Fishtrack

Exploring the secret lives of Victoria’s premier fisheries species

Why track fish?
Determining where, when and why fish move is critical in understanding the distribution and availability of fish for fishing, and forms a basis for the sustainable management of fisheries.

How do we track the movements of fish?
Until recently, the movements of fish have been investigated using conventional tags and catch/release fishing.

Which species of fish are being tracked in Victoria?
Scientists from the Department of Sustainability and Environment are currently tracking the movements of black bream and dusky flathead in the Gippsland Lakes, and black bream in the Yarra/Maribyrnong estuaries.

• An investigation into the movement of Mulloway (Argyrosomus japonicus) within the Glenelg River
• Tracking the habitat preferences, spawning locations and movements of Dusky Flathead in the Gippsland Lakes
• Tracking the movement of Black Bream in the Yarra River

A silent video clip showing black bream swimming in an area of woody debris in the Gippsland Lakes. A further selection of video clips showing bream in the Gippsland Lakes is also available within this section of the VRO. This video clip runs for 35 seconds and is 3.2MB in size, this will take some time to automatically download if you are using a slow internet connection. Click the 'play' button and the video should display directly in your browser if this does not happen you need to update the 'Adobe Flash Player'. This software can be downloaded for free from the Adobe website (external link).

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What's New
New project - Tracking the movement of black bream in the Yarra and Maribyrnong estuaries

	Tracking the movement patterns of black bream in the Gippsland Lakes Update - Summary of movements by black bream up to September 2007
	Tracking the habitat preferences, spawning locations and movements of dusky flathead in the Gippsland lakes Update - Summary of movements by dusky flathead up to September 2007

What to do if you catch a tagged fish?
All fish implanted with an acoustic transmitter have also been tagged with an external tag.

Contact: Dr Jeremy S. Hindell Senior Estuarine Ecologist Arthur Rylah Institute (external link) Department of Sustainability and Environment PO Box 137 Heidelberg, MELBOURNE, 3084 Phone: 61 3 9450 8600 Fax: 61 3 9450 8799 Mob: 0408 103 601 Email: jeremy.s.hindell@dse.vic.gov.au

Close up of tagged fish

Acknowledgements
Assistance with fish tracking projects and pictures used in this site supplied by.

• Fisheries Research and Development Corporation, Canberra (external link)
• Brett Geddes
• Jeremy Hindell, Department of Primary Industries, Queenscliff
• Shimano Fishing Products (external link)

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