Scientists ‘listening' for snapper

Victoria’s Port Phillip Bay is the primary spawning ground and nursery for snapper in Victoria. It’s also the place where the most snapper are caught in he state.

Now in a $210,000 project, the Dept of Primary Industries is embarking on a project that will track and monitor snapper to gain more knowledge of their habits and movements.

Scientists have placed 50 listening devices around Port Phillip and have caught 100 snapper and fitted them with acoustic devices so they can be tracked day and night to reveal their habits.

The 100 snapper are specially marked with two yellow dart tags below their dorsal fins to distinguish them from other tagged snapper which often carry only one tag.

The movements of the snapper can be detected up to 400 metres away and the scientists say that the information from the tracking program will provide new and interesting insights for anglers on the movement behaviour of snapper over day/night and longer time scales, and potentially the influences of weather, moon and tide conditions.

Anglers who catch one of the double-tagged snapper are asked to:
• record the tag number
• record the location of capture (ideally GPS coordinates)
• record the time and date
• call the phone number on the tag as soon as possible.
Snapper in good condition should be released after recording their details.