Tassie whitebait season opens October 1

With the scientific name of Lovettia sealii, is it any wonder the true Tassie whitebait is such a sought-after delicacy?

For those in the whitebait state, the 2014 season opens Wednesday October 1 and will remain open until Tuesday, November 11 this year.

The rivers open for whitebait fishing are subject to a schedule of annual rotations of open and closed waters. Whitebait fishers will need to ensure that the river they are proposing to fish is open for this season.

This year the rivers are: Duck River (except 50m above or below the weir), Great Forester River, Henty (Big) River, Huon River, Inglis River, Mersey River, Montagu River, Pieman River, River Derwent, River Forth, River Tamar including the Trevallyn Tailrace and Rubicon River (except 50m above or below the  water gauging weir).

Fishing in the vicinity of the River Forth Weir is now permitted following modifications to the weir which has facilitated the passage of whitebait.

There are strict rules in place regarding the fishing for whitebait in Tasmanian waters and fishers are urged to familiarise themselves with the rules before fishing for whitebait.

Measuring 60-75mm, the whitebait's distinguishing features include a dorsal fin positioned approximately mid-length along its back, just behind the origin of the pelvic fins, and no scales. The adults, when first entering estuaries from the sea, have a transparent body with their gonad and swim bladder visible. After spawning they are almost black, with no distinct pattern.

Endemic to Tasmania, where they once formed the basis for a large commercial fishery, the whitebait makes an upstream spawning migration that is known as the whitebait run. Adult fish migrate upstream into the upper estuaries in late winter to early spring to spawn and then die. Eggs are attached to submerged logs, branches and rocks then the young hatch after two-three weeks and are swept downstream to the sea, where they live for most of their life.

Loss of in-stream habitat; in-stream barriers preventing migration runs; overfishing; contaminants entering waterway; and Salmonid predation are threats to the whitebait that occur only in Tassie's coastal streams, mainly along the north coast, but also in rivers of the west and far south-east.

The Tasmanian Inland Fisheries Service has all the details which come under the Tasmanian Whitebait Fishery Regulatory Management Plan 2011-2015. For more information go to http://www.ifs.tas.gov.au. Fritters anyone?