With marron season opening early next year, DPIRD are calling for all fishers to help with ongoing research

If you manage to catch a marron in the 2026 season, be sure to check if it has a tag as researchers want to know. The marron season officially opens on January 8 and runs through until February 5, and the Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development is calling for fishers to help with ongoing research. The Murray, Blackwood, Donnelly and Warren rivers provide popular marron fishing locations in natural bushland areas or there’s also good options at irrigation dams around Harvey and Waroona, and Wellington Dam near Collie. So far, more than 9500 licences have been issued for the coming season and fishers are reminded to follow bag and size limits and to ensure they are using legal fishing gear when on the hunt. In the build-up to the season, DPIRD researchers have been conducting ongoing marron monitoring in several key dams like Waroona, Logue Brook and Harvey, and various rivers. They also monitor Stirling Dam and Shannon River, which are not open to the public for marron fishing. Surveying in these areas provides the research team with important information about the natural variations in marron populations and insights about how climate change might be impacting stocks. DPIRD research officer Blaine Hodgson said information like size, sex and reproductive stage has been collected to help build their understanding of marron stocks and inform management. “We also gather environmental data like salinity, water temperature and dissolved oxygen for each location to help us assess ongoing impacts of climate change,” he said. “These are sites that DPIRD has monitored in the past, so we can compare our results to historical data. “Careful monitoring of the marron fishery ensures that we can manage fishing pressure as well as changes in the climate and physical environment, including reduced rainfall and runoff into rivers and dams.” Mr Hodgson said rangers from the Undalup Association recently joined DPIRD scientists to survey the Blackwood River on Wadandi Boodja. “We demonstrated our scientific research techniques and worked together trapping, measuring, sexing and tagging marron,” he said. “Marron have considerable cultural importance to Noongar people and there are plans to develop future collaborative research programs with traditional owner groups throughout the South West.” Fishers can assist researchers during marron season by reporting any tagged ones they catch. Simply record when and where the marron was caught and photograph its tag number and details can be sent to research.survey@dpird.wa.gov.au