In an effort to bring a bit of balance to the headlines, I’m here to report that it’s not all doom and gloom on Yorke Peninsula because of the current algal bloom affecting South Australian waters.

It annoys me that some mainstream media are choosing to focus on the phenomenon by sensationalizing and using provocative language to evoke outrage, and fear, but that seems to be the way to fire up the masses and get more hits on social media.

Take for instance a story in a weekend paper with part of the headline reading ‘Algal crisis smashes Yorke Peninsula’. Far from being helpful, that suggests to me, don’t go to Yorke Peninsula it’s a toxic mess, but let me give you an alternative view.

What you don’t discover until very deep into the story is that while the algal bloom is having a devastating effect on part of the peninsula, there are two gulfs of water surrounding this and all other peninsulas, and while Gulf St Vincent is copping the worst effects of the algal bloom at the moment, the Spencer Gulf, western side is relatively untouched.

Having just spent a few weeks on Yorke Peninsula on the Spencer Gulf side, the water was clear, clean and looked exactly the same as it always has. This doesn’t mean things can’t change in the future but a little bit of balance and positivity could be helpful in reporting on the situation.

We and other fishers did notice though, the overall effect that the bloom was having on fishing catches. There was a noticeable lack of squid being caught on the jetty or by boats which is a real worry as these are usually prolific and a reliable catch on both sides of the peninsula.

At first we thought the fish catches were also down with our trips in the boat bringing back much less than we’d usually expect, but in hindsight it was actually a fairly typical year.

For more than 10 years now I’ve been keeping a record of our catches at Moonta Bay where we regularly holiday and surprisingly this year in comparison was mostly on par with previous years. Here’s what my statistics have shown:

• Blue swimmer crabs were slightly down on our average for the past 5 years, but over a 10 year period the number has dropped by half
• Garfish – Apart from one freakishly good year with an exceptional catch, other years we’ve caught none so this year’s catch was actually double the average over 10 years
• Whiting was only slightly less than our average catch
• Tommy Ruff (Herring) was the catch of the season, our best yet and three times the average over the 10 year of records
• Squid was the biggest downturn with this year’s catch ¼ of the usual we would expect

So whilst some media would have you believe that an entire ecosystem has been wiped out and it’s useless to visit a region (I don’t know why they would do that), it pays to perhaps ask a local for an honest opinion.  The local tackle shops are a good source of information for fishers.

Yes the Yorke Peninsula is copping the brunt of the algal bloom crisis on the eastern side in particular at the moment, but there is so much more worth visiting for and it’s not all ‘Bloom, Doom and Gloom’. There are places to fish and catches to be had if you check before you go.

Take what you need, enjoy what you get and look after our environment at every opportunity.

Cheers

Glenys