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Milky White Flesh in Snapper - Update

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Post Options Post Options   Likes (0) Likes(0)   Quote Pcj Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 25 Oct 2023 at 4:36pm
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Titanium
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Originally posted by brmbrm brmbrm wrote:

See the link in Krow's post above and the link in that link (repeated below).  Seems it is due to "it is due to chronic starvation and muscular atrophy".  So what's removing all the natural food that used to be there?  Man-made?  I suspect so.  Might be some warming issues but it seems to not be just a recent thing


https://legasea.co.nz/2023/04/03/mushy-fleshed-snapper-in-the-hauraki-gulf/


But none of explains why fish caught in mussel farms are effected,plenty of feed. Why it is happening up  in the Northern waters. Why Snappergeoff was getting them off Mokau back in 2015
"Times up"
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Post Options Post Options   Likes (0) Likes(0)   Quote lawabidingpoacher Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 25 Oct 2023 at 6:59pm
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I've caught 'milkey fish' 30 + yrs ago. I remember thinking had I let them get to warm or something , but we always had frozen bottles of water and always ikied and gutted straight away ? Who knows
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Post Options Post Options   Likes (1) Likes(1)   Quote kitno Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 27 Oct 2023 at 8:50am
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Post Options Post Options   Likes (1) Likes(1)   Quote krow Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 27 Oct 2023 at 3:17pm
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Thanks very interesting.
BTW I've fished Bream bay 4 times this week and have not filleted any white fleshed fish. 
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Post Options Post Options   Likes (0) Likes(0)   Quote StressTherapy Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 27 Oct 2023 at 7:41pm
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I may have missed something in all these posts but reading Kitnos last post is there a link between caught and released snapper, netted snapper that are released and the milky white flesh. Do fish not recover as we expect when bought to the surface, even when they apoear to swim away strongly???
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Post Options Post Options   Likes (0) Likes(0)   Quote Reel Deal Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 27 Oct 2023 at 8:11pm
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Titanium
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Bream bay fished 4 days last week and got one 38cm that wasn’t far off milky. Fish were fatter shallow up limestone island than out the mouth. 
The gods do not subtract from the allotted span of men's lives the hours spent on fishing - Assyrian Proverb
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Post Options Post Options   Likes (0) Likes(0)   Quote brmbrm Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 17 Nov 2023 at 6:06pm
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Had one yesterday out of 4 kept (more caught).  Seems the reporting web site is no closed down.
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Post Options Post Options   Likes (0) Likes(0)   Quote Reel Deal Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 19 Nov 2023 at 5:14am
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Overnighted with the missus at an island. Having a few drinkies in a sheltered bay and thought should go and get a snapper for tea. Moved out to a 50m deep channel saw sign so dropped the pick. After a few smaller fish picked a nice eating 45cm looking fat and moved back into bay to clean it. MILKY AS!.
So disappointing as was looking out for skinny fish etc. had time to pop back out and grab dinner but why do we still don’t know what is causing this. We know it’s not lack of food but the virus or what ever it is hasn’t been worked out yet? And we are supposed to have world class scientists managing our stocks? Felt bad killing a beautiful fish to waste it. 
The gods do not subtract from the allotted span of men's lives the hours spent on fishing - Assyrian Proverb
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Post Options Post Options   Likes (0) Likes(0)   Quote Marligator Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 19 Nov 2023 at 6:41am
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Titanium
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Things are not that simple, there are thousands of virus's, or it could be a chemical issue. In the US Northwest there was a problem of Coho Salmon dying in urban rivers every time it rained, they guessed it was chemical related, but it took years for them to find out it was related to a chemical compound associated with vehicle tyres and was being washed off roads into streams, it only required concentrations in the parts  per billion to be lethal to salmon.
http://phys.org/news/2022-03-substance-derived-debris-toxic-trout.html . Maybe we have a similar thing happening here some type of chemical compound, or it could be something totally different. Very hard to isolate these things, especially in the sea.

Originally posted by Reel Deal Reel Deal wrote:

Overnighted with the missus at an island. Having a few drinkies in a sheltered bay and thought should go and get a snapper for tea. Moved out to a 50m deep channel saw sign so dropped the pick. After a few smaller fish picked a nice eating 45cm looking fat and moved back into bay to clean it. MILKY AS!.
So disappointing as was looking out for skinny fish etc. had time to pop back out and grab dinner but why do we still don’t know what is causing this. We know it’s not lack of food but the virus or what ever it is hasn’t been worked out yet? And we are supposed to have world class scientists managing our stocks? Felt bad killing a beautiful fish to waste it. 
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Post Options Post Options   Likes (1) Likes(1)   Quote Kandrew Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 19 Nov 2023 at 8:32am
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Went out for a fish at the Waikawa mussel farms on Friday, 15 nice snapper all in great condition with no white fillets.

