| PSToday has joined forces with legendary local John 'Stinker' Clarke of the Tomaree Museum Association, who's providing us with some classic Port Stephens snapshots. Thanks, Stinker!
Year after year, for as long as records have been kept and long before, huge schools of mullet have travelled north along our coastline.
Spawning in the ocean is part of their life cycle, which begins when fertilised eggs develope and mature in the bays, rivers and estuaries.
Around Easter and Anzac Day, the 3 to 5 year old fully developed river mullet leave the enclosed waters to enter the open ocean. In this process they go from being called bully or hard gut mullet to sea mullet.
The sea mullet that arrive in Port Stephens have left estuary systems as far south as Lake Illawarra and the Shoal Haven River. The fish that have matured in the Port Stephens system move north to Port Macquarie and above. Those that develop in rivers around Port Macquarie swim further north towards the Clarence.
And so the cycle continues!
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