Gladstone Fish Health Investigation 2011 - 2012 - Western Basin ...

During late March escapee fish captured in the harbour that were kept for the table hadstarted roe development for a possible late spawning due to high water temperatures inMarch. Barramundi frames including these roe developments were handed to Bill Sawynokfor further analysis. The weather cooled immediately after these findings and no further roedevelopments were found. (The coming three months Nov, Dec, 2010 and Jan, 2011 willoffer better information on escapee barra spawn possibilities).April- BoomingBy the 1st April I had personally caught tagged barramundi over 51km from the AwoongaDam wall (south to Bird Island, Rodd's Bay) Tag data showed place of origin was from LakeAwoonga. (See image A 1).Charter and personal trips produced numerous saltwatercaught, tagged barra, originally from Awoonga. Vastschools of barra had moved away from the Boyne and welure caught hundreds of fish in this 50km southern zone andmy predictions had some of these fish ending up in theGreat Sandy Straights, well to the south. ( currently14/11/2011 there has been recorded tag data fromAwoonga barramundi captured in the Burnett River,Bundaberg, approximately 174 km south) so the trend forwide spread movement is frimly documented.Figure G Nice BarraAt this stage (late April) during the time line it was lookingfine, barramundi were being caught from the freshwaterreaches of the Boyne, the harbour and now in numerousreaches of estuary systems over big areas. Somesensational lure fishing was still being had in the lowerBoyne River whilst commercial netters still worked outsidethe mouth. By mid April it was obvious that barramundiwere scattered over large distances of coast line creatingimpressive fisheries for both rec and commercial anglers.I joined Dr Ben Diggles and Kurt Hutchbyfrom GAWB on a science trip below the damwall to catch by line as many barra aspossible and check each one for health anddisease.Figure H. There were numerous issuesnoted by Dr Ben Diggles143