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Barramundi Monitoring Project Milestone 4 Report page 1 KING ASH BAY BARRAMUNDI MONITORING PROJECT Project name: King Ash Bay Barramundi Monitoring Organisation: Infofish Services on behalf of King Ash Bay Fishing Club MILESTONE NUMBER: 4 REPORT PERIOD: NOVEMBER 2009 - MAY 2010 MILESTONE DATE: 1JUNE 2010 REPORT DATE: 4 JUNE 2010 REPORT AUTHOR: Bill Sawynok MILESTONE 4 REQUIREMENTS: Report for the period November 2009 - May 2010 detailing: - Expenditure of the funds in milestone 4 (providing receipts). - Data collection and analysis (includes the data for NT Fisheries) on boat ramp surveys, trailer counts, tagging Barramundi, juvenile Barramundi counts, update on the setting up of the education centre. MILESTONE 4 SUMMARY Milestone report 2 provided a summary of what was achieved from June - November 2009. Milestone report 3 was an interim report covering November - February 2010. Milestone report 4 provides a summary of what has been achieved from November 2009 - May 2010. Following workshop 2 the King Ash Bay Fishing Club was set up to continue data collection on the project through the wet season. This included collecting data through: Continued tagging of Barramundi Trailer counts at the King Ash Bay boat ramp Collecting details of fishing trips from boat ramp surveys and trip sheets November was the last month in 2009 where there were numbers of visitors to King Ash Bay. From the first week of December numbers dropped significantly with few visitors and around 30 permanent residents remaining. This resulted in only limited opportunity for the collection of additional data during the summer wet season. In early 2010 Cyclone Olga reformed in the Gulf of Carpentaria and this resulted in a minor flood in the McArthur River. The monsoon remained fairly active through to the end of February resulting in high river flows with little or no fishing activity for most of January and February. In late March and early April Cyclone Paul significantly affected the area with the access road closed much of the time. Figure 1 shows the monthly rainfall for Borroloola and Centre Island showing the high levels of rainfall from January to April. The access road was reopened at the end of April and there has been no further rain during May.
Transcript
Page 1: KING ASH BAY BARRAMUNDI MONITORING …info-fish.net/king-ash-bay/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/KAB...KING ASH BAY BARRAMUNDI MONITORING PROJECT Project name: King Ash Bay Barramundi ...

Barramundi Monitoring Project Milestone 4 Report page 1

KING ASH BAY BARRAMUNDI MONITORING PROJECT

Project name:

King Ash Bay BarramundiMonitoring

Organisation:

Infofish Services on behalf of KingAsh Bay Fishing Club

MILESTONE NUMBER: 4REPORT PERIOD: NOVEMBER 2009 - MAY 2010MILESTONE DATE: 1 JUNE 2010REPORT DATE: 4 JUNE 2010REPORT AUTHOR: Bill Sawynok

MILESTONE 4 REQUIREMENTS:

Report for the period November 2009 - May 2010 detailing:­ Expenditure of the funds in milestone 4 (providing receipts).­ Data collection and analysis (includes the data for NT Fisheries) on boat ramp

surveys, trailer counts, tagging Barramundi, juvenile Barramundi counts, update onthe setting up of the education centre.

MILESTONE 4 SUMMARY

Milestone report 2 provided a summary of what was achieved from June - November 2009.Milestone report 3 was an interim report covering November - February 2010.

Milestone report 4 provides a summary of what has been achieved from November 2009 - May2010.

Following workshop 2 the King Ash Bay Fishing Club was set up to continue data collection onthe project through the wet season. This included collecting data through:

Continued tagging of Barramundi Trailer counts at the King Ash Bay boat ramp Collecting details of fishing trips from boat ramp surveys and trip sheets

November was the last month in 2009 where there were numbers of visitors to King Ash Bay.From the first week of December numbers dropped significantly with few visitors and around30 permanent residents remaining. This resulted in only limited opportunity for the collectionof additional data during the summer wet season. In early 2010 Cyclone Olga reformed in theGulf of Carpentaria and this resulted in a minor flood in the McArthur River. The monsoonremained fairly active through to the end of February resulting in high river flows with little orno fishing activity for most of January and February. In late March and early April Cyclone Paulsignificantly affected the area with the access road closed much of the time. Figure 1 shows themonthly rainfall for Borroloola and Centre Island showing the high levels of rainfall fromJanuary to April. The access road was reopened at the end of April and there has been nofurther rain during May.

