Publications

Category

The mystery of Australia’s freshwater eels

By Lucy Stuart April 3, 2024

Eels have been somewhat of an enigma to researchers, however, they have provided a vital fishery for Indigenous Australians for millennia. Aboriginal people in the coastal Darlots Creek system in VIC harvested and farmed Short-finned eels via complex systems of stone-walled trap and channels and ponds. Freshwater eels are a part of the family Anguillidae

Carp Gudgeons Galore!

By Lucy Stuart February 23, 2024

Carp gudgeons are a mysterious species typically found in slow-flowing or still waters that frequently baffle fish enthusiasts and scientists alike. A small and laterally compressed species, the carp gudgeons have caused great confusion over their identification across southeastern Australia. Intially, only one species of carp gudgeon was formally described in the Murray-Darling Basin (MDB)

Can we predict the future needs of fish and fisheries?

By Lucy Stuart February 15, 2024

It’s no secret that Australian native fish provide many benefits to the ecosystems they inhabit and the wider community. However, native fish face various threats to their survival such as habitat degradation, climate change, invasive pests and over-exploitation. Australia's large geographic area coupled with the vast diversity in fish and fisheries presents a challenge for

Murray cod stocking project

By Lucy Stuart January 18, 2024

Fish stocking is an important tool used to supplement existing fisheries, create new ones and support populations of fish found in rivers, creeks and other waterways. Stocking may be done for the benefit of commercial, recreational or Cultural fishing, but may also be done for ecological conservation to restore or increase the population of threatened/endangered

Barriers to fish screen adoption

By Lucy Stuart November 29, 2023

Fish screens can be a useful tool for irrigators and lifesavers for fish — without fish screens over irrigation pumps, debris and wildlife can be sucked up into pipes that draw water from rivers. This causes fish and other creatures to become trapped and die, which in turn partially or fully blocks the pipes, forcing

Gaining some mussels – New developments in Glenelg Freshwater Mussel breeding

By Lucy Stuart October 31, 2023

Due to some heavy lifting by the Arthur Rylah Institute (ARI) captive breeding of the critically endangered Glenelg Freshwater Mussels (Hyridella glenelgensis) is being trialled for the first time. All bad puns aside, this important work ultimately aims to help recover the mussels and prevent their extinction. Four Glenelg Freshwater Mussels. Source: Tim Fernando Mussel

A hook a day keeps the doctor away – New survey finds fishing contributes to wellbeing

By Lucy Stuart September 26, 2023

We know that Australians love to fish - the types of recreational fishers are vastly diverse across Australia, with fishing meaning something different for everyone. In 2000, the first national scale recreational fishing survey was conducted, estimating that 19.5% of Australians aged five and older recreationally fish (Henry and Lyle 2003). This number was substantially

Preserving our threatened galaxiids

By Lucy Stuart January 19, 2023

In Australia, there is an alarming number of declining fish species that are not formally declared as threatened under national legislation, despite global freshwater fish decline. There is limited knowledge on how to best protect fish species using conservation strategies and science is still developing. In the case of threatened galaxiids, the Arthur Rylah Institute

Research continues to protect fish species in QLD

By CRDC June 28, 2022

Cotton Research & Development Corporation (CRDC) has been supporting researchers from QLD Department of Agriculture and Fish (DAF) in developing best management practices for minimising the impacts of irrigation infrastructure on fish. The team, led by Michael Hutchison has been at Emerald in Central Queensland (Gayiri country) to examine the effect of flow type (natural