Mighty Murray Cod becoming extinct fast

[Member]

Had full closures in SA for a while haven't they?

Yup. And they still have one of the worst Murray Cod fisheries.

[Member]

The commercial farming of Murray Cod is highly unlikely to create a problem with wild fish. If they were being taken out of a river and sold that would be a different matter. But once the Cod farmer buys the fry and feeds them up to saleable size, I would think it would be self sustaining and would not require any further eggs/fry whatever. In my opinion if they can do it without creating problems for stream bred fish, then it's OK. As Basser says they've been doing it with Barra for bloody years.
JD

[Member]

It's about time commercial breeding of Mary river cod was allowed, that way at least stocking groups could " fill their boots" with as many Cod as they could afford( assuming suitable brood stock were to be allocated).

[Member]

Sourcing brood stock is the big problem. If diverting brood stock from re-stocking requirements to commercial needs then I would be opposed. But as I said earlier, as long as the stream bred fish are not interfered with, no problem. Murray Cod, Mary River Cod or even Eastern Cod. The Murray Cod breed well in an impoundment, so they should be self sustaining in a commercial operation. Just buying fingerlings, growing them out and selling them would not be sustainable in the long term. By the way, silver perch are listed as endangered but they hae been bred for some time for resale.
JD

[Member]

Not really. Barra are nowhere near as susceptible to the vagaries of the climate in the way Murray Cod are. Just watch the comeback cod make over the next decade now that we have finally gotten out of the persistent El-nino patterns that were causing so much drought. The big floods of the past few years will have breathed more life into the Murray than most realise.