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Barramundi Monitoring Project Milestone 4 Report page 2

Infofish was on site from 31 March to 15 May to undertake boat ramp surveys, tag Barramundiand to obtain data being collected by locals and visitors. Wendi Parsons was on site from 31March to 14 April and Bill Sawynok was on site from 1-15 May. There were 2presentations/workshops held during those visits.

Data collection during early April was limited due to flooding in the river and the access roadbeing closed most of the time. From late April conditions improved with visitors being able toget through.

It had been organised that 5 tagging teams from Queensland would accompany Infofish on atagging trip during April 2010. This trip was postponed as a result of the flooding in the riverafter Cyclone Paul and the tagging teams from Queensland were unable to make the trip. Withthe changes to the trip dates most fishers were not able to adjust their leave arrangements.Only 1 team was able to make the trip and assist with the tagging.

Figure 1: Monthly rainfall at Borroloola and Centre Island

MILESTONE TARGETS

The following annual targets for data collection were set for the project:- Details of 1,500 fishing trips from boat ramp surveys and trip sheets- Trailer counts on 200 days- Tagging of 1,000 Barramundi

At the end of May 2010 the following progress has been made towards those targets:- Details of 819 fishing trips from boat ramp surveys and trip sheets- Trailer counts on 234 days (300 days may be possible)- Tagging of 392 Barramundi

Due to the delays in getting the project underway and the effects of the wet season andcyclone Paul progress towards those targets has been hampered. We will be working towardsthose targets and will be significantly closer by the end of winter 2010 (1 year from start ofproject).

Reaching the milestone target for tagged fish will be difficult as in the 819 trips recorded todate there have only been 933 Barramundi caught. This equates to around 1.1 fish/trip. Whiletaggers targeting Barramundi are expected to have a higher catch rate reaching the target willstill be difficult, especially as Barramundi are more difficult to catch during winter.

KING ASH BAY RAINFALL

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450

Jun-09 Jul-09 Aug-09 Sep-09 Oct-09 Nov-09 Dec-09 Jan-10 Feb-10 Mar-10 Apr-10 May-10 Jun-10

RAIN

FALL

(MM

)

Borroloola

Centre Island

Cyclone Paul

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Barramundi Monitoring Project Milestone 4 Report page 3

INITIAL FINDINGS

FISHING CHARACTERISTICS

Fishing in the McArthur River area has the following characteristics:

1. Fishing is primarily carried out from March/April to November/December each yeardepending on the wet season.

2. Wet season fishing is limited to the approximate 30 residents that remain however thisis further limited by rainfall and the flow conditions in the river.

3. There are 3 modes of fishing being trailer boats, shore fishing and houseboat fishing.

Fishing effort in the McArthur River has the following characteristics:

1. There are 4 boat ramps in the area used by trailer boats being King Ash Bay (primary),Black Rock, Borroloola and Mule Creek near Bing Bong.

2. Boats are launched from the bank at Batten Point.3. Boats are moored from King Ash Bay through to Batten Point.4. Shore based fishing is carried out between King Ash Bay and Batten Point.5. There are 6 houseboats that operate in the river and these cater for up to 4-6 trailer

boats.6. Wind speed does not significantly influence fishing activity however strong winds can

limit the areas fished.7. Fishing is mainly a daylight activity from around 5:00am - 6:00pm.8. Fishing is mainly within estuaries with a small proportion of trips to offshore islands.9. There are a small proportion of overnight fishing trips, mostly to offshore locations,

when the weather is suitable.

Figure 2: Wind speed (and standard deviation) at Borroloola at 9.00am, 3.00pm and number of days per month thatmaximum wind speed exceeded 20 knots

BORROLOOLA WIND SPEED

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

Jun-09 Jul-09 Aug-09 Sep-09 Oct-09 Nov-09 Dec-09 Jan-10 Feb-10 Mar-10 Apr-10 May-10

WIN

DS

PEED

KN

OTS

9:00am

3:00pm

days max over 20 knots

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Barramundi Monitoring Project Milestone 4 Report page 4

Data on wind speed has been based on readings at Borroloola1. Most boat fishing days can becharacterised as boats leaving the boat ramp early in the morning when winds are light. In allmonths mean winds speeds at 9.00am were below 10 knots making travel to fishingdestinations easier. Boats generally return to the boat ramp from mid afternoon onwards whenwinds ease again. By 3:00pm in most months the mean wind speed had dropped back toaround 10 knots. While winds are around 10 knots or less in some months there are asignificant number of days when the maximum wind speed exceeds 20 knots. In October 2009on 29 days (93.5%) the maximum wind speed exceeded 20 knots while in May 2010 only on 6days (19.3%) was the maximum wind speed over 20 knots (figure 2).

