Cockburn Sound crabs

Upon hearing the gummy sharks are back in Cockburn Sound in plague numbers like winter and spring every year it's got me wondering. Have they been overlooked as the main culprit reducing the crab numbers? To me it makes sense, crabs are one of their favourite foods, and if there's 100 or even 1000 or more gummies in the sound eating 3 or 4 crabs each on a daily basis over a 6 month period that could be the problem. What do yous think? The sharks have built up in the metro area and we know they don't observe bag or size limits or open or closed seasons.


Posts: 282

Date Joined: 16/10/08

The last Gummy I caught in

Wed, 2014-07-30 16:09

The last Gummy I caught in the sound had a couple of small crabs in its stomach - they looked like baby blue mannas so its certainly possible. I'm not fussed though with large numbers of Gummy Sharks as they are great eating :)

Posts: 11

Date Joined: 03/12/12

 my family and i have been

Thu, 2014-07-31 07:20

 my family and i have been diving for crabs every season for the last 15 years exept for the ban couple years back as soon as the profesionals were allowed back in sound there is a huge decline in the numbers of female crabs all over the sound you only have to look in coles and woollys to understand how many females the pros take each day for the season this i think is why the number of blueys coming each season is declining aswell

axey45's picture

Posts: 1758

Date Joined: 26/11/13

 Could also be the increase

Thu, 2014-07-31 08:47

 Could also be the increase in snapper numbers, from small they demolish anything.

Posts: 206

Date Joined: 06/05/14

 Yeh all points could be

Thu, 2014-07-31 09:59

 Yeh all points could be true. Or all of them together. Crabs certainly cop it from all directions