The Cyclic abundance of Tailor-Steve Starling

Starlo explains the cyclic abundance of tailor

From year to year and decade to decade, tailor runs wax and wane. No
doubt fishing pressure, both commercial and recreational, impacts on
tailor numbers, as do a host of other natural and human influences,
from rainfall to pollution and siltation in our estuaries, where
juvenile choppers spend their early years.

Overseas evidence paints the tailor as a classic boom-and-bust species.
They’re caught in South Africa (where they’re called shad or elf), as
well as on the east coast of North America and parts of Europe (where
they’re known as bluefish). In all these places, there are good and bad
years for tailor, perhaps related to climate, ocean currents and the
relative spawning success of adult fish. There’s also a line of thought
that very big tailor tend to produce lots of extra big eggs and extra
big fry, with a higher-than-average opportunity for survival and a very
good chance of producing more maxi-tailor with a similarly high
reproductive capacity in following years. The bottom line of this
theory is that over-sized tailor are an extremely precious resource and
worthy of protection. That would seem to paint the tailor as a classic
candidate for a ‘slot size’ limit, even if only on precautionary
grounds. I couldn’t see too many serious anglers objecting to a slot
between, say, 30 and 50 centimetres, and maybe a reduction in daily bag
limits at the same time. But I also can’t see it happening any time
soon. For one thing, the pro’s would probably howl like stuck pigs, and
that always seems to carry plenty of weight with our fisheries
management authorities.

Article from Starlo at www.starlo.com.au

Marc Sibille.