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Beche De Mer
(Sea Cucumber)

Also known as Red Mullet

Goatfishes are found on rocky reefs and sand patches among reefs from 5-100m depth. They feed on the bottom using their two sensitive chin barbels to dig into the sediment and locate food items. Small goatfish forage on the bottom in loose schools, hunting for invertebrates such as small crustaceans and worms. In contrast, large individuals (20-40cm in length) also feed on small fishes. Divers have reported seeing adult goatfish hunting in packs, herding prey fishes such as triplefins so they can be more easily caught.

Goatfish are caught in demersal otter trawl fisheries in norther Australia.  In southern Australia, they are mainly caught as a bycatch in inshore seine net fisheries.

There is a limited high value market for domestic consumption of larger fish.  The smaller Goatfish are popular with South Australian consumers.

Goatfish are demersal fish and use their barbels to search for food.  They reach maximum size of 35-50cm fork length.

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Although goatfishes have been occasionally caught on small baited hooks, the recent popularity of fishing soft-plastic fish baits means red mullet and perhaps rare tropical species will become more common in anglers’ catches.