Fingermark and the plight of the Old Spawners
Last week I travelled from Queensland’s Gold Coast through to the Harvey Bay region.
Wow, it’s been a long time since I’ve been up to the Sunshine Coast and I couldn’t help but remember a brace of good size bream I caught as a 5 year old in Maroochydore by casting under the Commonwealth Bank flat’s wharf whilst everyone else turned up empty handed as they tried to hit New Zealand with their lines.
The Harvey Bay area has also come on with a fantastic marina and rumours of another to be built sometime down the track. Compared to other major towns that I have travelled to in the past few weeks (eg Cairns, Townsville and Mackay) Hervey Bay still seems cheap with some houses valued in the high $200 to early $300K’s.
The F&RTS team also got together last weekend to pool all our fishing gear for the upcoming Weipa trip. It’s a great way to determine any gaps in what we’re taking away with us and also saves taking seven lots of individual gear.
Anyway, to this week’s life cycle story on the amazing Fingermark or Lutjanis Johnii - what a great name!
Fingermark can be found from East Africa to Fiji and are easily identifiable by the big blotch (fingermark or thumbprint) just below the dorsal fin.
The Fingermark lives to a ripe old age of 25 years and can reach a length of just over 1 metre and weigh in at 15kg. A one metre Fingermark is roughly 12kg cleaned.
It would appear that Fingermark spawning varies with changes in latitude and is thought to occur during the mid summer months. Fingermark around Townsville are sexually mature at an average size of 70cm (4.5kg) and 8 years of age whilst up in Darwin that stage is reached at 45cm.
These fish spend their early days in the mangroves before venturing out to rocky headlands, islands or deeper turbid water. They can also be found in and around inshore reefs.
Although they can live up to 25 years, the Fingermark is a slow growing fish and by age 2 will be around 40cm and 1 kg in weight. At age 4 they are only 50cm. Queensland fishing regulations (sorry to keep picking on them!!!) have a minimum size limit of 35cm with a bag limit of 10 which puts this fish clearly in the category of potentially endangered.
It is a sad fact that when you combine late spawners with a system that allows the cull of immature fish, future populations are obviously jeopardised and once more responsible fisherman taking fish legally within size and bag limits are unwittingly contributing to the species demise.
In the case of the Fingermark this is exacerbated by the fact that they hold fast in places like headlands, snags or pinnacles sometimes for a period of years thus making them particularly vulnerable to fisherman armed with GPS.
Anyway, until next week after 12 noon EST Friday - don’t forget to come back for a further installment of the life cycle of yet another Northern Australian fish species.
Sea you later,
Skipper Meggs