DEAKIN University in collaboration with the VFA and Project Kingfish has continued to tag Victoria’s prized yellowtail kingfish in Victorian waters over the warmer months.
A total of 21 satellite tags and 45 acoustic tags from various sized fish have contributed to unlocking the secrets of fish caught in Victoria throughout their distribution across SE Australia.
This year the presence of yellowtail kingfish has persisted right up to mid-Spring. This created opportunities to tag fish right to end of the Victorian kingfish season. With fish either collecting data location / depth and temperature data (satellite tags) or providing an indication of where they are (acoustic tags), understanding where kingfish caught in Victorian waters in all seasons will hopefully shed some more insights of the population connectivity characteristics.
Some notable movement patterns include a 113cm kingfish tagged off Julia Percy Island that travelled to the NSW / QLD border in 609 days.
Funded by recreational fishing licence money, this three-year project has partnered with other jurisdictions that ultimately aims to inform fisheries management of the species and enhance this valuable resource.
