Snapper Guardians step-up

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

In an Australian first, researchers last month successfully collected over 100,000 fertilised eggs during a Pink Snapper spawning event in Cockburn Sound (prior to the terrible fish kills) in a project funded by WA’s Recreational Fishing Initiatives Fund.

These fish are currently about a month old and about 2.5cm in length and will be held in the hatchery and grown until they are 4 to 5cm long which is the optimum size for release. This will take eight weeks and cost around $25,000.

But already more than $30,000 has been raised from almost 400 supporters. The extra money isn't going to waste, however, and the project is likely to expand.

Support has been especially strong for the restocking initiative following the fish kills caused by algae in Cockburn Sound a few weeks ago.

To raise the funds for restocking, Recfishwest  teamed up with Australian lure company Halco and turned to crowd funding, so people can make a pledge to become a Snapper Guardian.

These are the community’s fish and we want your help to grow them up, put them into the water to improve our understanding of the species and secure pink snapper stocks into the future, Recfishwest said.

To read the full story, background watch the video about the project — and make a further pledge to become a Snapper Guardian — click the dedicated Snapper Guardian website here