Blind Barramundi

[Member]

I'm hearing stories, and insinuations, that there are hundreds, possibly thousands of Barramundi in Gladstone Harbour milling around and bumping into things.  The good oil has it that the heavy metals in the water is causing blindness.  I guess the Barra would be in pretty poor condition by now, with a lack of food in the system.  There does seem to be a lot of refining and smelting going on in Gladstone too.  It'll be interesting to see if the environmental groups and political parties get onto this and try to gain some political mileage out of it.

[Member]

http://www.qt.com.au/story/2011/08/22/blind-barramundi-raise-questions-gladstone-harbour/

DEBATE surrounding the health of Gladstone Harbour and its waterways has taken another bizarre turn.

An anonymous reader has sent The Observer photos of a barramundi caught in the Calliope River.

The fisher who took the photo claims the fish is blind, and the photos appear to show strange form where the eyes should be.

The area is a popular fishing spot as barramundi and other marine wildlife are attracted by the warm water from the NRG Power Station.

The Observer sent the photos to Department of Environment and Resource Management on Friday. A DERM spokesperson said issues of fish health are a matter for Fisheries Queensland.

Fisheries Queensland said it was impossible to determine what was wrong with the fish by looking at a photo.

Meanwhile, Gladstone Fish Market owner Ted Whittingham has told The Observer commercial fishermen operating in Gladstone Harbour were selling him 57% less banana prawns this year, compared with last year. He said he was surprised by the drop-off, since banana prawns usually flourish after a season of heavy rain. “The thing is, what’s knocking them over?” he said. “We need to find out.”

Health problems for marine animals in Gladstone this year have been blamed on a variety of causes, from the floods damaging seagrass levels to industrial activity. There are no clear answers yet.

A tough yearBlin

Since March, strange things have been happening to marine life in Gladstone Harbour. The recent spate of turtle deaths, 90 in the Gladstone area, as well as a number of dugongs and dolphins, prompted the creation of a Scientific Advisory Committee to investigate the deaths. It has said the most common cause of death for the turtles is starvation, due to a lack of seagrass after the floods.

[Member]

I wonder - Increased barra number dues to dam escapees and decreased prawns in the system.  I wonder what could be knocking the prawns off???

[Member]

Where does one start when we start to talk about Gladstone Harbour?
I'm not going to jump to any conclusions as I believe there are multiple issues out there at the moment.
 I frequent our harbour and estuaries and have not seen many barra with eye problems. Thousands, no, hundreds, no, dozens, no.
I have seen one estuary system with a good number of fish with a possible virus of some kind- but hey, these lake fish have had a tough time since their free fall over the wall, so I am not suprised to see a virus of some kind in play at winter's end. If there's a mass amount of fish with bad eyes somewhere I'm yet to see it. Considering the high number of barra in our local waters, the discoveries are a very tiny %age of the population. Time will tell what come of it all.
Johnny

[Member]

This one was caught this week.

[Member]

Thanks Johnny, and congrats on your marriage.

I heard a rumour which is never accurate.  I've got a contact with one of the guys studying the barra now, so I'll see what I can find out next week.  Bit busy with the Kayak comp at the moment.

[Member]

Thanks Dale for the congrats. It's a great feeling to be married.

Blind barra- it will be good to hear anything in relation to this, so I'm all ears when you get word.
Johnny