Movement of the surf zone carangid Trachinotus coppingeri (Gunther, 1884) in Queensland and northern New South Wales

Trachinotus coppingeri is an important species for recreational and commercial ocean beach fishers in southeast Queensland and northern New South Wales. Tagging was carried out to examine the species movement pattern. 4,556 fish were tagged in thirteen locations from Mourilyan southwards to Pottsville. There were 243 recaptures (5.3%), the majority by recreational fishers (91.2%), and the remainder by commercial fishers (6.7%) and researchers (2.1%). It was concluded that the movements of T. coppingeri were more consistent with ranging than either station keeping or migration. The majority (49.3%) of T. copingeri were recaptured <4km from their release site, but movements of up to 275km were recorded. The distance between release and recapture site was positively correlated with fish size. Considering the comparative number of recaptures between recreational and commercial fishers it was concluded that the recreational catch of T. coppingeri was likely to far exceed the commercial catch.