Giant Fish Found In A Far Nth Coast River

[Penguin]

Found this in The Land paper yesterday.

penguin

The_land_article.rtf

[Josh88]

Hi Penguin,

Know if any pics are available?

Always a bit sad for people and locals especially when those big resident grouper die.

Josh

[Davy]

An old Groper

Last Update: Monday, February 18, 2008. 4:19pm AEDT

By Fiona Poole

Last November a giant 2.2 metre long Queensland Groper was found dead in the Clarence River.

It is the largest Groper of its size to be found in the region and tests on the ear bone of the giant fish have revealed that it was 37 years old.

Doctor Bruce Pease is a Fisheries Scientist with the Department of Primary Industries and he believes that it is likely the fish died from old age.

“My hypothesis is that the fish spent its full life in the Northern Rivers area which is really the southern edge of its range.”

“In the cooler waters the growth would generally not be as rapid as it would in the warmer waters, which would explain its smaller size. The fish would also tend to live longer in the cooler waters.”

At 2.2 metres long the fish isn’t exactly small, but considering Giant Gropers can grow up to 3 metres in length it is a tad on the small size for a fish of its age.

In order to pin point the Gropers age the NSW DPI submitted small bones from the Gropers inner ear, called otoliths, to James Cook University for analysis.

“The results that came back indicated that it was 37 years old and the researchers said that it was the oldest fish of that species that they had come across.”

The Giant Queensland groper is the largest reef fish in the world.

“They are distributed all around the Pacific and Indian Oceans in tropical waters, and while they do occasionally enter estuaries they are most often found out on coral reefs.”

In the early 1900’s, large Queensland gropers were occasionally caught in the lower Clarence River by Commercial fishers.

Take a peek in the photo gallery on the side of this page and you will see four pictures of large fish caught on the dock of the Maclean which are thought to be Queensland gropers.

The Queensland Groper is now protected under the Fisheries Management Act 1994 and heavy penalties apply if anyone is caught taking or possessing this species.

While it is known that Gropers come into the Clarence River is unknown wether they are long term residents or just visiting in search of food.

“In South America they go into estuaries quite often and they have found that one of their favourite foods is mud crabs.”

A fish of that size can choose to devour just about anything that comes along, and with the Clarence producing some delicious mud crabs, fish, and prawns during the summer why wouldn’t you make it home for at least a few months of each year.

Edited February 22, 2008 by Davy

[Josh88]

wow thats a big fish, imagine that on the end of your line! Did it just die from old age or something else??

Josh

[inhlanzi]

Wow great story!

I wonder if there are one or two of those big fellas in the Hawkesbury from time to time!

Cheers

inhlanzi

[Davy]

Imagine subdueing it on bream gear!

The article said it died from old age, though it was small for its age!

[Penguin]

That thing looks big enuf to swallow a child,

penguin

[troutcod]

That thing looks big enuf to swallow a child,

penguin

I was up near the Clarence after new year and the stench from rotting fish due to contaminated pollution runoff after the floods at christmas was unbearable. The state of the river was a disgrace! The old girl might of died of old age but looking at the state of the river I would be putting money on pollution playing a big part in her dimise.