2017 fieldwork surveys now ended!

The year 2017 has now ended and the Golden Fish team has celebrated the end of 2017 in the beautiful Southern WA, working with recreational and commercial fishers. By interviewing fishers, the team hopes to better understand the social values and socio-ecological dimensions of the blue swimmer crab (Portunus pelagicus) and black bream fisheries (Acanthopagrus butcheri) in WA.

There is still much work to do, but here is a very first glimpse to where we have been conducting interviews and what our results are showing. For now, the site where we have interviewed more people is Mandurah, followed by Walpole. Most of the fishers that were interviewed were males, ranging from 25 to 34 years old.

Map showing the sites surveyed and the focus-species of the interviews during the 2017 fieldwork in the south of WA.

Graph showing the gender of the interviewed fishers in 2017

Graph showing the age range of the interviewed fishers in 2017

The team will be conducting more fieldwork during the rest of the summer, this year 2018. The survey sites will be in the following regions: Perth, Mandurah, Australind/Bunbury and Geographe Bay, as well as the already surveyed sites in the South coast. If you are interested in participating and would like to let us know what you think of the fishery please contact Clara Obregon at: clara.obregon@murdoch.edu.au

Finally, the Golden Fish team would like to take this opportunity to thank All the fishers that have given us their time, and have been patient enough to respond to all our questions. We could not do this without your help, so ...

THANK YOU!

Watch this space for a more in-depth analysis of the obtained results and for more news on the project too.

Happy New Year everyone!