MURRAY AND MARY COD

[Member]

G'day folks, I am carrying out a search, when the floods recede, for the possibility of Mary River Cod breeding outside the Mary catchment.

If any of you can assist on the following it would be greatly appreciated.

From what I have heard the Murray Cod is such a close relative the appearance and habits should be the same.

Q.. At what size do the adults become breeders.

Q..What size would I expect the young to be feeding away from their mother.

Q.. Could I expect their appearance to be the same at 100/150 mm as it is at the adult stage.
If not what could I expect to see.

I have a few ideas on methods on capturing the young without harm but I would be grateful for any advice on this also.

Thanks in advance if you folks can assist in this.  You can be sure I will report on any success.

Regards Gordon

[Member]

If they are breeding anywhere, it will be in the Stanley, perfect conditions. Hard to tell because of stocking efforts though.

Remember you cant target Mary cod except above dams that are stocked with them.

From what I have heard Mary's like cleaner water, otherwise pretty much the same conditions for breeding.
As the minimum size for Mary's is 50cm, I'd suspect they would be capable of breeding around 45cm.

If Steve (elops) wanders along he will have definitive answers for you, he is quite knowledgeable on them.

[Member]

It will be up the Stanley and I will be cross checking sizes against recent releases.

Regards Gordon

[Member]

G'day Gordon,

As Andrew said Mary's are no take and can only be targeted in stocked impoundments and upstream.
They reach maturity at approx. 5 years with size most likely depending on habitat.
The male guards the nest, even against the female with often fatal results in the confines of hatchery ponds. With larvae dispersing quite soon after hatching and begining feeding in 5 to 7 days on zooplankton, daphnia or any micro foods available.
At 100/150mm are obviously Cod.
With stocking recruitment is hard to determine, though with the demise of the Gerry Cook Hatchery and the cessation of riverine stocking any sub 200 mm fish encountered outside of the limited number of impoundments stocked in 09 would most likely be from natural recruitment.
F1 stocked fish do breed, pic is of an egg from a pair of NPD fish. Will add some more pics of juvies later when on computer at home on laptop atm.
Smallest fish I have encountered was 27cm in the Stanley last year. Probably the best source of info regarding sizes would be Tom Espinoza at DERM who is currently doing a genetic study.

cheers,
Steve.

[Member]

I had best start taking photos for ID as I have seen some 40/50 mm fish that may be worth checking out. I will have the time for this but not the knowledge.

Thanks fellas

Regards Gordon

[Member]

Does anybody know what happened to the Mary River Cod Recovery Program?
Is the species increasing in number in its native habitat?

and how successful have restocking programs in other area's like the albert, logan and coomera?

[Member]

Does anybody know what happened to the Mary River Cod Recovery Program?
Is the species increasing in number in its native habitat?

and how successful have restocking programs in other area's like the albert, logan and coomera?

The MRC Recovery program may be dead in the water. Was a federal program that is out of dosh.

The Gerry Cook Hatchery has been funded by a combination of local councils, State Govt, stocking group & other donations. With another failure this season the future funding is in serious jeapardy for the future it seems. Cold feet seem to be growing among supporters due to local political BS regarding site management, policy & proceedure. One or two key persons walked away due to personal issues, a crying shame..... 

Only future surveys will tell if this species has established / re-established in those river systems outside (and inside) of the Mary River where MRCs have been stocked. Some fish have taken for sure; recreational angling shows them up on a regular basis, but are they successfully reproducing???
The reasons for the original demise of say the Brisbane River Cod have not all been addressed. Weirs / dams blocking migration, altered flow regimes, cold water pollution from dams, cleared riparian vegetation, desnagging, livestock caving in banks, introduced pest fish..... the list goes on for the problems this iconic species faces.

Cheers,

fitz..