I run with the not enough food cause that niwa had put forward because there’s plenty of food for them around the mussel farms.
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Post Options Post Options   Likes (0) Likes(0)   Quote Marligator Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 19 Nov 2023 at 9:45am
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Titanium
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Kandrew, I have neighbors who do a lot of fishing around the mussel farms and they often get milky fleshed snapper.

I think NIWA said they were suffering from chronic starvation, does not necessarily mean a lack of food, means that they could be starving for another reason, such as not able to utilise the nutrients in the food they are eating, or unable to eat the food that is there. Take humans for example, most cancers end up with the patient wasting away and I am sure you would find a diagnosis of chronic starvation there as well, no shortage of food but unable to utilise the nutrients within the food ingested, or unable to eat the food full stop, if you break your jaw and all you have to eat is stuff that needs vigorous chewing then you will probably starve to death.
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Post Options Post Options   Likes (0) Likes(0)   Quote Redfinger Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 19 Nov 2023 at 10:51am
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Off browns bay 18m last saturday - 4 snapper kept - i recovering milky, 2 skinny and 1 just average. 5 gurnard were fat as, i kahawai bit skinny one good. The snake eel we got did not require sampling! nor did the small mako who hung around a bit.
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Post Options Post Options   Likes (0) Likes(0)   Quote Reel Deal Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 19 Nov 2023 at 2:18pm
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Nice selection there Redfinger😬. Yes skinny and starving more a symptom. Getting milkys from 60m to 3 metres on reefs and sands. Annoying when they come up fat and solid and then still milky. Hate wasting them. Be great to be able to take a plug and check before binning…the Comms are dumping them by the thousands I’d imagine or maybe a new marketing name like Fonterra fish or the like haha 
The gods do not subtract from the allotted span of men's lives the hours spent on fishing - Assyrian Proverb
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Post Options Post Options   Likes (0) Likes(0)   Quote smudge Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 19 Nov 2023 at 3:36pm
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I've been hanging out for a small mako for the smoker! Never been tempted to keep a snake eel. 

I have caught plenty of milky gurnard and kahawai over the years on Auckland's west side and maybe 10% of our snapper will have a less than translucent type of colouration but not common to see the likes of what is happening out east. A recent trip out to 50m somewhere between Tiri & Little Barrier demonstrated to me just how serious the problem is. Around 20% of the snapper were less than ideal.

Last weekend we had a typical spring snapper mission on the west coast and all the fish were in good nick. I filleted about 20 of them and two or three had flesh that was not as clear as the others, but that is 100% normal.

If snapper from the mussel farms are suffering then I can't imagine it is a lack of food but who knows how long those fish have been there.

just to kind of contradict that, it is my belief that the HG has been absolutely plundered for pilchards and crayfish. I think that is part of the problem. Like us, fish need a balanced diet.

A beer in one hand and a gurnard burger in the other keeps me in the best of condition.
Best gurnard fisherman in my street
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Post Options Post Options   Likes (0) Likes(0)   Quote Alan L Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 19 Nov 2023 at 8:10pm
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Titanium
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"A beer in one hand and a gurnard burger in the other keeps me in the best of condition."
Fulkl marks Smudge.
And what prey tell is a snake eel?
Alan
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Post Options Post Options   Likes (0) Likes(0)   Quote smudge Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 20 Nov 2023 at 6:20am
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Snake eels are pretty common I'm guessing. I've seen lots of juveniles while fishing at night. They are skinny as and with a serpent like mouth. I've never seen a big one but I think they get up around 2m or more in length. I'll see if I can find a pic of one online.

Not a great pic of one but you get the idea

Best gurnard fisherman in my street
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Post Options Post Options   Likes (0) Likes(0)   Quote Alan L Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 20 Nov 2023 at 8:28am
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Titanium
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Holy crap. Never seen one before. Ugly bugger, who would want to be its mother?
Are they in the harbour?
Alan
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Post Options Post Options   Likes (0) Likes(0)   Quote smudge Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 20 Nov 2023 at 9:05am
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I would think so. I've seen a lot in the Manukau harbour
Best gurnard fisherman in my street
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Post Options Post Options   Likes (0) Likes(0)   Quote krow Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 20 Nov 2023 at 7:20pm
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Mate got one on his contiki at Ruakaka. Plenty on the mud up in the B.O.I's as well

 

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Post Options Post Options   Likes (0) Likes(0)   Quote Alan L Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 20 Nov 2023 at 9:20pm
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Titanium
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Jeez they are special and prob good for nothing.
Alan
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