I & I NSW Wild research Program River Garfish (Hyporhamphus regularis ardelio)

Exploitation Status Fully Fished

Study of catches from three estuaries suggested mortality was approximately equal to natural mortality. Status may vary from estuary to estuary but, state-wide, the species should be considered to be fully fished.

Scientific name Standard name comment

Hyporhamphus regularis ardelio river garfish

Hyporhamphus regularis ardelio Image © Bernard Yau

Background attain approximately 29 cm fork length and River garfish Hyporhamphus( regularis 7 years of age. Females grow faster and ardelio) belong to the family Hemiramphidae attain larger sizes than males. The sex ratios (commonly known as garfishes). They are in commercial landings are strongly biased found in coastal lakes and estuaries and towards females. sometimes freshwaters between Gladstone in Queensland and the Gippsland Lakes in The for river garfish in NSW is almost Victoria. Typical of all garfishes, they are surface exclusively within the Estuary General Fishery. dwelling with posterior dorsal and anal River garfish are caught using the method of fins, a deeply forked caudal fin with elongate bullringing and are generally between lower lobe, and with the lower jaw much longer 18 and 27 cm fork length and 1 to 5 years old. than the upper. Bullringing nets are essentially boat-based mesh nets that are fished in shallow water. The River garfish are multiple batch spawners commercial fishery for river garfish is distinctly between July and December in NSW estuaries. seasonal and peaks during the winter months. They produce relatively large eggs (~2.5 mm The most important estuaries for commercial diameter) that are covered with filaments of landings of river garfish in NSW are Lake 5 to 10 mm long that allow them to attach to Illawarra, Wallis Lake, Tuggerah Lakes and Port floating or benthic vegetation. Batch fecundity Stephens. Commercial landings of river garfish increases linearly with length up to declined after 2000; however this appears to approximately 2300 eggs. River garfish mature have been due to a reduction in fishing effort. at approximately 16 cm fork length and about Landings and catch rates both increased in 1 year of age. They have been reported to 2008/09.

status of fisheries resources in nsw, 2008/09 River Garfish | p 251 research program

Additional Notes Landings by Commercial Fishery of River Garfish • Commercial landings of river garfish are Estuary General (Key Secondary Species) significant for a number of NSW estuaries, and 50 the species is also significant in recreational

catches. 40 • The commercial catch has declined over the past decade, however fishing effort has 30

also declined and catch rates have remained Landings (t) 20 stable.

• Fishing mortality in three estuaries during 10 the early 2000’s was approximately equal to 0

natural mortality (Stewart et al., 2005) and the 97/98 99/00 01/02 03/04 05/06 07/08

age composition of catches was stable over Financial Year the 2 years of the study. The reproductive Reported landings of river garfish by NSW commercial potential was assessed to be approximately fisheries from 1997/98. Fisheries which contribute less 40% of unfished levels. than 2.5% of the landings are excluded for clarity and privacy. • River garfish are subject to a recreational bag limit of 50. Catch Per Unit Effort Information of River Garfish Harvested by Mesh-Netting and Bullrigging in NSW Catch Recreational Catch of River Garfish 1.0

The annual recreational harvest of river garfish 0.8 in NSW is likely to be less than 20 t. This

estimate is based upon the results of the offsite 0.6 National Recreational and Indigenous Fishing Survey (Henry and Lyle, 2003) and onsite 0.4 surveys undertaken by I & I NSW. Relative Catch Rate 0.2 0.0

Historical Landings of River Garfish 98/99 00/01 02/03 04/05 06/07 08/09 Financial Year

50 Catch rates of river garfish harvested using mesh-netting and bullrigging for NSW. Two indicators are provided: (1) median catch rate (lower solid line); and (2) 90th 40 percentile of the catch rate (upper dashed line). Note that catch rates are not a robust indicator of abundance in

30 many cases. Caution should be applied when interpreting these results. Landings (t) 20 Length Frequency of River Garfish 10 5 2 . 0

2001/02-2003/04 0

0

2 n = 5754 . 88/89 93/94 98/99 03/04 08/09 0 Financial Year 5 1 . 0 i o n Commercial landings (including available historical t o p r r records) of river garfish for NSW from 1984/85 to 2008/09 0 1 P . for all fishing methods. 0 5 0 . 0 0 0 . 0

16 18 20 22 24 26 28 30 FL (cm) The length distribution of river garfish landed by NSW commercial fishers between 2001 and 2004 comprised mainly fish between 20 and 25 cm fork length (FL). There is no minimum legal length for river garfish in NSW.

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Growth Curve of RiverRiver Garfish Garfish - Males (male) Further Reading

25 Collette, B.B. (2004). Family Hemiramphidae Gill 1859 - halfbeaks, California Academy of Sciences. Gray, C.A. (2004). An overview of commercial fishing in Lake Illawarra: trends in reported catch and effort, 20 and discarding, Wetlands (Australia) 21: 152-162.

FL (cm) Henry, G.W. and J.M. Lyle (2003). The National

15 Recreational and Indigenous Fishing Survey. Final Report to the Fisheries Research & Development Corporation and the Fisheries Action Program Project FRDC 1999/158. NSW Fisheries Final Report Series No. 48. 188 pp. Cronulla, NSW Fisheries. 10 Hughes, J.M. and J. Stewart (2006). Reproductive

2 4 6 8 biology of three commercially important

Age (years) Hemiramphid species in south-eastern Australia, Age-length data with fitted growth curve for male Environmental Biology of Fishes 75 (2): 237-256. river garfish (Stewart and Hughes, 2007). Lengths are Potter, I.C. and G.A. Hyndes (1999). Characteristics presented as fork length (FL). of the ichthyofaunas of southwestern Australian estuaries, including comparisons with holarctic estuaries and estuaries elsewhere in temperate Australia: A review. Australian Journal of Ecology 24: Growth Curve of RiverRiver Garfish Garfish -(female)Females 395-421. Steffe, A.S., J.J. Murphy, D.J. Chapman, G.P. Barret and C.C. Gray (2005). An assessment of changes in the daytime, boat-based, recreational fishery of the 25 Tuross Lake estuary following the establishment of a ‘Recreational Fishing Haven’. Fisheries Final Report Series 81. Cronulla, NSW DPI. 70 pp.

20 Stewart, J. and J.M. Hughes (2007). Age validation

FL (cm) and growth of three commercially important hemiramphids in south-eastern Australia, Journal of

15 Fish Biology 70 (1): 65-82. Stewart, J., J.M. Hughes, C.A. Gray and C. Walsh (2005). Life history, reproductive biology, habitat use and

10 fishery status of eastern sea garfishHyporhamphus ( australis) and river garfish H.( regularis ardelio)

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 in NSW waters. FRDC Project 2001/027. 180 pp. Cronulla, NSW Fisheries. Age (years) Age-length data with fitted growth curve for female river garfish (Stewart and Hughes, 2007). Lengths are presented as fork length (FL). Please visit the CSIRO website, http://www.marine.csiro.au/caab/ and search for the species code (CAAB) 37 234012, common name or scientific name to find further information.

© State of New South Wales through Industry and Investment NSW 2010. You may copy, distribute and otherwise freely deal with this publication for any purpose, provided that you attribute Industry and Investment NSW as the owner.

Disclaimer: The information contained in this publication is based on knowledge and understanding at the time of writing (April 2010). However, because of advances in knowledge, users are reminded of the need to ensure that information upon which they rely is up to date and to check currency of the information with the appropriate officer of Industry and Investment NSW or the user’s independent adviser.

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