Fishing is primarily a daytime activity as the risks associated with crocodiles increasesignificantly during the night. Trailers were counted on 140 days at the King Ash Bay rampwith the number of trailers and the time of day noted at various times of the day. These trailercounts have indicated that boats leave to go fishing from just before daylight (4.30-5.30am)with most returning by, or just after, dark (6:00pm). For fishing trips the time of leaving theramp and the time returning are recorded so that provides another measure of fishing trips.

A profile has been developed on the use of the King Ash Bay boat ramp over the course of aday. The maximum numbers of trailers at the ramp are recorded from 10.00am - 12 noon(figure 3). Times from fishing trips indicate that most boats are out on the water by midmorning and start returning from midday to late afternoon (figure 4).

Some visiting fishers, particularly those with small boats less than 4m, launch their boats fromthe ramp then moor the boats just upstream from the ramp. Up to 23 boats were noted asmoored in the area during winter 2009 however the number is more usually less than 10.Other boats are moored at Black Rock and at Batten Point.

During October 2009 there were very few overnight trips recorded during boat ramp surveys.This was likely due to the strong winds (figure 2) that prevailed during that month. Howeverduring boat ramp surveys in May 2010 there were 0-7 trailers at the ramp overnight indicatingthat there were a number of overnight trips. The weather at the time was suitable for overnighttrips. Most of the overnight trips were to the offshore islands rather than in the rivers.

Data on houseboat activity is currently being collected and will be included when available.Houseboats are confined to the rivers with most houseboats anchored overnight in the lowerreaches of McArthur River or Johnson River (known locally as Crooked Creek).

There is some level of shore based fishing, primarily in the area from King Ash Bay to BattenPoint. This is mostly carried out by visitors without a boat. Most of these are southern visitorsthat go to the area with a caravan. The shore based fishing mainly occurs during the winterand early spring months. These fishers are generally less skilled than the boat fishers.

Boat fishing trips are generally around 8 hours in duration with figure 5 showing the medianlength of trips per season. Trips during winter are a little shorter and this may be because ofthe shorter daylight hours. Figure 6 shows the median number of fishers per boat. So ingeneral terms a typical boat fishing trip at King Ash Bay can be described as being 2 fishersfishing for 8 hours.

Most fishing trips are to estuary locations with less than 10% of trips in each season being tooffshore locations as shown in figure 7. Trips to offshore locations are particularly influenced bywind speed (figure 2). There were a greater proportion of offshore trips during autumn 2010 aswinds were more favourable. The distance to offshore fishing locations and the numerous safeovernight anchorages around the island allow overnight trips. During suitable weather thereare numbers of overnight trips, especially during autumn and winter.

1 Data on wind speed obtained from the Bureau of Meteorology website at www.bom.gov.au

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Barramundi Monitoring Project Milestone 4 Report page 5

Data for winter (28 trips) and summer (26 trips) need to be treated with caution due to the lownumber of trips for those seasons. Total fishing trips over summer were low due to the wetseason, cyclones and flooding.

Figure 3: Profile of daily trailer counts (and standard deviation) at the King Ash bay boat ramp

Figure 4: Start and finish times for trips from King Ash Bay boat ramp

KING ASH BAY BOAT RAMP

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5:00 6:00 7:00 8:00 9:00 10:00 11:00 12:00 13:00 14:00 15:00 16:00 17:00 18:00

TIME

TRAIL

ERS

Trailers

Poly. (Trailers)

Trip starting and finishing times

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late

r

Time of day

No

oftr

ips

Start time

Finish time

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Barramundi Monitoring Project Milestone 4 Report page 6

Figure 5: Median length of fishing trips

Figure 6: Median number of fishers per boat

Median Trip length

0.00

1.00

2.00

3.00

4.00

5.00

6.00

7.00

8.00

9.00

Winter Spring Summer Autumn

hours

Median fishers per boat

0.00

0.50

1.00

1.50

2.00

2.50

Winter Spring Summer Autumn

Fis

hers

per

boat

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Barramundi Monitoring Project Milestone 4 Report page 7

Figure 7: Destination for fishing trips by season

CATCH AND EFFORT

Catch and effort data have been collected through obtaining details of fishing trips, eitherthrough boat ramp surveys or from fishers volunteering their fishing trip details.

