of the great successes of the influence of SCF.  In the initial event (2018) the juniors entries were in line with the majority of events in the Track My Fish network, with a smaller but enthusiastic presence.  Since 2019 though the Junior Division has become highly contested with catch rates of 8.4 fish/fisher in 2019 and 9.3 fish/fisher in 2020.  

Impact of Women

2020 should be seen as the year when as with mainstream sports like cricket, soccer and AFL, women stepped out of the shadow of the mens event and started to demonstrate that they have the skills to compete in their own right.  The SWB event in Cooroboree and events like SCF have seen the women demonstrating the ability to handle a much wider range of tackle, species and environments.  As a result, while the male total contribution was in line with 2018, the accelerated performances of women and juniors took the final result too much closer to 2019 overall.  

The impact of women should not be underestimated but it’s been in women's only events the big strides have been taken.  SCF would do well to recognise this trend and provide the women an event to show off not only their ability to catch fish but that they can can do so with as higher level of fish care and as respectful of Citizen Science as the men.  

Climate Change?

In 2019 we first detected Pikey Bream in the catch but overall Barred Javelin might be a better species to be tracking in 2020.  For the second time in 2020 we picked up a sub 100 recruit from an event and in all we detected 3 different year classes in Barred Javelin recruits indicating that their presence is not simply fish coming into the system.  At this point Barred Javelin are looking positive as an indicator species of change in the fishery with the proportion of Barred to Speckled Javelin being the indicator.

Pikey Bream will still be tracked but at this stage, Barred Javelin is seen as being the most positive indicator of change in the estuary.  It should be noted that Barred Javelin are typically found in the same environments as Barramundi and their increased presence may be an indicator that conditions are improving for Barramundi.

Of the stories from this years SCF event, this one is the one that has the most significant implications if the trend continues.

Fish Visual Condition

In 2018 conducted a project with Gladstone Healthy Harbours Partnership and Fisheries Research Development Corporation to use an image recognition (supplemented by humans) as a means of developing large scale fish visual condition checks. Since 2018 over 30,000 fish have been assessed from across Australia and New Zealand.

Fish Visual Condition checks have been conducted in all 3 years and overall fish have been in good visual condition with the only issue identified of any not being fin condition. This is not a cause for concern at this stage as most fin issues were minor and part of the normal wear and tear of being fish though this issue is being monitored in case fishing gear could be listed as a cause. Fin splits for example have been identified as a part of handling with finer braid lines.

DeformIties

We have established an inshore and offshore species to monitor deformities – Bream and Snapper.   Bream have 2 core issues identified Saddleback and Tail Deformities, Snapper develop a hump on their head.  While there is no alarm we are tracking these for longer term trends to better understand the presence of deformities in the region.  

In 2019 Snapper deformities were high at 39% of fish reported (111 total) which was a high, none were reporting in 2018/2020 but this is likely a function of the weather conditions where the opportunity to catch larger snapper was very limited.

For the first time we started to detect saddleback in bream and while the levels were low this will be monitored in the coming years.

Parasites

This year we had fishers reporting their observations as a part of the event and this was a welcome addition.  Detecting parasites is a challenge as only obvious external parasites get detected on review but in this year we had an instance of a flathead with a tongue parasite reported.  Fishers paying greater attention in future events will help flesh out the detection process.

The SCF Research & Sustainability Fishing Competition, is the most powerful data collection method, in the country - For recreational fishing citizen science! Each person who enters 1-2+ fish into the event, plays a highly important role in the result! Check out all the amazing data YOU collected at the 2019 competition..

PLEASE NOTE* Your Location information will only be accessible by InfoFish Australia. We respect everyones privacy and ensure that your fishing locations will NEVER be viewed by SCF staff/anyone else, and will only ever be displayed in a heat mat format.