- Cook Government hits target to boost recreational fishing with 150,000 yellowtail kingfish released in metro waters
- Successful stock enhancement project delivered through Cook Government's Recreational Fishing Initiatives Fund
Recreational fishers could soon see more yellowtail kingfish in their catch with 150,000 of the popular sportfish reared and released into metropolitan waters over the past four years.
The final 15,000 juvenile kingfish were released today at the Fremantle Sailing Club, wrapping up the Cook Government's Recreational Fishing Initiatives Fund (RFIF) stock enhancement project.
Working with Recfishwest, the Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development (DPIRD) reared the 150,000 fingerlings at its Fremantle Marine Finfish Hatchery for the project.
Yellowtail kingfish are ideal for stocking as they are a hardy, fast-growing and tasty table fish which only take about 18 months to reach the 600-millimetre minimum legal size limit.
They are categorised as a large pelagic finfish with a mixed State-wide bag limit of three for recreational fishers.
Popular places to catch kingfish include Rottnest Island and Three Mile Reef along Perth's north-western coastline, as well inshore metropolitan waters and even off beaches or land-based fishing platforms.
All fingerlings released as part of the program have been marked with a special dye so that researchers can track them through the 'Send us your skeletons' fish frame program.
The DPIRD hatchery will continue to undertake yellowtail kingfish research, focusing on fish health and nutrition.
As stated by Fisheries Minister Don Punch:
"I congratulate DPIRD and Recfishwest on the work they have done to enhance stocks of yellowtail kingfish to provide more metropolitan fishing opportunities to the WA community.
"With the first fingerlings released in 2020, recfishers should now be seeing legal size fish at hotspots like Three Mile Reef off the Perth coast.
"The Cook Government is continuing to invest recreational licence fees into projects such as stock enhancement, artificial reefs and habitat rehabilitation to support the WA recreational fishing community."
