Spring is a key season for the VFA’s science team as they embark on their annual King George whiting (KGW) pre-recruit surveys around Port Phillip Bay.
Occurring at 8 locations including Eastern Beach Geelong, Blairgowrie and Ricketts Point, they’ll collect data on juvenile whiting found in shallow seagrass beds. The KGW captured are typically around 100 days old and are often only 2cm in length.
Here, they’ll continue to grow and reach the minimum legal catch size limit of 27 cm at 2-3 years of age. Having undertaken these surveys annually for almost 30 years and coupling them with age estimates from larger fish, the VFA
science team know that Port Phillip Bay’s KGW only remain in the bay until they reach around 4-5 years of age. It’s the longterm series of data collection that allow the VFA’s science team to predict the success of the KGW fishery in 2-3 years’ time.
To undertake the surveys, VFA staff drag a fine mesh seine several times at each location around the bay in October and then again in November. By repeating these surveys our scientists can account for natural variation in our data. When collecting the net and counting how many juvenile KGW are found, we often come across other species such as pipefish, shrimp, juvenile leatherjackets or pufferfish.
Following the surveys, fish are returned to the ocean to grow and enter the KGW fishery. Following the surveys, the data will be analysed and published to inform Victoria’s recreational fishers on the potential success of the King George whiting fishery in the years to come.