| Marine and Freshwater Centre research assistant, Craig Burnes, with o... Marine and Freshwater Centre research assistant, Craig Burnes, with one of the tagged Australian bass to be used in the two-year study. [Photo reproduced from South Coast Register newspaper] |
‘Listening’ to fish in bid to conserve native species
10 Oct 2007 | Bernie Goldie
The Marine and Freshwater Centre at UOW’s Shoalhaven Campus is playing a key role in helping to conserve critical species of native fish.
Twenty tiny transmitters have been fitted to estuary perch and Australian bass which are now making their way up the Shoalhaven River. Listening stations placed for 70km along the river will monitor and log the fish movements over the next two spawning seasons.
Understanding the migration cues of the fish will help conservation and recreational fishery managers sustainably manage the two species.
NSW Department of Primary Industries fisheries researcher, Mr Chris Walsh, is hoping to glean information about the two species’ biology, ecology and the effects of environmental flows in the river.
Anglers from Shoalhaven freshwater fishing clubs recently caught more than 200 fish from which 40 were selected to carry transmitters.
Transmitters were surgically inserted into 20 fish, which were then released, and another 20 are being kept in holding tanks at the Marine and Freshwater Centre ahead of their release.
There is limited knowledge of the migration cues, including timing and location of spawning of either species in the Shoalhaven so researchers will examine inter-annual movements and annual spawning migrations and the relation with salinity levels and river discharge.
Associate Professor Ron West of UOW’s School of Biological Sciences said that over December the centre will also be setting up some experiments on freshwater crayfish and trials on holding bream.
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