Sunshine Coast Barramundi?

[fisho]

Just read another report of barramundi being caught in the Maroochy River. #Have also heard semi - frequent catches in the Noosa River - see Grant's Guide to Fishes - the barra in the photo comes from the Noosa River!

Had a chat to a mate about stocking - pros and cons, effects on other species etc.....

Obviously they ARE in there and do OK- would be interested in members thoughts on the stocking of such fish in these waters.

???

[bungie]

looky here then

http://www.fishingnoosa.com.au/feb0203b.htm ;D

[flathead_fred]

holy sh*t, that barra doesnt belong in there does it, is it from a farm nearby, like out of a pond or something, maybe someone released a big pregnant female to start a barra population ;D but serioulsy how often do they get em in the river, and is it mostly up in the fresh or down in the salt too. very interesting nonetheless, threadies are fairly common i guess and they are from the same environement as the barra further north.

[bungie]

Do search on fishingnoosa.com.au, there are a few cases of barra

[MarcusD]

Could the one caught in the Maroochy River be an escapee from the Aussie Fishing Park at Bli Bli????

[kc]

half a million year ago (in the early 70's) when I was a kid I caught a barra in the pumestone passage (Donnybrook). Long before fish were stocked down that way. We also used to catch king salmon (occasionally) big grunter often and occassionally southern salmon mixed up with the tailor run in june/july. No idea where the line of demarcation is but maybe the fish can't read.

Regards

KC

[Fisheasy]

Metre plus fish are regularly caught from Tin Can Bay northwards so I imagine they'd occur naturally a little bit further south. Can problems occur with wild fish breeding with fish farm stock?

[bugman]

Supposedley the Brissy river and upper reaches are in the original habitation zones of barramundi.

There has been a few pushes to get Wivenhoe and Sommerset stocked with Barra.

Fitzy will know more.

Bugman

[jimbamb]

Geez.
Someone forgot to shut the bloody Gate!!!!!!!! [smiley=laola.gif] [smiley=laola.gif] [smiley=laola.gif]

[savagetin]

Hope they shut the gate before the crocs get out.

[Fitzy]

Barra were described by early settlers well south of the Qld/NSW border.
There's no great issue with genetics as barra migrate from one system to the next, however a stocking program directly into riverine situations needs some care.
Was a barra caught last year in the Tweed & the odd one in the Logan has shown up. QFS gets to discredit any captures blaming illegal stocking of them & wont even remotely entertain any stocking south of H/Bay, yet they encourage stocking bass well north of their natural range. Talk about double standards. Phhhhtttt!!!

But for gods sake can someone tell the barra that Qld Fisheries Services recon Barra aren't allowed south of Maryborough!! ::)

Sh!t, I didn't know they were breeding/stocking barra in the 1800s..........

Fitzy..

[Billo]

I was speaking to a few people about that just after they put the pic up in Davo's ....theory is that it washed out of private damn with the big rains last year ....a few locals up river keep a few in their damns.., never really know though !?

[Cloud_9]

read somewhere that the fishstocking bodies say that barra aren't suited to the climate TOO cold (bullSH&t) to stock Big W and somerset. there is a barra aqua culture place just down the road from my place Beenleigh, their fish do OK.
from what i remember they where or are looking for top end (food chain ) predator.
to help keep catfish in check, only Marry river cod and Barra can eat them apparently.
there was also talk of freshwater jacks in the same paper.
like fitzy said previous, there have been some amazing ( by todays standard ) fish captures in our water ways in days gone . like 25lb Spanish Macs at the slipping sands North straddie, the barra at tin can bay are not that rare, here from pro fishing guide their there in bigger numbers than people think.
they can't breed so don't put too many in .
Hope some do get stocked .

