120,000 Endangered Trout Cod to take the plunge

[nsw_fisheries]

http://www.fisheries.nsw.gov.au/gen/...4dec13_120.htm

"This document has been posted for information and to encourage discussion among yourselves. For more information from DPI on the issue, please visit our web site on www.fisheries.nsw.gov.au"

[propdinger]

120,000 Endangered Trout Cod to take the plunge
13 December 2004
Decades of over-fishing and aquatic pest invasions are being tackled by the State Government’s successful fish stocking program.

This month, those efforts will continue when 120,000 juveniles of the endangered trout cod are released into the Macquarie River, near Dubbo and the Murrumbidgee River.

The fish will be released at five different sites, in an effort to boost stocks of the protected trout cod.

The species used to be abundant throughout the southern Murray-Darling system and Macquarie River, but is now only found in one pocket of the Lower Murray.

The juvenile trout cod were bred at the NSW Department of Primary Industries (DPI) Narrandera Fisheries Research Centre.

The trout cod research is jointly funded by the Recreational Fishing Trust – which allocates anglers’ money from the Recreational Fishing Licence – and the Government.

More than 700,000 of these trout cod have been bred at Narrandera over the last 10 years and released into the Murray, Murrumbidgee and Macquarie River catchment areas.

NSW DPI is also planning to rehabilitate some trout cod habitat, to help the species survive. Fish are being monitored to establish survival rates.

Trout cod are protected from fishing all year round in NSW, Victoria and the ACT.

They are close relatives of the Murray cod and Eastern cod, which are also entirely protected from fishing.

Trout cod are carnivorous fish with an overhanging upper jaw, a stripe through the eye and spotted marking.

They must be returned to the water if accidentally caught. It is illegal to catch and keep, buy, sell, possess or harm any threatened species in NSW without a specific permit or licence.

A record 8.5 million native fish and trout were released in freshwater areas across NSW in total during 2003/04, under the Government’s fish stocking program and community based Dollar-for-Dollar native fish stocking program.

Other State Government fish hatcheries are located at Gaden, outside Jindabyne, Ebor, near Armidale and Port Stephens.

[Leo_N.]

Great to see!

[notts_so]

Now all their got to do is keep the rivers flowing and healthy and we may just have a winner