Fish diets are on the menu at Murdoch

FISH is on the menu at Murdoch University where researchers are more interested in discovering what fish species like to eat than tucking into the catch of the day.

In a two year project funded by the Australian Fisheries Research and Development Corporation, Murdoch University research fellow Dr Margaret Platell is combing through all the data collected about fish caught off the coast of Perth, and has found information about their diets is surprisingly scarce.

“We need to find out how recreationally and commercially important fish species live together in order to manage and conserve their ecosystems,” said Dr Platell.

“We know a considerable amount about reproduction, age and growth of different fish species, but once I started hunting for information about their diets, I was surprised to find out how little had been done on the fish in Perth waters.”

With the shortage of data available, Dr Platell will be relying on the catches of other researchers and anglers to examine the stomach contents of the different species found in the metropolitan waters of WA.

“So far the news is good with most fish species having a fairly wide diet, which means they have a better chance of long term survival than those fish which have a more specialized diet,” said Dr Platell.

“However, we have not examined most of the prize catch species yet, such as dhufish, snapper, tailor and mulloway which may give us a different picture.”

She also stated “The lack of knowledge on the diets of many species is a major hindrance to understanding interactions among those fish species, and there is an urgent need to collect those data.”

Armed with the data collected by Dr Platell, Associate Professor Norm Hall from the Centre for Fish and Fisheries Research at Murdoch University is developing mathematical models that will provide information about the ways in Fish diets are on the menu at Murdoch which aquatic ecosystems function, with the aim of predicting the effect of declining numbers of certain fish species due to fishing and other human impacts.

Dr Platell said this study would help to provide a clearer picture of how managers of aquatic ecosystems can balance the long-term survival of species with the continuation of recreational and commercial fishing in Perth waters.