FUTURE fishers rejoice: about 5000 snapper are set to be released at Woodman Point on Saturday morning to increase the fish population in Cockburn Sound.
Recfishwest’s annual Snapper Guardians event allows local families to release the juvenile snapper into the Sound.
Recfishwest operations manager Leyland Campbell said the release, which began in 2016 after a fish kill depleted stocks in the Sound, would not be possible without the community’s support.
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READ NOW“It’s very important that the community have the stewardship over the Sound,” he said.
“We want to reward them and make sure we stay involved, because at the end of the day, these sort of projects really are community-driven projects with great community outcomes.”
Mr Campbell said while they would not know the full effects of the restock until 2021 (five years after the first event took place), it served as a good way to involve the community with authorities’ efforts to ensure the Sound was healthily populated.
“From our other perspective, it is a really useful management tool, in a suite of management tools which allows us opportunities to look at the different ways to manage our fisheries,” he said.
“From a biological impact, we’re unsure so far, but from a social impact, it’s been important for fishers and the community, who have so much interest in the Cockburn Sound.”
This year’s Snapper Guardians begins at 10am at Jervoise Bay.
Attendees are encouraged to wear water-appropriate clothing.