Rising Murray tipped to boost yabby numbers

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Rising Murray tipped to boost yabby numbers
Posted March 29, 2012 14:15:19

 Increasing numbers of yabbies are slowly coming out of hibernation for the second year in a row due to rising River Murray levels.

The crustaceans hibernate by burrowing deep in the riverbed during times of lower flows, which helps them to survive drought.

More than 55,000 megalitres of water a day is now flowing into South Australia.

Local fisherman John Cockshell says despite the increase, numbers will not be as high as last year's bumper season.

"Once it starts heading around that 45, 50,000 megalitres a day it's going to bring the yabbies back up out from underground," he said.

"I won't say there's going to be big numbers in comparison to last year because it's probably getting on the end of the season.

"Any month with 'r' in it is usually a month when yabbies go, so we've still got a couple of months to go.

"The smaller ones you're not going to have any meat in them much, so I wouldn't be go ... cooking too many because they're still soft-shelled, which means that they've been underground, some real big ones on sandbars."