Nice fillet of Barramundi anyone?

[chappers]

Scaremongering about plagues of fish have ben going on for years and just usually turn out to be proved wrong.

Remember back in the day when zander first started to appear everyone was saying this fish would spread like a rash through our waterways killing everything in their way, they were supposed to be ten times more voracious than pike and would signal the end of many coarse fisheries.

We now know this to be untrue they have not spread to plague proportions and turn out to be far more selective in their feeding than pike.

farming methods are now far more wise to escapees and contamination and besides as Leon says bara taste damn good too.

[Dan]

chappers:

Scaremongering about plagues of fish have ben going on for years and just usually turn out to be proved wrong.

I know they are not fish but it wasnt so long ago that rabbits were introduced into austrailia for a bit of sport, I think you know the rest! the truoble is we have no idea what the consequences might be!

 

dan

[stan4massey]

Think it was Roger Daltry of the Who, introduced some sort of `alien' prawn or shrimp into his trout fisheries some years ago. They annhialated the fisheries in 2 seasons or so

[sam-cox]

plages of fish? OH YES PLEASE.

Whear and when?

[MJB]

sam-cox:

Stripped bass are the ones boys, aparently they could servive hear, they were introduced to parts of the good ol USA in flasks of 1000 eyedover and now are as native.

WHOS UP FOR SMUGERLING SOME OVER?

Bloody hell Sam! We can't even look after the Bass we already have!

[argyll]

Roger had nothing more unusual than signal crayfish and the stock thrived on them. Unfortunately there was more money going out of the door than coming in and he wanted his space back for himself and his family. Can't say I blame him much although I miss the place. I've guested it since and its still one of the nicest little trout waters around the south east.

 

[ 17. September 2005, 07:47 PM: Message edited by: argyll ]

[Leon Roskilly]

"But, as North Australia Correspondent Anne Barker reports, local amateur anglers can't believe their luck.

 

ANNE BARKER: Every fisherman has a tale about the ones that got away.

 

But owners of the Marine Harvest Barramundi Farm on the Tiwi Islands have a sad tale indeed – losing 10 per cent of their entire fish stock in an exceptionally low spring tide."

 

Full Story

 

 

TL - leon

[Leon Roskilly]

More News:

 

http://sport.independent.co.uk/general/article350736.ece

[Norm B]

Bloody hell Sam! We can't even look after the Bass we already have!

Look on the positive side. British commercial fishermen have no historical rights in Barramundi so they could be classified as a SPORT FISH ONLY, any commercial caught with one could be subject to the full force of the law, if the SFC's or DEFRA chose to impose it. No selling them by the back door, no need to if they're farmed. So what if they eat a few pout and mackeral in the process of reaching double figures, in fact, would it really matter if they ate everything, the commercials haven't left much for anyone else. Wouldn't it be some sort of justice if ONLY BARRAMUNDI were left and they were classified as a SPORT ONLY fish. The seas would then belong to the anglers.

Edited March 12, 2006 by Norm B

[Bobj]

'Juvenile barramundi are highly dependent on estuarine and freshwater habitats. They move from the estuarine areas up into the freshwater habitats to grow ...

 

Not quite right. In natural conditions, they do need salty/brackish water to BREED. However, 1" fingerlings are stocked into about 12 dams in Australia, mainly Qld., and do very well indeed; so much so that there are thriving guiding businesses going where the barra dams are.

Our local dams, Kinchant, Teemburra and Eungella, hold many thousands of barra and are restocked each year, on a put-and-take system.

The warmer, the better for growth rates. For instance, Kinchant dam (100 ft above sea level) was first stocked with barra in 2000 and now, the barra are in the 50-60 lb bracket.

 

This one is 56 lbs and 1.13 metres long and was returned to fight another day.

 

Teemburra dam is 1000 ft higher up the valley and was first stocked in 1995 and the barra average 25 lbs and 97 cm.

Another thing is that there is so much food in the dams that the baitfish flourish as well.

So, it is possible to have a viable barra industry in England.....providing there is warm water all year round.