Fishing enthusiasts encouraged to become Snapper Guardians: Recfishwest

Recfishwest is calling on the community to help crowd fund the release of more than 100,000 Pink Snapper into local waters following the success of a revolutionary egg collection project.

In an Australian first, researchers collected more than 100,000 fertilised eggs during a Pink Snapper spawning event last month in Cockburn Sound, in a project funded by WA’s Recreational Fishing Initiatives Fund.

The fish are currently 42 days old and 2cm in length.

They will be held in a hatchery and grown until they are 4cm to 5cm long which is the optimum size for release.

This will take eight weeks and cost around $25,000.

To raise the money, a Recfishwest spokesperson said they turned to crowd funding, so people can make a pledge here to become a Snapper Guardian.

The spokesperson said these are the community’s fish and they need help to grow them and put them back into the water to improve understanding of the species and secure pink snapper stocks into the future.