Growth and Habits of the Sea Mullet, Mugil dobula Gnnther, in Western Australia

Abstract

Morphologically and physiologically, the sea mullet of Western Australia seems to be identical with that of the eastern Australian coast. No raciation can be detected either within Western Australian waters or between the stocks of eastern and Western Australia. However, the mean growth rate varies from one estuary to another and from year to year within any particular river system. Growth is isometric and shows considerable individual variation though tending to a mean rate. Increase in length is seasonal, practically stopping in midwinter and reaching a peak in midsummer. The seasons of fish and scale growth are contemporaneons. The annuli form at the end of September or the beginning of October, when growth recommences after the winter cessation.

Mullet mature at a size of 31–35 cm. (12 1/2-13 3/4 in. length to caudal fin) at the end of their third year. The movement of mullet from the fishing grounds as they increase in size leads to an incomplete sampling of the population so that Petersen's method of age determination is inappIicable owing to the apparent nonprogression of the modes. Of 7110 mullet tagged, only 97 or 1.35 per cent. were returned. The return for separate tagging operations varied from nil to 25 per cent. and according to localities from nil to 16 per cent. Only three fish were retaken outside the rivers in which they were tagged. These showed a northerly movement. Inside the rivers the young fish spread out over the estuary and into the fresh water; but the older age-groups remain in the slightly brackish or fresh water except during the migration season, when they pass through the saline estuaries on the way to the sea.