Rock Lobster Fishery
Western Rock Lobster is Western Australia’s largest and most valuable fishery. Science has played a key role in making it sustainable too, being the first fishery in the world to be certified sustainable for the third time by the Marine Stewardship Council.
The larvae (called puerulus) can spend a staggering 11 months drifting in the Indian Ocean before being swept by wind and currents towards the continental shelf. The late-stage larvae undergo a moult which changes their appearance into miniature transparent rock lobsters known as pueruli, which then swim across the off-shore reefs.
In the 1960s a scientist developed a technique for capturing puerulus, placing collectors on the reef where they drift in. This is now known as the puerulus settlement index. The annual sampling has been proven to relate to catches of lobster up to 4 years later and allows for changes in management.
This site is part of the Wheatbelt Science Trail and GeoTrail, you can find more sites of interest across the region on the map.
The Cache
The cache is now a sistema, no longer hidded in the orignal hole, it is hidden nearby. It has plenty of room for swaps/TB’s