Elsa learns first hand that better habitat means better fishing

As an OzFish volunteer, you step out of your comfort zone, learn new things and challenge your thinking.  

Elsa Lillford did just that recently, having volunteered to help on her first saltmarsh monitoring day with one of our OzFish habitat scientists. The OzFish Richmond Chapter needed a few extra people to help and Elsa happily gave it a go.   

“I was not sure what to expect, except that we’d be canoeing and that sounded fun. So I put my hand up to help out,” said Elsa. 

After a safety briefing, the small group launched off the ramp and paddled 2km up the creek and shored up near the saltmarsh.  

Then Cassie, OzFish’s Director of Habitat Programs, got the volunteers to work looking at the saltmarsh plants, counting snails and crab holes all morning.   

“Why are we doing this?” Elsa asked.    

“Because it measures the health of the saltmarsh,” replied Cassie. “The more snails, the healthier the saltmarsh.”  

Elsa considered this for a moment but just couldn’t grapple with why the saltmarsh helped our fish habitat.   

“I’m not going to catch a flatty in here, this is too far away from the creek for a fish,” she thought out loud.  

Cass smiled and explained why saltmarshes matter to good fish habitat.  

“Saltmarshes are where the biggest high tides reach. When it’s a full moon and the tide is up, all the little fish come in here to hide from the bigger predators. These little fish feast on all the food here, the organic matter, insects, crabs and snails that have been out of reach for them all month.” 

It all sounded quite exciting, but Elsa wondered if it translated to flathead while she got counting. Each 30cm quadrat had more than 70 snails and it took a long time to count that many. Cass had explained that more than 20 or so snails in a quadrat indicated healthy saltmarsh habitat. 

“Surely that translates to fish here,” Elsa thought.   

“So, Cass, there’s quite a few snails in here. Does that mean, I might catch a flatty just off here?” she asked.

“Absolutely!” Cass laughed and that, was that. 

A month later in the afternoon as the sun was setting, Elsa snuck out to test the theory. 

She pushed her kayak off into the creek and cast her trusty fluoro pink soft plastic lure out into the water.  

“This lure catches everything,” she thought.   

Elsa cast it just off the ‘snailiest’ bit of the sand bank that she could find…A few casts in and bang! She got a hit.   

She reeled it in, handling a few headshakes – she knew it might be a lizard, but it was only when it dived deep under the kayak at the very last moment that she realised it was going to be a decent one.   

“Finally, I netted it into my lap, right on my sunburnt legs which then got smashed by fins before I could grab it properly but wow, what a beauty!” exclaimed Elsa. 

She caught three more within the hour that evening, the habitat was certainly alive here.  

“All I can say to everyone is; count the snails people, count the snails!”  

This is a just one example of what happens when you become a member of OzFish, not only do you get to experience new things, learn new ideas, you also understand your fish and their habitat better plus you get to know the very best places to fish locally.