The snapper probably has more names than any other Aussie fish. Apart from being often referred to simply as ‘reds’, other names for snapper include pinkies, red bream, cockney bream, cockney snapper and squire, usually used at various stages of their life cycle. Like many of the common names for Australian fish, however, the name ‘snapper’ is even a bit of a misnomer, since the true snappers are members of the lutjanid family. Nevertheless, the official standard name for this much loved fish is now, thank goodness, simply snapper.

DISTRIBUTION AND MOVEMENTS

The distribution of snapper is very extensive, occurring right around the southern half of the continent and up as far as the tropics on both east and west coasts. It rarely, if ever, extends around Tasmania but the same species is prolific in New Zealand.

A number of tagging programs have studied movements of snapper and most of these have shown that individual fish, on average, do not move very far, especially once they have established themselves on a reef – usually by the time they are about three years old. Tagging of small snapper in southern NSW estuaries and in Victoria, indicates some scattering of young when they leave their inshore nursery grounds but before then, the juveniles tend to stay within their home estuary. It is likely that some individual snappers do occasionally move over extensive distances, since genetic studies have suggested that the species is remarkably uniform throughout its range.

REPRODUCTION

Spawning at the northern limits of the snapper’s range occurs in winter, while Victorian and SA snapper don’t spawn until summer. Snapper usually spawn in water less than 50m deep but large schools of surface spawning snapper have occasionally been observed in very deep water towards the edge of the continental shelf. Snapper are repeat spawners, each female producing millions of eggs throughout an extended two to three-month spawning period.

SIZE AND GROWTH

Snapper are relatively slow-growing fish which live quite a long time by piscatorial standards. Their growth varies widely depending on where they live. For example, scientists at NSW Fisheries have aged thousands of snapper from along the NSW coast. The oldest fish found (based on counts of rings on the ear bones, or otoliths) were 30, 33 and 41 years of age but surprisingly, all three fish were 59 to 60cm long (about 4kg). On the other hand, the ages of 12 fish between 70 and 80cm (seven to 10kg) ranged between nine to 20 years-old. Taking the variable growth rates into consideration, on average, snapper would reach minimum legal size (23cm) in about three years. Oddly, in NZ the average growth rate of snapper is only about half that of Australian fish. Snapper first mature at about 30cm (about half a kilo) but again, this would also vary from place to place. And just for the record, those very old, very large, so-called ‘old man’ snappers are usually female!

SPORTING AND EATING QUALITIES

The two qualities which commonly define great angling species are how well they fight and what they are like on the table; and the snapper scores high marks on both counts. A real scrapper when young and a challenge, especially on light line when adult, the snapper is also one of the best eating fishes taken in our waters. My personal favourite dish is scored and salted, whole fried snapper served with sweet and sour julienned vegetables and chilli, but cooked in just about any way, the fabulous snapper is hard to beat.

By Dr Julian Pepperell, as featured in Trailerboat issue 225