Relationship To Humans
Stout whiting, like most of the smelt-whitings are considered to be good quality table fish, although have soft flesh which results in a tendency to bruise easily. Due to their mostly offshore nature and small size, they are rarely targeted or caught by recreational fishermen, who take an estimated 1 tonne per year. They are however are a major target for commercial operators, especially in southern Queensland. The Queensland fishery originated in 1981, after a single operator began targeting eastern school whiting, S. flindersi. It was soon discovered that stout whiting were highly abundant in the surrounding region and the fishery began to shift towards the species. The original operator who realised the potential of the fishery continued after the market took a downfall, upgrading equipment with a new snap freezing facility, which became essential for exporting the fish. There was a rapid expansion in the fishery between 1989 and 1990, with 10 operators recording a 1789 tonne haul in 1990. In 1991 the market once again took a downfall due to low demand, and the fishery is now closely monitored by fishery authorities, with a 1000 tonne limit on the total yearly catch in place since 2000. This limit includes the fish taken as bycatch in other fisheries such as prawn trawling, which means often a sizable amount must be discarded.
In New South Wales, stout whiting were mostly discarded by trawlers until an export market developed in the 1970s. Substantial amounts are taken and mostly discarded by prawn trawlers, and the catch has been stable at around 300-500 tonnes per year since 2000. The western population is not highly exploited.
The fishery is worth a reported 3 million Australian dollars annually (around $2.80 per kg in 1999), with the fish exported to Thailand, China, Vietnam, Japan and Taiwan. These exported fish compete with local Asian sillaginids, especially northern whiting and Japanese whiting, resulting in substantial price fluctuations. Few fish make their way to local markets where they are sold as butterfly fillets.
Read more about this topic: Stout Whiting
Famous quotes containing the words relationship to, relationship and/or humans:
“... the Wall became a magnet for citizens of every generation, class, race, and relationship to the war perhaps because it is the only great public monument that allows the anesthetized holes in the heart to fill with a truly national grief.”
—Adrienne Rich (b. 1929)
“Henry David Thoreau, who never earned much of a living or sustained a relationship with any woman that wasn’t brotherly—who lived mostly under his parents’ roof ... who advocated one day’s work and six days “off” as the weekly round and was considered a bit of a fool in his hometown ... is probably the American writer who tells us best how to live comfortably with our most constant companion, ourselves.”
—Edward Hoagland (b. 1932)
“The difference between humans and wild animals is that humans pray before they commit murder.”
—Friedrich Dürrenmatt (1921–1990)