Email: bookings@murchisonboathire.com.au www.murchisonboathire.com.au
Very
quiet now that the spring/summer weather pattern of windy weather
sets
in combined with the demersal ban. I will be putting my craypots in this coming
week-end
ready
for the “run of the whites”.
The
demersal ban ends 15th December and Christmas bookings are starting
to flow in.
If
you have booked a boat and not paid the bond yet, remember to pay up
before
our small CPI rate increase comes into effect on the 1/1/15 enabling you to
keep
the old price for your booking.
Target Mulloway
My daughter Rebecca and son-in-law Julian
were in Kalbarri for a few days this month.
On one of the better days I took them for a
fish not far from the river mouth.
Because of the demersal ban is still on, we
had to target fish like mulloway,
tailor, and pelagics such as cobia.
My best
fish that morning was this 14kg mulloway
Rebecca got a 9kg cobia
& Sue landed this smaller cobia among
other fish during the morning.
We were home by 9am ready for breakfast!
Demersal Ban Pain
Brendan McPhee
and James Parry had a great day out in the 6.1m boat picking nice
morning weather but
it blew quite hard in the afternoon
and were back
early but had a great time
They landed an
assortment of good fish but had to put most back due to the demersal ban!
James holds up a
very lucky snapper that was released.
The conservation Status of Western
Australia’s sea snakes:
Are species disappearing before they
have been discovered?
Blanche D'Anastasi from
the James Cook University, Townsville, Queensland gave me a ring wanting
to hire a boat that
was in 2C survey, I could not help out there but she told me that she was going
up
to Shark Bay to do
some research on sea snakes.
This is the why and
how of her research:
True sea snakes are a highly diverse
group of live-bearing marine reptiles that that act as both predator and
prey in tropical marine
ecosystems. Australia is a biodiversity
hot spot for sea snakes, containing more
than half of the 62 described species,
including 11 endemic species. Western Australia is particularly
important for sea snake biodiversity as
it is home to 21 of Australia’s 35 sea snake species, including five
restricted range endemics that occur
predominantly on coral reefs. In 2010 three Western Australian endemics
were listed as
Critically Endangered, due to severe declines in abundance over the
previous decade, however reasons for these
declines are not known. To date these
are the first sea snake
species listed as
threatened with extinction. Many other
species are currently listed as Data Deficient
due to a lack of
basic data about taxonomic status, range extent, population
size and
connectivity, which are essential to evaluating conservation status.
Erica Parker from
the University of Miami was accompanying Blanche and helping
out as well as
doing her own research on Stromatolites.
My PhD research
aims to fill some of these knowledge gaps for sea snakes in coastal Western
Australia,
where almost no
sea snake research has been conducted.
To date I have been able to collect habitat use observations
and tail clips
from 150 sea snakes, from 5 species in Shark Bay. My research has demonstrated that species
ranges
are poorly
defined, as I discovered new records on the range extent of two species, which
will be published shortly.
The next phase of
the project is to evaluate the level of genetic connectivity between
populations of the small range
endemic Shark Bay
sea snake Aipysurus pooleorum and the
Australo-Papuan endemic Olive-headed sea snake Hydrophis major.
Using a powerful,
cutting edge population genomics approach, which uses thousands of genetic
markers
(called single nucleotide polymorphisms or
SNPs), I will examine the level of genetic connectivity and genetic
diversity between
shallow sea grass beds in the Western Gulf and the Stromatolite Reefs of the
Eastern Gulf of Shark Bay.
The genetic
connectivity data obtained from this research will provide information that is
critical to
managing and
conserving sea snakes in the Shark Bay World Heritage Area.
Upcoming Events
Kalbarri Sports Fishing Classic
27th, 28th Feb
& 1st March 2015
Preparations are well
advanced now with the, logo, entry form, shirts, sponsorship
etc in process. If it
is anything to go by from last year, the fishing will be spectacular
again as it is in the
best time of year for game and bottom fish.
Already all my boats are booked for the Classic 2015 except the 5.3m.
So if you want to be
part of it and need a boat be quick as it won’t last.
Entry forms available
from these websites:
Bite of the Month
Each month I award Bite of the
Month to someone who catches the best fish
from one of my boats.
22nd November 2014
The demersal ban
continues to be a problem but surf parrot fish and tailor can still be kept
Need a boat
for up north?
Remember I will
deliver a boat out to the turn-off for free for those heading north.
Just pre arrange
and ring me from Geraldton and I will meet you there.
Popular Northern Destinations
Thevenard
Island
Island Manager: 9184
6444.
There are a few cabins available, just ask and see if you
can get one. However Direction
Island is always open and still a good option and
bookings can be made.
Check out the website: www.mackerelislands.com.au
Ashburton
Resort
Ashburton Resort.
Phone 9184 6586 email: admin@ashburtonresortonslow.com.au
Website: www.ashburtonresortonslow.com.au
Gnaraloo
Station
Gnaraloo contacts for accommodation:
Barbara: 9315 4809
Email: bookings@gnaraloo.com.au
Website: Gnaraloo.com.au
Steep Point
Steep Point Ranger for booking campsites.
Phone: Paul Dickson -
Steep Point 9948 3993
Email: Ranger@steeppoint.com.au
Dirk Hartog Island
Kieran
Wardle: 08
99481 211 Mob: 0407 383 449
Game, Bottom
and Beach Fishing Action
These links will take
you to Youtube showing some great action video clips taken from
my boats and also a
very good mulloway from the beach.
Archived
Newsletters
After a lot of effort on my part, you can now view all
my past newsletters in my Blogs.
I have made six
blogs; you can view all of my 2005 newsletters with photos @
And from January
2006 to December 2006 with photos @
And from January
2007 to December 2007 with photos @
And from January
2008 to December 2008 with photos @
And from January
2009 to December 2009 with photos @
And from January
2010 to December 2010 with photos @
And from January
2011 to December 2011 with photos @
And from January
2012 to December 2012 with photos @
And from January
2013 to December 2013 with photos @
And from January 2014 onwards with photos @
They are quite long
URL’s so add them to your favourites.
Remember
if you rent our accommodation in Kalbarri
you get big discounts on our boats.
Have
a look on my website for the
details, and check out the savings.
5-day
weather forecasts, www.buoyweather.com go to virtual
buoys, pick the location you want.
This is the one I go by!
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