EDIT

Below is a picture taken on the upper Brisbane River, up past Linville. Cleared banks are endemic, cattle permitted to graze into the water, swim across, cr@p in the water & cave in the banks even more. What chance do our native fishes have? We can restock as many as we like, but without suitable habitat, there's little chance of the cod being able to re-establish. NOTE - that farmer brown is content to run a fence across the river at this crossing making kayak / canoe access dangerous, but obviously cares little for the river. The river is just a resource to be exploited for self gain. The scenario is repeated throughout this & many other river system.   

[Member]

Its good to see there is interested parties out there.

Thanks folks.  As for my time frame, once this wet has eased and the Stanley has settled to a gentle flow I will get back to it but if the rain ceased tonight it would be 2 weeks before it could be paddled.

It will take time.

Regards Gordon

[Member]

Im a local smack bang between the logan and the albert rivers and talk to allot of fisho's getting around and there is "some" cod in one of these systems wich i wont name and will not fish for and deter anyone from fishing for them.

These are very isolated patches of cod and will allways hear of jo blow catching a cod but a good percentage of the time they are pulling your leg. Bass populations in the logan and albert arent what they used to be since carp have arrived on the scene years ago, sometimes you have to walk miles throwing lures on the logan before you find a good honey hole of bass.

As for the albert its not so dire but have noticed a hell of allot of carp all throughout so that doesnt encourage allot of hope for the future of both the albert and the logan. Cattle wading in the logan is starting to create barrages of dirt and sand collapsing in making it very shallow in allot of places when the logan isnt a very deep river in the first place..

Honestly im suprised to see what natives are still left, will do some scouting around after the fast flowing water clears to see what has been relocated.

Steve

[Member]

There was a lot of funding for Mary Cod research and breeding (new hatchery) tied to the Traveston Dam project.

With the Dam canned, so is the funding.

[Member]

There was a lot of funding for Mary Cod research and breeding (new hatchery) tied to the Traveston Dam project.

With the Dam canned, so is the funding.

Might that just have been a bargining chip ?

Steve

[Member]

No, as part of the original environmental deal they were going to extensive stocking of the dam and the river.

[Member]

With all the previous discussion my patch of the river would be easy to find but I would like to point out that it is only accessible from private land.

 The area I am looking at is fairly unique and the landowners are aware of this so I am keeping them informed of any progress.

For those intrerested in preserving places like this we have 1 to 1.5 k of still water when the Stanley stops flowing, high banks, the only cattle that can get to the water usually drown.  We have a little trouble launching the kayaks and it is inaccessible from up or down stream.

If this is a breeding ground like those that have seen it believe it could be then I will work to have it closed up.

Regards Gordon

[Member]

With all the previous discussion my patch of the river would be easy to find but I would like to point out that it is only accessible from private land.

 The area I am looking at is fairly unique and the landowners are aware of this so I am keeping them informed of any progress.

For those intrerested in preserving places like this we have 1 to 1.5 k of still water when the Stanley stops flowing, high banks, the only cattle that can get to the water usually drown.  We have a little trouble launching the kayaks and it is inaccessible from up or down stream.

If this is a breeding ground like those that have seen it believe it could be then I will work to have it closed up.

Regards Gordon

Hi Gordon,

I've got little doubt as to MRC's breeding in the river where you are. It's pristine. you can see the difference it makes having a river fenced off to cattle. 

The lingering issue I have is that I'm not convinced that the Brisbane River Cod was wiped out of this part of the river & further up. By stocking MRCs we may well have compromised any BRCs remaining DNA (if there was any difference).
Hence we've been looking for BIG fish for DNA sampling.

If there are no BRCs left & only MRCs, then closing it up is too little too late. If however it is proven that there are BRCs. I would begin lobbying / working towards total closure of the river, land resumptions etc to protect them.

Cheers,

fitz..

[Member]

Gary I just dug up some old records of Cod that have been lifted from this patch, 84 cm.

On the fisheries web site they say that 70 cm is the largest that can be expected.

Usually they are around 35 to 40 cm that we see.  I didn't know what I had, hey.

Gordon