Sweetwater Fishing Forums
General Category => News Views & Press Releases => Topic started by: Editor on July 03, 2012, 09:09:43 PM
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Breeding the next generation of jungle perch
2 July 2012 - Qld Fisheries
Jungle perch could soon be making a comeback in Queensland waters with the Department of Agriculture Fisheries and Forestry (DAFF) receiving $483,000 in funding from the Fisheries Research and Development Corporation to accelerate fingerling production.
Principal fisheries biologist Michael Hutchison said there was a lot of demand from fishers for jungle perch, which had become very scarce in the southern half of Queensland.
“In many areas the environmental causes behind this disappearance (including barriers to migration) have now been addressed, so we have an opportunity to reintroduce jungle perch to rivers in South-eastern Queensland and in the Mackay-Whitsunday region,” he said.
“To do that, we need to produce jungle perch fingerlings and this is where our research comes in.
“We have been able to successfully spawn jungle perch in the past, but getting the tiny larvae to feed has been problematic.
“This newly-funded work at the Bribie Island Research Centre will focus on nutrition of adult fish to improve egg and larval quality, tank rearing conditions and appropriate larval feeds to solve this problem.
“The fingerlings produced will be stocked into suitable river habitats to re-establish jungle perch fisheries where they used to occur. The survival of stocked fingerlings will be monitored to help improve future stocking success.
“It is also proposed that successful fingerling production techniques are passed on to private hatcheries.”
Jungle perch are an iconic angling fish reaching more than 3kg in weight. Their habitat includes coastal rivers and streams from Cape York to Northern New South Wales. They spend most of their life in freshwater but migrate to salt water to spawn.
DAFF is the lead agency in this work and is partnered by James Cook University and the Freshwater Fishing and Stocking Association of Queensland. The project funding is provided by the Commonwealth Government Fisheries Research and Development Corporation.
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:youbeauty :youbeauty :youbeauty :youbeauty :youbeauty :youbeauty :youbeauty
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Good news indeed, nice to see some FRDC funding going to a worthwhile project.
Good luck to Hutcho and the team.
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It was around 2 years ago that we were all asked to send letters of support to continue funding for this research. Be nice to think that we actually made a difference.
Cheers
Ray
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good to hear that the project is still on the go.. would love to get some broodies to have a crack myself (not saying i will have different result to what i have had in the past attempts). well done to the daff guys.
cheers
kurt
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If the Jungle Perch bottleneck can be "uncorked" there might just be a jeanie in the bottle with it.
A serious quantity of JPs being made available for restocking into lakes could spell the single biggest leap forward for sweetwater fishing in Queensland since Bass stocking started. With better growth rates than bass & without the hinderance of a north/south line on a map, JPs could be stocked from The Cape to Coffs Harbour.
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If the Jungle Perch bottleneck can be "uncorked" there might just be a jeanie in the bottle with it.
A serious quantity of JPs being made available for restocking into lakes could spell the single biggest leap forward for sweetwater fishing in Queensland since Bass stocking started. With better growth rates than bass & without the hinderance of a north/south line on a map, JPs could be stocked from The Cape to Coffs Harbour.
That would be something special
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They could be a politically correct cure for the dilema we have with Murray Darling species in South East Queensland.
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good to hear that the project is still on the go.. would love to get some broodies to have a crack myself (not saying i will have different result to what i have had in the past attempts). well done to the daff guys.
cheers
kurt
Go on kurt you know you want to !
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Dr Hutchison sent a picture of one of their Jungle Perch brood stock for us to use on Sweetwater Fishing. :thumb
See attached image below. At 3.1kg it's one heck of a good fish...... WOW!!! :OMG :thumb
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OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOHHHHHHHHHHHH MY GOOOOOODDDDDD...... :OMG
Im in love
:GoodPost)
:Nothing)
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(http://i719.photobucket.com/albums/ww196/beau4x4/cairnstrip128-1-1.jpg)
My first about 10 year ago...
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:youbeauty
Talk about an awesome step forward!!Not knowing when I'd ever get the chance to get up north to have a crack at these fish, it would be an amazing chance for our fisheries down here!!
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This one was pretty savage
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That broodstock pic reminds me of the JP at Paronella Park. Anyone been there? You buy a bag of barra pellets and feed the JP and sooties by day, most of which are 2kg+ fish, or you go down at night and feed the 4-6' long eels that will actually climb out of the water for pellets. There'd have to be at least 100 junglies and 200 sooties there.
Anyway, would be good to see them stocked into dams to grow into monsters and re-introduced to some of the waterways they've been wiped out from.