[Jim_Tait]

(Fitzy - here we go again hey?) The main problem with stocking barra in impoundments (and yes they probably would survive in some like Big W + others) is that impoundments although artifical are still attached to rivers - and in the case of the Brisbane Catchment there are natural top order predators like Bass and fledging populations of 'Eastern Cod' that have a more rightful place in the (freshwater) system's ecology and in the case of cod are a worthy conservation and re-establishment target. Although barra may occasionaly wander to southern estuaries, without large artifical bodies of water (ie impoundments) it is unlikely that they would have survived winter temps too far upstream in freshwater reaches (ie check out how far up the Mary Barra historically got) and therefore the aformentioned natural top order predators Bass and cod did not have to compete/evolve with barra - and as has been shown in areas where they are stocked together - dont fare too well with them. As there are ample impoundment barra fisheries around - there is no real justification for comprimising our southern catchment fish communities (and yes I am aware of Govt Agency double standards - but that is still not a reason to cop out).
For big fish - naturaly breeding big cod should be what we dream of encountering in inland freshwaters south of the Mary to the Clarence - you dont have to drive too far north these days to find barra so lets not turn our catchments into exotic 'zoos' just because we want to encounter desirable species from other areas in our local impoundment.

Having said all that - climate change (even mid range projections) is in line to give us another 2 degrees temp rise by 2030 (we have already measured about a degree rise last centuary, most post-50s) and up to 6 degrees rise by 2070 - so all you young fellas can probaly look forward to barra distributing naturally to at least estuaries well south of the NSW border in that time!!

[Randall]

Jim....some good points, but you will lose. Eventually.
We will get Barra in at least one of our southern queensland impoundments. The Pro-barra stocking boys are getting more and more equiped with info. A huge percentage of sports anglers want Barra....and now they are becoming informed.

As passionate as you are about the negatives, you will find the same passion in the other camp.

I trust we can all find a happy compromise with this situation sooner than latter. We all need to live with it.

Randall.

[Cloud_9]

just on the natives with Barra. monduran dam near Gin Gin has Bass and Barra .
when i fished here all i got was Bass,Catfish, Turtles. so they seem to be liveing together ok.
I know that in confined spaces barra are going to be the domiant species because they grow faster and they are a more agressive fish.
but again they should be stocking more Cod first, but the stupid thing ive heard is that there is only 1 cod aqua culture center autherized by the gov to breed these fish and with the demand for cod fingerlings it dosn't many for our dams ,with the river re-stocking program thats going on.

Cheers Cloud 9

[Randall]

Spot on Cloud 9.....would love to stock Cod.....you cant get em in any numbers.

Barra though, thats a whole other kettle of fish.

RG

[Billo]

i have to agree ....Cod stocking should come before Barra !!

question on the growth rate of Barra though ..
The water temps on the lower QLD damns are at least a couple of degrees below already stocked damns .
What kind of impact do you think this will have on their metabolism ?
Longer life , slower growth !?....it is really hard to estimate the damage or lack of damage that could be caused....hard one to call !

[Randall]

Tinaroo in Far North supports huge Barra populations in colder water due to the elevation....Somerset and Big W would support the same populations. I believe that the Barra may be slower growing in cooler water...but who cares?

I`m no authority, but I hang in a group of committed anglers who are informed and good for the cause.

I really hope Barra come here soon.

Randall.

[lureonline]

Swiss cheese policy if you ask me, and if that’s the reasoning the same type of thinking that would quickly see any more stocking of mangrove jacks in impoundment’s come to an end.
Funny how an agency can draw a set line for barra on map but have shifting standards for many other fish stocking policies.
“Let’s not turn our catchments into exotic zoo’s”.
Exotic, dictionary meaning: not native, from a foreign country, imported, from a distant land.
Hardly a description of the humble Australian Barramundi.
Unfortunately the Exotics such as tilapia/carp don’t seem to understand translocation policies, mean while our natives are locked in behind invisible lines.
By 2070 with climate change and barra moving beyond the border, the same narrow minded people will be transporting barra back to the Burnett just to keep them behind the line .

Roger