VOICEOVER:
Fish. They sure come in a wide range of shapes and sizes.

And that’s why it’s so important that recreational fisherman know exactly how to measure their different catches…to make sure that not only do we have fish for the future, but fisherman avoid any unnecessary fines for keeping undersized fish.

From finfish, scalefish and garfish to cockles, crabs and other crustaceans, strict size regulations are in place all across South Australian waterways.

DERYCK DONOVAN, PIRSA FISHERIES:
The sustainability of our fish stocks relies upon people measuring their fish accurately so they’re not undersized, they have a chance to breed and everyone has a chance down the track to catch fish in the future.

VOICEOVER:
So what is the best way to measure a fish? Well…why not let us show you.

DERYCK DONOVAN, PIRSA FISHERIES:

• This species is a yellow fin whiting. You put the mouth on the tip of the ruler at the start. Run your finger along the flesh down to the back of the tail and try and get the maximum length out of the tail.
• This particular species is a snook. The same as the yellowfin whiting from the start of the tip of the ruler. Run your finger down along the length, along to the tail and maximise the length out of that.
• With a garfish it’s not from the beak, it’s actually from the mouth which is at the top of the fish. You put that on the edge of the ruler, run your finger down along the length of the fish and maximise the length.
• With the blue swimmer crab a lot of people measure tip to tip but its not. It’s inside the base of that big spine through to the other side. We use the blue crab gauges that we give out free but when Fisheries Officers come along, we use vernier gauges.
• With the pippies, you measure at the widest part of the shell so we use vernier gauges on them and we would measure from side to side at the widest part.
• With abalone what we want you to do is measure the widest part of the shell. So flip it over, measure from side to side. Fisheries hand out these gauges free to the public to use, and it’s as simple as that.

VOICEOVER:
And a number of handy tools are available to help you measure your catch… like tape measures, gauges and measuring stations. But it’s the simple metal ruler that Fisheries Officers recommend.

DERYCK DONOVAN, PIRSA FISHERIES:
The plastic stick on’s have a tendency to shrink and also in the printing runs they can be inaccurate as well. What you have to keep in mind when your bringing in your fish for measuring is that the scaling bags can actually rat the tails of the fish and make them undersized when originally they were sized fish and Fisheries Officers have to measure what comes into them. And also fish shrinkage due to heat, so if you don’t store your fish on ice the fish will be subject to shrinkage.

VOICEOVER:
Different size limits apply for different fish. To find out how long your fish should be, check out your Recreational Fishing Guide, available at most fishing outlets or on the PIRSA website.

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