Increasing knowledge of Victoria’s growing recreational yellowtail kingfish fishery — ASN Events

Increasing knowledge of Victoria’s growing recreational yellowtail kingfish fishery (#124)

Corey Green 1
  1. Victorian Fisheries Authority, Queenscliff, VICTORIA, Australia

Yellowtail kingfish are a highly sought after recreational species due to their fighting ability and eating qualities. Historically (prior to 1990) kingfish were caught in several locations around Victoria; however since then, numbers have been in decline with targeted angler effort reducing concurrently. Since around 2010, reports of recreationally caught kingfish have increased considerably with a wide size range caught all along the coast. In Victoria, fundamental stock structure information was lacking in this developing fishery. This presentation reports on a project aimed at gaining intrinsic information such as genetic structure, growth, spawning characteristics, temperature preference using otolith microchemistry and trialling satellite tags to study kingfish movement. This information will be used to explore alternative management regimes that aim to grow the fishery into the future. The presentation will also discuss some of the advantages and disadvantages of engaging recreational anglers to supplement sample collection, as well as the extension of research results through different media streams.

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