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Andy Darbyshire's avatar

i had the privelage of working with marine researches in Ningaloo and Abhrolos marine protected areas. Facilitating acces to their data collection. driving boats and being out in the briny can make up for a lot of frustration, but between holding their hands thru logistic and ever changing marine weather variables was a sad eye opener to the perverse incentive that is " publish or perish" within scientific research. dody data collection methods and practical applications in obtaining it were often commonplace.

One such honour student was researching Baldchin groper. there were no seasonal closures for the species at the time and they faced no underlying threats to the population or their habit. In fact local local lobster fishers in the area maintained they were a pest - commonly biting of all of the crayfish legs in surface water holding baskets. These multi generational fishers has various unflattering names for the "baldies" such as rats of the sea. and plauge fish. They are a particulary good eating fish so their distain did not of course extend to eating as many of them as they could...a practice i also enjoyed. Of course the underlying premise of his study was that to prevent overfishing the trendy management tool of seasonal closures during the spawning season was essential. trouble is they dont need to spawn as they are hermaphrodites.when the biggest among them is taken ( the males)the next biggest female changes sex and fertilises the rest. size limits were perfect in ensuring their ongoing abundance. the little spawning that occoured was serving to mix the dna of adjascent and far flung members of the species. Anway the paper produced did not discuss this and the seasonal closures went ahead, much to the detriment of recreational fishers.The masters student was also an existing employee of the department and was duly promoted to his level of incompetence as a result. people have agenda's. sigh.

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Deb's avatar

It’s just common sense!!!!!

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