Narrandera Hatchery sets Murray Cod record - again!
by NSW DPI - Recreational Fisheries 30 Jul 2023 03:37 UTC
Narrandera Hatchery sets Murray Cod record – again! © NSW DPI - Recreational Fisheries
For the second year running, the expert hatchery team at DPI's Narrandera Fisheries Centre have produced and stocked record numbers of Murray Cod. A total of 1.286 million juvenile Cod were produced at the Narrandera facility in the 2022-23 season, eclipsing the previous record set in 2021-22.
This outstanding result will complement natural recruitment and help maintain strong populations of these iconic native sportfish in key impoundments and associated river systems.
As with previous stocking seasons, the Murray Cod fingerlings produced at Narrandera included progeny of fish rescued in a joint operation involving DPI Fisheries and volunteer fishers during the 2019 drought, as part of the NSW Government's $10 million Native Fish Drought Response.
DPI has partnered with the inland aquaculture sector and local recreational fishing groups to trial the stocking of "advanced-sized" juvenile Murray Cod which measure 200-300mm compared to a traditional fingerling of about 30-50mm.
This project has been undertaken to assess the effectiveness of selectively releasing larger sized Murray Cod to help fast track recovery of inland waterways affected by natural disasters. The tagged fish will be monitored by DPI researchers using state-of the-art electronic tracking systems.