Murray Cod (Maccullochella Peelii) Movement in the Chowilla Region of the Lower River Murray
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Murray cod (Maccullochella peelii) movement in the Chowilla region of the lower River Murray J. Fredberg, B. P. Zampatti and C. M. Bice SARDI Publication No. F2019/000313-1 SARDI Research Report Series No. 1035 SARDI Aquatics Sciences PO Box 120 Henley Beach SA 5022 October 2019 Fredberg, J. et al. (2019) Murray cod Movement in Chowilla Murray cod (Maccullochella peelii) movement in the Chowilla region of the lower River Murray J. Fredberg, B. P. Zampatti and C. M. Bice SARDI Publication No. F2019/000313-1 SARDI Research Report Series No. 1035 October 2019 ii Fredberg, J. et al. (2019) Murray cod Movement in Chowilla This publication may be cited as: Fredberg, J., Zampatti, B.P. and Bice, C.M. (2019). Murray cod (Maccullochella peelii) movement in the Chowilla region of the lower River Murray. South Australian Research and Development Institute (Aquatic Sciences), Adelaide. SARDI Publication F2019/000313-1. SARDI Research Report Series No. 1035. 27pp. South Australian Research and Development Institute SARDI Aquatic Sciences 2 Hamra Avenue West Beach SA 5024 Telephone: (08) 8207 5400 Facsimile: (08) 8207 5415 http://www.pir.sa.gov.au/research DISCLAIMER SARDI Aquatic Sciences and the Department of Environment, Water and Natural Resources (DEWNR), do not guarantee that the publication is without flaw of any kind or is wholly appropriate for you particular purposes and therefore disclaim all liability for any error, loss or other consequence which may arise from you relying on any information in this publication. The contents of this publication do not purport to represent the position of the Commonwealth of Australia or the MDBA in any way and, as appropriate, are presented for the purpose of informing and stimulating discussion for improved management of the Basin's natural resources. 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For the avoidance of any doubt, this licence only applies to the material set out in this document. The details of the licence are available on the Creative Commons website (accessible using the links provided) as is the full legal code for the CC BY 4.0 AU licence ((http://creativecommons.org/licences/by/4.0/legal code). This work is copyright. Apart from any use as permitted under the Copyright Act 1968 (Cth), no part may be reproduced by any process, electronic or otherwise, without the specific written permission of the copyright owner. Neither may information be stored electronically in any form whatsoever without such permission. SARDI Publication No. F2019/000313-1 SARDI Research Report Series No. 1035 Author(s): J. Fredberg, B.P. Zampatti and C.M. Bice Reviewer(s): Leigh Thwaites (SARDI) and J. Whittle (DEWNR) Approved by: A/Prof Q. Ye Science Leader – Inland Waters & Catchment Ecology Signed: Date: 8th October 2019 Distribution: DEWNR, SAASC Library, Parliamentary Library, State Library and National Library Circulation: Public Domain iii Fredberg, J. et al. (2019) Murray cod Movement in Chowilla TABLE OF CONTENTS TABLE OF CONTENTS ................................................................................................. iv LIST OF FIGURES .......................................................................................................... v LIST OF TABLES ............................................................................................................ v ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS .............................................................................................. vii EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ................................................................................................. 1 INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................. 4 METHODS ...................................................................................................................... 6 Study Site .................................................................................................................... 6 Radio-tagged Murray cod and ATS logger tracking ..................................................... 8 Data Analysis ............................................................................................................ 12 RESULTS ..................................................................................................................... 14 Hydrology and Regulator operations during study period .......................................... 14 Reach-scale habitat use and movement .................................................................... 15 Sexual differentiation in movement ............................................................................ 19 Movement of Murray cod in relation to regulator operation ........................................ 21 DISCUSSION ................................................................................................................ 23 CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS .............................................................. 25 REFERENCES.............................................................................................................. 26 iv Fredberg, J. et al. (2019) Murray cod Movement in Chowilla LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1. Map of the Chowilla Anabranch system in the lower River Murray, South Australia. Closed red circles depict the Chowilla Creek regulator and Lock and Weir No. 6, and closed green circles depict the nine radio receiver/logger towers used to track Murray cod movement throughout Chowilla. (1 = Chowilla Creek, 2 = Boat Creek, 3 = Pipeclay Creek, 4 = Slaney Creek, 5 = Salt Creek, 6 = Swiftys Creek and 7 = Punkah Creek). .................................................................................................. 7 Figure 2. Mean (+SE) frequency (%) of tagged fish detected on each logger in the Chowilla system in 2013–2018. .............................................................................. 16 Figure 3. Mean (+SE) number of loggers visited by tagged fish per/month in the Chowilla system in 2013-2018. Red = summer, Orange = autumn, Blue = winter and Green = spring. .................................................................................................................... 18 Figure 4. Mean (+SE) number of loggers visited by tagged male and female fish between 2013-2018 in the Chowilla array system. Red = summer, Orange = autumn, Blue = winter and Green = spring. ..................................................................................... 20 Figure 5. Mean (+SE) number of upstream and downstream movements by tagged fish between August to December (2014-2017) between; a) Murray to Regulator loggers, b) Regulator to Boat loggers and c) Murray to Boat loggers. No regulator operations occurred in 2017. n = number of individual tagged fish that were detected. ............ 21 Figure 6. Mean (+SE) number of detections on the Chowilla Regulator logger between August to December (2014-2017). No regulator operations occurred in 2017. n = number of individual tagged fish that were detected. .............................................. 22 LIST OF TABLES Table 1. Original capture date and location, sex, total length (mm), weight (g) and number of days detected of 69 radio-tagged Murray cod tracked via ATS loggers from July 2013 to October 2018. ............................................................................................ 10 Table 2. PERMANOVA results comparing the mean frequency of fish detected on each logger/site between years from 2013–2018. Significant P values are highlighted in bold. ....................................................................................................................... 15 Table 3. PERMANOVA results comparing the total number