Mullet catching window opens on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast

ABC NEWS (Australia)

A long-time fishing practice which is limited to a short season each year is currently open on some of Queensland’s most popular beaches. Members warn catching Mullet is a dying craft and one they're keen to keep alive for the next generation.

Transcript

00:00 Kings Beach on Queensland's Sunshine Coast is popular all year round, but in winter a

00:07 different crowd gathers as schools of mullet migrate north to spawn.

00:12 The run only lasts for around 8 weeks a year, sometimes it will go out to 10 weeks if the

00:18 temperature of the water doesn't drop fast enough.

00:21 From the beach, teams of licensed fishers wait for the right moment for hours and sometimes

00:26 days.

00:27 "It could be sun up to sun down and then on afterwards."

00:31 Once the fish start jumping from schools spawning in circles, it's time to act.

00:36 Catching them is a precise art as the mullet need to move into waters just off the beach,

00:41 away from the rocks.

00:43 "The net is polled in the back of the boat and as you go the boys hang on to it and it

00:48 just creates a semi-circle out round the fish and hook it up to the utes and try and get

00:53 them on the beach."

00:54 Sea mullet mostly live in estuaries and fresh water, catching them off the shore in nets

00:59 is only allowed for 4 months a year.

01:01 "Most of the fish are sold to commercial suppliers but bystanders lucky enough to see

01:07 a catch pulled in can buy the mullet fresh from the beach."

01:12 Fishers say with no new licenses being issued, the 100 year old tradition is a dying art,

01:18 but one that should continue.

01:20 "Everyone deserves fish, so from the person that's walking along here that has no idea

01:26 how to catch a fish, that's who I work for."

01:28 "I'd love to do it for the rest of their life."

01:30 [BLANK_AUDIO]

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