Season

KABramp

trailersKAB

moored

KABland

basedBlackRock

BattenPoint

MuleCreekramp

Borroloolaramp

winter 2009 15.6 23 8 2 1.5 0

spring 2009 20.2 1 0 6.3 3.7 3 0

summer 2010 Little or no fishing activity

autumn 2010 Awaiting data

Table 1: Unadjusted estimate of trips per day for each fishing location

Season

Numberof

trips

MedianTrip

Lengthhours

MedianNumber

offishers

FishingEfforthours

NoCatchtrips

TripsBarracaught

winter 2009 28 6.4 2.0 12.8 6 6

spring 2009 302 8.0 2.0 16.0 63 160

summer 2010 26 8.0 2.0 16.0 0 15

autumn 2010 463 8.3 2.0 16.6 102 178

Total 819 171 359

Table 2: Summary of trips each fishing season

Trip destinations

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60

70

80

90

100

Winter Spring Summer Autumn

%of

trip

s

estuaries

offshore

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Barramundi Monitoring Project Milestone 4 Report page 8

Table 1 provides an estimate of the unadjusted number of trips from each fishing location foreach season. Only the estimated numbers of trips from the KAB boat ramp are reliable as theyare based on 70 days of trailer counts for winter and 50 days2 over spring. The estimatenumber of trips will be adjusted to a standard fishing day when more data have been collected.The estimates for other locations are considered to be indicative only as there were only asmall number of days of observations.

Table 2 provides a summary of the effort and catch for fishing trips each season. Of the 819trips 171 (20.9%) reported no fish caught while 359 (43.8%) trips reported catching at least 1Barramundi.

Table 3 provides a summary of the fish caught and released on trips each season. Of the 4,471fish caught on the 819 trips 2,484 (55.6%) were kept. Of the 933 Barramundi that werecaught 374 (40.1%) were kept.

Catch rates have been adjusted to a typical fishing trip being 2 fishers fishing for 8 hours. Thatallows catch rates for each season to be compared as shown in figure 8. Barramundi caughtand kept per trip for each season are shown in figure 9. Barramundi as a percentage of thecatch each season is shown in figure 10.

Season

Numberof

trips

TotalFish

caught

TotalFishkept

Barracaught

Barrakept

winter 2009 28 106 62 9 6

spring 2009 302 1616 709 440 149

summer 2010 26 116 64 39 23

autumn 2010 463 2633 1649 445 196

Total 819 4471 2484 933 374

Table 3: Summary of fish caught on trips each season

Figure 8: Adjusted catch rates per fishing trips each season

2 Trailer counts were done through to the end of November and from early January but not all data have beenreceived yet

Adjusted catch rates

-1

0

1

2

3

4

5

Winter Spring Summer Autumn

avera

ge

adjfish

/trip

caught

kept

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Barramundi Monitoring Project Milestone 4 Report page 9

Figure 9: Barramundi caught per trip each season

Figure 10: Barramundi as a percentage of the catch for each season

Barramundi per trip

0

0.2

0.4

0.6

0.8

1

1.2

1.4

1.6

1.8

2

Winter Spring Summer Autumn

fish

/trip

caught

kept

Barramundi as percentage of catch

0

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Winter Spring Summer Autumn

%of

tota

lcatc

h

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Barramundi Monitoring Project Milestone 4 Report page 10

Data for winter (28 trips) and summer (26 trips) need to be treated with caution due to the lownumber of trips for those seasons. Total fishing trips over summer were low due to the wetseason, cyclones and flooding.

Table 4 shows the top 15 species caught on all trips over the 4 seasons. Barramundi is themost caught species. Forktail Catfish is the second most caught species with most of thosereleased. The Catfish kept are mostly kept for crabpot bait. Golden Snapper, Blue Threadfin,Mud Crab and Blackspotted Rockcod are the next most caught species.

Table 4: Top 15 species recorded in catches (all seasons)

BARRAMUNDI TAGGING

Due to the delay in starting the project Barramundi tagging did not commence until October2009. Table 5 shows the number of Barramundi tagged each season with 392 in total to date.Tagging has been carried out by Infofish, members of King Ash Bay Fishing Club and visitingfishers that volunteer to assist with tagging.

Season

TripBarra

tagged

Non tripBarra

tagged

TotalBarra

tagged

winter 2009

spring 2009 130 64 194

summer 2010 6 0 6

autumn 2010* 175 17 192

Total 311 81 392* Some tagging data still to come for autumn 2010

Table 5: Summary of Barramundi tagged each season

SPECIES Caught Kept

BARRAMUNDI 933 374

FORKTAIL CATFISH 380 21

GOLDEN SNAPPER 328 280

BLUE THREADFIN 321 241

MUD CRAB 311 255

BLACKSPOTTED ROCKCOD 297 98

BARRED JAVELIN 274 184

GRASS EMPEROR 213 191

QUEENFISH 194 108

MANGROVE JACK 187 136

PIKEY BREAM 171 90

GOLDSPOTTED ROCKCOD 156 33

RED EMPEROR 53 53

SHARK 29 0

GIANT TREVALLY 25 10

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Barramundi Monitoring Project Milestone 4 Report page 11

Figure 11: Recaptures of fish tagged by ACTFR during monitoring in 2007

There have been 2 recaptures reported from fish tagged in the project. Both fish wererecaptured not long after being tagged and in the same area as they were tagged in.

