Good things come to those who wait.
This adage holds true even for those in conservation, it seems, after a red steenbras was recaptured in the Kei River mouth in the Eastern Cape – 22 years after being tagged – potentially a record for the amount of time a tagged fish was “at liberty”.
As a Master’s student with the Department of Ichthyology and Fisheries Science at Rhodes University, Bruce Mann, now senior scientist at the Oceanographic Research Institute (ORI), said he was stationed at Storms River in the Tsitsikamma National Park where he hooked and landed a juvenile red steenbras, which was unusual for the area.
The fish measured 750mm FL (or fork length, measured from the tip of the snout to the end of the middle caudal fin rays) and weighed 8.3kg.
He caught the fish during one of his collecting trips at Santer Bank, south of the Bloukrans River, on November 12, 1989, when he was collecting blacktail (dassie) and zebra (wildeperd), as part of his research.
On December 27, 2011, Andrew Gericke, his brother, Craig, and a friend, Paul Dineen, were fishing approximately 10km off Kei Mouth.
“That morning Craig, who was fishing with live bait, hooked into a nice ‘copper’ (as red steenbras is also known), but unfortunately he lost the fish when the leader line parted,” said Mann.
“Andrew played with the fish for about 10 minutes and when the fish was boated they discovered that it was the same fish that Craig had tangled with earlier, because his trace was still in the fish’s mouth.”
It was afterwards that they also noticed that the fish had been tagged.
Mann said that they saw a small wound around the tag which was covered with a lot of growth and when they pulled on the tag it broke off cleanly from the barb, which remained locked behind one of the inter-neural spines in the flesh.
“The fish measured 1 120mm FL and weighed 26.2kg. It was a short, fat fish compared to another copper that Craig caught about half an hour later on the same reef which was also in good condition and approximately the same length, but 2kg lighter. Both were male fish.”
The brothers notified the relevant authorities, who informed Mann.
“I was amazed to discover that this was the same fish that I had tagged as a student way back in 1989,” he said. “This fish had, therefore, been at liberty for a remarkable 22.1 years, had grown 370mm FL and had put on 17.9kg. The fish had moved a distance of 532km.”
He said the tag supplier, David Hall, director of Hallprint Tags in Australia, was contacted for statistics.
“He informed us that, to the best of his knowledge, the longest time at liberty was for a southern bluefin tuna that was tagged in Australia. That was at liberty for 20.8 years. That means that our red steenbras may be a world record – and it always feels good to beat the Aussies.”
The bottom line, he said, was to think about what was being done to these fish stocks – four fishermen on the boat catching one each of fish that size would be pulling a combined 132 years of red steenbras life from the ocean.
“Don’t catch more than you need or your quota,” Mann said. “If you’re looking for big fish, use big baits and never throw back fish in order to catch more or bigger fish later.”
If a tagged fish is caught, he asked that fishermen record the tag number, species, fork or total length (stating which length – fork or total), date, exact locality, their names and contact details.
“If the fish is killed, please also record its weight and take note of any tag wound infections. Photos of the fish and the tag would also be welcome. If fish are healthy, it’s preferable to treat them gently and to release them again, carefully measuring the length and noting the tag number beforehand.”
Information is to be sent to: The tagging officer, ORI, PO Box 10712, Marine Parade, 4056, or e-mail oritag@ori.org.za or phone or SMS 079 529 0711.
May 14 2012 at 09:12am
By Kamcilla Pillay
Caption: From left, Paul Dineen holds a dorado, Andrew Gericke displays the tagged steenbras and his brother, Craig, with another red steenbras.
Story courtesy of IOL – www.iol.co.za