Losing Barra your thoughts please

[Member]

Thanks for the comments guys,
re; the gene pool if one fish goes over and breeds with a wild fish the pool is mixed with a fish that was taken from the wild originaly,sure it lived part of it's life in a lake but don't some fish spend a part of their life landed locked for periods of time in droughts and survive.

How do the pro's know what is wild and what isn't and same goes with an angler? when  the fish is in the salt for a period of time it will change conditioning and colour to suit that evvironment I would think.
The only way to stop it is stop stocking of all species altogether and that wont happen or should it to make sure all the wild fish stay wild?

Paul

[Member]

I dunno the answers Paul, but I'd not like to see the true wild fishery lost in an explosion of big, farmed dam fish where an angler catches a 120cm fish from the sea and calls it a true salty capture. True 120cm salty captures are milestones, some anglers taking decades to crack it. Some don't, ever.
I'd not like to see that challenge sidelined or belittled. Futuristic talk- "Oh yawn yawn, some angler just landed a 122cm fish from in the river." "Salty barra, they're easy beat!" "Lets go play x box."
That'd kill what wild stands for.

Also,
Kurt could explain the mass gene pool issue.

[Member]

JM and other, How do you think the 'impoundment cunning' barra will act and feed in the salt??? Do you think they will be as easily spooked, streetwise etc as they are in the lake??? I mean, do you think they will forget what they know from Awoonga, or do you think they will just eat everything and anything due to having to exercise for the first time in their lives!! Will they die from exaustion from this instant excise required to fight the big tides and current...that if they survive the waterslide in first place??

Serious questions hey!! Hopefully a lot of food chain (ie mullet, boneys and gar etc) go over to help bolster the food supply too.

One thing is for sure, it will be an interesting year ahead in the boyne area!

cheers Steve

[Member]

Johnny I totally understand where your coming from but floods and droughts come and go.

I've said for years that Awoonga and Monduran will flood one day it was just a matter of time and they have anybody that thought they wouldn't were kidding them selves and they will get low water levels again but when who knows,droughts don't last forever neither do floods,the only way to stop it is stop stocking and none of us want that.

I too would hate to see wild fisheries lost and I doubt it will ever happen but, how do you tell what is true wild and what is not as they will condition and colour change to suit the enviorenment they now live in it may take a while but they will adapt to the conditions presented to them or die and as you would know animals are pretty good at adapting fast.

A long time local commercial netter  told me the Mary here in the bay was seeded many years ago with hatchery fish and now they are wild in the system as there is no Barra stocked lakes on the Mary but there are a few dams stocked with Bass,Saratoga,Mary River Cod,even some Murry cod along with Silver perch and Yellow Belly and even some Sooties on it and they are right through the system some Bass were even caught at the Urangan pier a year or 2 back after the Mary flooded who knows if they were wild or stocked.
When we humans interfere things are changed dramiticly.

Steve some interesting questions there,I think plenty of the food chain will go along with the barra and some will survive and some wont,be a bit like putting some humans in the wild some would survive and some wouldn't,when the going gets tough!! you know the rest.
Survival is in their genes as it is ours we have evolved and I think they will too.
The next few months will tell part of that story if the river is monotored and I believe it should be if we are to learn anything from it.


Paul

[Member]

I dont think they should be netting rivers period. I'd rather they netted stocked fish than wild fish if they are though.

But I also believe the rivers below the big dams should have a closed season automatically put in place once they go over, the turkey shoot and illegal fishing practices we see here after an overflow are mind boggling.

Fortunately -  we do have one in place atm....
If the survival rate is high ...... as being touted  -  then the river system could be in real danger ....... 
The escapee barra will quickly adapt to feed on everything and anything that they can get there mouths around .  The juveniles from last seasons recruitment could be decimated .   
After that , then these escapees will need to locate food & move further down stream where they will have to deal with sharks & possibly the odd croc........... we end up with losses on both accounts.

Chris

[Member]

I can't condone the behaviour of the commercial guys that rang Kurt to stick it up him a bit, but I don't think their netting of fish that flow over a SIP during a flood should be limited beyond the current arrangements.  It is not their fault the dam flooded and because it is a SIP, they shouldn't be expected to pay for any fish caught.  The one change I would like to see, though is the classification of these fish caught by commercial guys.  It is not right they can be classified as wild caught, when in reality it is likely they are not.  This is ripping off the buyer. 

Steve

[Member]

Awoonga isn't a SIP location.  Lenthall's is, and Monduran is.

[Member]

There's also the possibility of collapsing a food chain downstream with a stack of predators being dumped into a system that is probably in a balanced situation.

I believe this statement by Fitz is the biggest problem we face with this whole situation. The Damming of rivers has only been done in this country since European settlment, whilst the river itself, and the foodchains within it, have existed for tens of thousands of years before our arrival.
I think the mass introduction of a stack of A Grade predators could possibly be detrimental to whole sections within the food chain!
Matt Hansen