The big fish in the Macquarie River have been on the bite locally, with Dubbo Catches receiving numerous reports of fish between 90cm and 108cm being caught and released up and down the waterway around Dubbo.
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Lincoln McBroom fished the build of the moon, and boated 4 fish between 89cm and 96cm in successive nights last week, with a pumping current seemingly putting the fish in somewhat of a feeding frenzy as the moon grew in size.
Flows in the Macquarie River have been strong, averaging around 4000 mega litres per day, making for some quite tricky boating conditions, particularly in narrow sections where the flow can be powerful, surging, and somewhat unpredictable as water pumps down the river.
Boaters are urged to be extremely careful whilst large water releases continue, particularly as the water is an icy 19 degrees Celsius.
Start of net trial
The initial results of the shark net trial on the NSW North Coast show that the majority of marine life captured was released alive.
The NSW Department of Primary Industries (DPI) found that in the first month of the nets being in place, 72 per cent of marine animals were successfully released.
Four sharks from targeted species (White Shark, two Tiger Sharks and one Bull Shark) were caught in the nets. Three of these sharks were tagged, released and relocated alive in deeper waters.
NSW DPI Director General, Scott Hansen, said DPI is committed to doing all it can to ensure captured animals are released as soon as possible.
“These nets have provided greater peace of mind to the community particularly during the school holidays,” Hansen said.
“Our aim has always been to minimise the risk to swimmers and surfers from shark attacks and the amount of by-catch caught. The number of animals released alive in this past month is a promising start.
The NSW Government has also released the Shark Meshing (Bather Protection) Program 2015-16 Annual Performance Report. This report provides details of the meshing program covering 51 beaches off Sydney, Newcastle and Wollongong.
There has been an increase in by-catch from previous years and as a result a review of the SMP will be undertaken. Encouragingly, more than half of the marine life caught in the nets were released alive (51 per cent), up (12 per cent) from previous years.
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