User Profile

Duncan Leadbitter

Duncan Leadbitter is a director of fisheries and natural resource consulting company, Fish Matter, which advises industry, government and NGOs on the sustainable use of fish. Most of Duncan’s work is based in Asia, where he is involved in fisheries projects in Indonesia, Vietnam, Thailand, Philippines and India. He is a Visiting Fellow at the Australian Centre for Ocean Resources and Security at the University of Wollongong. A keen scuba diver, snorkeller, spearfisherman and photographer, Duncan has lived in Stanwell Park for 20 years.

Science & Nature

Should we have a City fish?

The state of New South Wales has a number of emblems including a flower (waratah), a gemstone (black opal), a bird (kookaburra), a marsupial (the platypus) and two fish, one of which is a 370-million-year-old fossil and the other is the Blue Groper...

Duncan Leadbitter

September 2025

Science & Nature

From shark nets to drones: 4 ways to protect bathers, and their tradeoffs

Sharks, especially great whites, have been in the news a lot recently after the tragic death of a surfer off Dee Why beach and an abundance of tagged sharks being detected off Stanwell Park. Much of the media response so far has followed a fairly...

Duncan Leadbitter

September 2025

Sport & Leisure

Hello Fish at Waniora Point

It’s been a mixed year for snorkelling – lots of rain has made for poor visibility and then we had some monster swells. Waniora Point is located just to the south of Sandon Point. Known for the surf spot – Peggys – it has a good car park...

Duncan Leadbitter

May 2025

Sport & Leisure

Hello Fish: Sea sawdust at Bulli

In mid-February astute ocean observers may have seen what looked like dirty brown streaks on the ocean surface, some of which easily extended a couple of kilometres in length. At one point I got caught in some while snorkelling off Sandon Point and...

Duncan Leadbitter

April 2025

Science & Nature

Frequent Visitor Award goes to Shark #1901

This is the second of my 2024 reports on detections of tagged sharks by our listening station off Stanwell Park. Most detection notifications supply the date and location the shark was first tagged and the date and location of the previous detection...

Duncan Leadbitter

December 2024

News

Hello Fish: Shark detections for 2023/24

I have now analysed the data for the 23/24 ‘season’ and will do a couple of articles comparing the two years and also reveal the much awaited ‘frequent visitor’ awards. This year there will be a new category, for the individual shark(s) that have turned up both years.

Duncan Leadbitter

November 2024

Sport & Leisure

Hello Fish at The Farm

It’s been some time since I was in the water and wrote about it for the Illawarra Flame. Months of heavy rain created lousy conditions in the first part of the year, then a mix of work travel and big seas accounted for the rest. It was great to...

Duncan Leadbitter

October 2024

Science & Nature

Hello Fish: Erosion exposed ancient worm

In his latest ‘Hello Fish’ column, Duncan Leadbitter looks at what this means for sea levels. During February 2022 we had a series of big swell days that removed large amounts of sand from Stanwell Park beach. Previous erosion events have...

Duncan Leadbitter

December 2023

Science & Nature

Hello Fish: Shark data series ends with the Bulls

This is the fourth and last in a series of articles on the sharks detected by our listening station off Stanwell Park for the period June 2022 to May 2023 (12-month period since the station was installed). Each shark has its own unique number...

Duncan Leadbitter

November 2023

Science & Nature

Hello Fish: The Whites

Great white sharks are one of the three species tagged using acoustic tags when caught on one of the many (over 300) drumlines along the NSW coast. In the September 2023 issue of Illawarra Flame I provided data on the time of year (for the period...

Duncan Leadbitter

October 2023

Science & Nature

Hello Fish: What shark species turn up when

Part 2 in a data series by columnist Duncan Leadbitter This is the second in a series of four articles where I analyse the data coming from the shark-listening station located offshore from Stanwell Park. The data sent by text include the species...

Duncan Leadbitter

September 2023

Sport & Leisure

Hello Fish: A year of shark data

I recently stood on the northern headland at Stanwell Park and watched a vessel doing some service work on our shark listening station, installed about a year ago. (This station has been described in a previous issue of Hello Fish.) Since that was...

Duncan Leadbitter

August 2023

News

‘No easy answer to the sharks on beaches question’

Recently the Department of Primary Industries (fisheries) released its annual report on the operation of its beach netting program for sharks, which runs from Newcastle to Wollongong. The department has to report publicly since the culling program...

Duncan Leadbitter

March 2023

Sport & Leisure

Welcome salmon

One of the first signs that summer is on its way is the annual migration run of the salmon. Large schools gather at the southern end of Stanwell Park (and many other beaches) as they nervously make the dash north, seeking to avoid predators such as...

Duncan Leadbitter

December 2022