Mullet fishing a yearly spectacle
Mullet fishing a yearly spectacle
April 30, 2009
Section: Community
Children in the northern suburbs got some unlikely holiday entertainment earlier this month in the form of some traveling mullet fishermen.
Nearby resident Dal Birrell got some snaps of the fishermen as they hauled their catch onto Shark Bay Beach at Sandon Point two weeks ago.
He said the fishermen drew quite a crowd, with local children even rescuing some of the fish that slipped through the net.
“They were rescuing a few from the net and throwing them back into the water – doing their little thing for nature conser-vation,” he said.
Mr Birrell said he’d seen the mullet fishing teams net their catch off the beach at this time of year many times since he moved to the area 16 years ago.
“They’re commercial mullet fishermen and go up the coast from Eden to Queensland every year and they tend just to follow them up the coast,” he said.
“We’ve lived here for 16 years and we’ve seen it, not every year, but most years they come through.
“Apparently that catch was 1000 to 1200 kilograms and apparently they get $2 a kilo for them.”
That might seem like a lot of money for a spot of netting off the beach, but Mr Birrell said the operation took a boat, four vehicles and eight men.
He said the boat runs around in front of the fish as they swim along the shore and then doubles back behind them before they can escape.
They are then hauled on to the beach and the fishermen box them up to take to Sydney where they are sold.