There have been 2 recaptures in the project area from earlier tagging in 2007 undertaken byJames Cook University in Townsville as part of a North Australia Freshwater Fish project. Boththese fish were recaptured in the project area (figure 11). This indicates that there is somewestward movement of Barramundi in the area.

Figure 12 shows the size range of Barramundi that were measured and for fish that weretagged. Of the 341 Barramundi measured 201 (58.9%) were over the legal size of 550mm. Ofthe 191 Barramundi tagged 103 (60.2%) were over legal size. No recaptures of taggedBarramundi have been reported.

Additional Barramundi have been tagged during autumn but the details have not yet beenreceived.

R48257 recaptured

R48198 recaptured

Borroloola

McArthur River

Cal

vert

River

Weary

an

Riv

er

R48198 tagged

R48257 tagged

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Barramundi Monitoring Project Milestone 4 Report page 12

Figure 12: Size range of Barramundi measured and tagged

BARRAMUNDI RECRUITMENT

As the project started late in it was not possible to collect significant data on recruitment (fishunder 300mm). As spawning takes place from around Oct-Jan recruits from 2008-09 wouldhave been in the size range 200-300mm when the project commenced. A small number of fishwere recorded at those sizes however many fishers using throw nets reported catching smallBarramundi in the size range 200-400mm. It was not possible to get accurate measurement forthese fish.

PROMOTION AND INFORMATION CENTRE

Infofish Services has prepared up folders that can be handed out to visiting fishers that arewilling to provide details of their fishing trips. Tagging kits have also been made up for thosewilling to assist with the tagging. These have provided to:

King Ash Bay Office King Ash Bay Service Station King Ash Bay Lodge King Ash Bay Mini Mart

A number of posters have also been placed at strategic locations at King Ash Bay to promoteawareness of the project.

There have now been 4 presentations and workshops held by Infofish Services. Wendi Parsonsdid a presentation in April and this was followed up by a further presentation by Bill Sawynokin May.

No further action has occurred on the information centre as most operations shut down in earlyDecember and Keith Hallett was away for much of January. The wet season extended throughto the end of April with access to King Ash Bay cut for extended periods from January to April.This precluded any work being done on the Information Centre. Work on the InformationCentre is expected to commence shortly.

BARRAMUNDI LENGTHS

0

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120

140

250:

299

300:

349

350:

399

400:

449

450:

499

500:

549

550:

599

600:

649

650:

699

700:

749

750:

799

800:

849

850:

899

900:

949

950:

999

1000:1

049

1050:1

099

1100:1

149

1150:1

199

1200:1

249

SIZE RANGE (MM)

NU

MBER

OF

FIS

H

MEASURED NOT TAGGED

TAGGED

Legal size

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Barramundi Monitoring Project Milestone 4 Report page 13

PLANNING FOR MILESTONES 5

A significant difficulty with this project has been finding someone to undertake boat rampsurveys and managing that remotely. A number of people have been recruited however havenot been able to successfully undertake surveys.

Infofish Services has decided to use its own staff to undertake the boat ramp surveys for theduration of the project unless a suitable person can be found. That will require that staff visitthe site more frequently than originally proposed however this will be done within the currentproject budget. Staff will be on site at least once in each season to ensure that we obtainsufficient fishing trip details to obtain an estimate of catch rates for that season.

Infofish Services will be on site again in July 2010. This will be to undertake boat ramp surveysfor the winter period and collect details of fishing trips. We are currently liaising with NTFisheries that propose to coordinate their visit with an electrofishing boat. This will be used toundertake a recruitment survey of juvenile Barramundi. A further presentation on the projectwill be made during that visit along with a further tagging workshop.

Flow data for the McArthur River is being sought to determine if there is a correlation betweensuccessful Barramundi recruitment and river flows.

No tagging trip is proposed for the winter period due to the reduced activity of Barramundi anda lower likelihood of catching sufficient Barramundi to warrant a dedicated trip. However staffattending in July will also undertake tagging when possible. The next dedicated tagging trip isproposed for Oct-Nov 2010. Tagging is continuing by local fishing club members and visitingfishers.

Data on houseboat fishing will be collected along with data on visitations to improve theestimate of fishing effort.


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