Andrew Matthews leads the way with getting the Perth Chapter up and running. He gathered a few like-minded people to have a yarn about the great ways that OzFish could improve the Perth area. From there, the Chapter began expanding, and the main focus of fish habitat restoration unfolded.
Many of the member’s passion for OzFish began as a passion for fishing. Some enjoy wetting a line in the Canning River while others prefer heading to Two Rocks. But you’d be wrong if you think fishing is the only popular activity in the area! Bushwalking, bird watching, boating and camping are also on the list of activities.
The Whadjuk Nyoongar people are the traditional owners of the land and sea of the Perth region.
Cockburn Sound is Western Australia’s second biggest spawning site for pink snapper. The seagrass meadows in the Sound play an important role in the life cycle of pink snapper.
Seagrass meadows are one of the most dynamic ecosystems on earth. They provide vital foraging grounds and nursery grounds for many of our favourite fish species.
Black pygmy mussels are a crucial food source for bream and when their diet is rich in this specific shellfish it leads to bigger, stronger, healthier populations of this famous Australian fish that recreational anglers love to catch.
By restoring these valuable mussel beds, a more complex and robust aquatic habitat will be created which will result in greater black bream stocks.
Marron, the largest freshwater crayfish in Western Australia, have long been a favourite of recreational fishers. They need complex woody habitat like snags, as a place to breed, feed, shelter from the sun and seek refuge from predators.
The project aims to investigate and demonstrate the repurposing of tree trunks from road construction into woody marron habitat.
The Perth Chapter is proud to have undertaken several restoration projects over the years.
Snags are important fish habitat providing fish and other aquatic species places to feed, shelter from the hot sun, breed, and seek refuge from predators.
Millions of snags have been removed from Australian waterways since European arrival and it is essential that this habitat is reinvigorated.
Improving fish habitat means improved fishing for WA recreationalnal fishers.
A community planting day and a series of workshops were held for farmers and local landholders. The workshops highlighted practical steps that landholders can undertake to improve fish habitat in their local area.
Many landholders already have the skills and capabilities to undertake many of the simple actions suggested and now with an increased understanding of the value of these actions to fish habitat, they can take these steps on their own properties.
Fishing conservation charity OzFish, The Nature Conservancy and Murdoch University researchers will band together on a long-term project to restore native Black Pygmy Mussels (Xenostrobus securis) and they are calling on local anglers that target the iconic black bream to get involved now.
Seagrass meadows within Western Australia’s Cockburn Sound will again be the focus of community-driven restoration as fishing conservation charity OzFish launches Seeds for Snapper 2021 this November.
More than 200 community volunteers have already registered to take part in the third annual Seeds for Snapper seagrass restoration program this weekend with involvement still growing. The seagrass is now fruiting and recreational fishers and community members can participate in a whole range of activities to help in vital seagrass restoration.
Fishing conservation charity OzFish Unlimited has launched the 2020 Seeds for Snapper program with a weekend of seagrass restoration activities. Now in its third year, the annual program will commence again in November with the charity calling on the community for help. OzFish CEO and Founder Craig Copeland said only 15 percent of seagrass meadows of Cockburn Sound remain, but the organisation is on a mission to change that.
Every year massive schools of migrating Australian salmon draw big numbers to WA’s beautiful South-West and Great Southern beaches. Salmon are generally a far south coast species which undertake an annual migration in autumn where they come round Cape Leeuwin into the south-west of WA on the ocean currents, and if we’re lucky all the way up to the Perth metropolitan area.
West Australian recreational fishers and divers have worked to restore the lost seagrass meadows of Cockburn Sound for the second consecutive year by collecting and spreading seeds to speed the plant’s restoration and improve the habitat for Pink Snapper. Cockburn Sound is the state’s most ecologically important southwest region Snapper spawning ground but has lost 80% of its seagrass meadows. Seagrass provides critical foraging and nursery grounds for many fish species as well as crabs, prawns and Southern Calamari.
In a first for Australia, hundreds of West Australian recreational fishers will be taking part in a massive effort to restore the lost seagrass meadows of Cockburn Sound in the Seeds for Snapper project. Cockburn Sound has lost some 80% of its seagrass habitat since the 1960s, down from 4000ha originally to 900ha today, and this loss affects Pink Snapper as well as many other species.