mr liaison Posted April 4, 2005 Share Posted April 4, 2005 I was out fishing off sydney on the weekend 3/4/05 and to my disbelief there were hundreds of dead and dying leather jackets along with other smaller fish ....they all had bloated stomachs...did anyone see this or knows what happened? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ko-i Posted April 4, 2005 Share Posted April 4, 2005 It sounds like a similar thing that happened this time last year mate. A pretty lengthy post was going thru the boards about this. Im not sure what the conclusion was though. I think it was a result of mass spawning that lead to a huge increase in the juvenile population, which led to a big die off. Come to think of of it now, there may have been a virus similar to the east coast pilchard virus that wiped them out. The length of the east coast was littered with dying leather jackets from the GBR down past Sydney. I remember being up the parra bream fishing boats and coming across jackets on their side and swimming around in circles on the surface. It was the same up the hawkesbury a few days latter. I remember a few of the regulars reported the same thing as far out as the shelf. Interesting to see if a few of the raiders come across some more of these dead fish. cheers, Andrew. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ko-i Posted April 4, 2005 Share Posted April 4, 2005 Beat me to it swoff.... I should learn how to type faster. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Outnumbered Posted April 4, 2005 Share Posted April 4, 2005 i wonder if any comercial fisho's would see it as an easy $$ and possibly put the public at risk? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest MarkD Posted April 4, 2005 Share Posted April 4, 2005 I saw the same fish on Sunday. I've seen the same thing overseas as the result of commercial fisho's offloading them as undersized by- catch, this may not be the case as Mr Liason has mentioned they were bloated.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bung Posted April 5, 2005 Share Posted April 5, 2005 you get plagues of pelagic leatherjackets around FADs and flotsam i have read. what would be the effect of severe weather courtesy of a tropical cyclone be? the timing could be right what with the recent TC in the coral sea. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mr liaison Posted April 5, 2005 Author Share Posted April 5, 2005 Thanks for the speedy replies and the welcome aboard! I'm sure I'll have heaps more questions for the board. I will have to keep my eyes out this time next year to see if this happens again!! Thanks again. Craig Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
knapers Posted April 5, 2005 Share Posted April 5, 2005 I hope there not dead coz of some sort of disease, we ate some on Sunday night. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Clarkie Posted April 5, 2005 Share Posted April 5, 2005 Cowen is thick with the live ones at the moment. Went through about 20 plastics on Saturday. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now