An Ecological Approach to Re-Establishing Australian Freshwater Cod Populations: an Application to Trout Cod in the Murrumbidgee Catchment
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An ecological approach to re-establishing Australian freshwater cod populations: an application to trout cod in the Murrumbidgee catchment Edited by Brendan Ebner1, 2, Jason Thiem1, 2, Mark Lintermans1, 2 and Dean Gilligan3 1Parks, Conservation & Lands, Department of Territory & Municipal Services, ACT Government, GPO Box 158, Canberra ACT 2601, Australia. 2Cooperative Research Centre for Freshwater Ecology, University of Canberra, ACT 2601, Australia. 3NSW Department of Primary Industries, Narrandera Fisheries Centre, PO Box 182, Narrandera NSW 2700, Australia. October 2006 2003/034 FRDC Report 2003/034 ©Copyright Fisheries Research and Development Corporation and Parks, Conservation & Lands, 2006. This work is copyright. Except as permitted under the Copyright Act 1968 (Cwlth), no part of this publication may be reproduced by any process, electronic or otherwise, without the specific written permission of the copyright owners. Neither may information be stored electronically in any form whatsoever without such permission. ISBN 0 9775019 2 2 Preferred citation: Ebner, B., Thiem, J., Lintermans, M. & Gilligan, D. (eds.) (2006). An ecological approach to re-establishing Australian freshwater cod populations: an application to trout cod in the Murrumbidgee catchment. Final Report to Fisheries Research and Development Corporation (Project No. 2003/034). Canberra: Parks, Conservation & Lands. Published by Parks, Conservation & Lands, Department of Territory & Municipal Services, ACT Government, GPO Box 158, Canberra ACT 2601, Australia. DISCLAIMER The authors do not warrant that the information in this book is free from errors or omissions. The authors do not accept any form of liability, be it contractual, tortious or otherwise, for the contents of this book or for any consequences arising from its use or any reliance placed upon it. The information, opinions and advice contained in this book may not relate to, or be relevant to, a reader's particular circumstances. Opinions expressed by the authors are the individual opinions of those persons and are not necessarily those of the publisher or research provider. An ecological approach to re-establishing Australian freshwater cod populations ii FRDC Report 2003/034 TABLE OF CONTENTS NON-TECHNICAL SUMMARY...............................................................................1 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ...........................................................................................4 CHAPTER 1 . BACKGROUND TO THE AUSTRALIAN FRESHWATER COD ........................................................................................................................................5 Distribution and declines in Australian freshwater cod........................................5 Current approaches to the conservation and recovery of Australian freshwater cod..........................................................................................................................8 Fate of fingerling stockings of trout cod..............................................................10 Radio-tracking as a tool to monitor dispersal .....................................................12 Need .....................................................................................................................13 OBJECTIVES..........................................................................................................14 CHAPTER 2 . ESTIMATING SPECIES RICHNESS AND CATCH PER UNIT EFFORT FROM BOAT ELECTRO-FISHING IN A LOWLAND RIVER IN TEMPERATE AUSTRALIA....................................................................................15 INTRODUCTION ...................................................................................................15 METHODS ..............................................................................................................16 Study site ..............................................................................................................16 Fish sampling.......................................................................................................17 Data analysis .......................................................................................................18 RESULTS ................................................................................................................19 Detection of species .............................................................................................20 Catch per unit effort.............................................................................................21 Correlation of species within operations.............................................................22 Analysis of fish community structure amongst grouped samples ........................23 Estimating species richness .................................................................................23 DISCUSSION..........................................................................................................24 Estimating species richness at a site....................................................................24 Fish community distribution ................................................................................26 Catch per unit effort.............................................................................................26 Limitations of this study.......................................................................................27 Recommendations ................................................................................................28 CHAPTER 3 . MOVEMENT OF HATCHERY-REARED AND WILD- REARED MACCULLOCHELLA MACQUARIENSIS STOCKED IN A LARGE LOWLAND RIVER...................................................................................................29 INTRODUCTION ...................................................................................................29 METHODS ..............................................................................................................31 Site description.....................................................................................................31 Source of fish........................................................................................................32 Surgery and release .............................................................................................32 Radio-telemetry....................................................................................................33 Data analysis .......................................................................................................34 RESULTS ................................................................................................................35 Dispersal..............................................................................................................35 Homing in wild fish..............................................................................................39 iii An ecological approach to re-establishing Australian freshwater cod populations FRDC Report 2003/034 Total range and home-range of individual fish ...................................................40 DISCUSSION..........................................................................................................43 Possible rejection of radio-tags...........................................................................43 Survivorship .........................................................................................................44 Direction and magnitude of dispersal..................................................................44 Homing.................................................................................................................45 Home-range use and dispersal ............................................................................45 Home-range establishment model........................................................................47 The dispersal model .............................................................................................48 CONCLUSION........................................................................................................48 CHAPTER 4 . METHODS FOR RECORDING ACTIVITY OF AN ENDANGERED PERCICHTHYID: EFFECTS OF TEMPORAL RESOLUTION...........................................................................................................50 INTRODUCTION ...................................................................................................50 METHODS ..............................................................................................................51 Study site ..............................................................................................................51 Fish collection and surgery .................................................................................51 Radio-telemetry....................................................................................................52 Data analysis .......................................................................................................53 RESULTS ................................................................................................................53 DISCUSSION..........................................................................................................57 CHAPTER 5 . EXPERIENCED INDIVIDUALS: DESCRIBING FISH MOVEMENT AND IDENTIFYING UNDERLYING MECHANISMS AT THE AMONG HOME-RANGE SCALE..........................................................................60