Black Bream Report Card

Aquatic Plants

Macroinvertebrates

Black Bream

Waterbirds

Fish Kills

Water Quality

Black Bream are an important commercial and recreational fish species in the Vasse Wonnerup wetlands and have been severely impacted by major fish kills. As a long-lived fish species that spend their entire life in the wetlands the Black Bream are an important indicator of fish health.

Two indicators were developed for Black Bream, one measuring recruitment of juvenile fish and the other body condition of adult fish. Fish monitoring undertaken in spring and summer in the Wonnerup Inlet and Deadwater is used to calculate the indicators following methodology developed by Murdoch University.

Black Bream Summary 2022

Body Condition

A

Recruitment

A

Key Findings

A total of 1,280 Black Bream was collected throughout Wonnerup Inlet and the Deadwater in November 2021 and January 2022.
Catches of juveniles Black Bream in seine nets in November 2022 where the highest ever recorded in any of the 28 previous sampling occasions.

Recruitment in 2022 was the second highest recorded and rated as A. It was the first time since the 2013 fish kill that recruitment was assessed as Excellent.
Sufficient Black Bream were caught to produce a reliable body condition index, with an estimated average weight at 250 mm total length of 270g. This was the highest recorded and the first time since 2013 this index had received a rating of A (Excellent).