Keen angler program

The Keen angler program collects fish skeletons (frames) from recreational fishers to help monitor some of Queensland’s key fish stocks.

Fisheries Queensland uses the biological information from these fish frames (and other information provided by recreational and commercial fishers) to assess the status of fish stocks and help evaluate the effectiveness of fisheries management arrangements.

Find out more about our monitoring programs.

Volunteers

The program relies on volunteers. You do not need to be an experienced fisher or fish regularly, you just need to put your frames in labelled bags (provided by us in a sampling kit), store them in your freezer for a short time, and contact us to organise collection.

The fish frames are processed in our laboratory where we:

• measure them
• determine the sex
• remove the otoliths (ear bones) to estimate age.

For some species, we keep a small sample of muscle tissue, which can be used for research projects that involve studying the genetic makeup of fish populations.

Donate your fish frames

We’re after frames of the following fish caught in coastal waters:

Inshore and estuarine King threadfin Barramundi Black jewfish Mulloway Dusky flathead Sand whiting Tailor Yellowfin bream Rocky Reef Pearl perch Snapper

Coral Reef Common coral trout Crimson snapper Saddletail snapper Red emperor Red throat emperor Spangled emperor Mackerel Grey mackerel School mackerel Spanish mackerel Spotted mackerel

Get involved

• Email FisheriesMonitoring@daf.qld.gov.au or call 13 25 23