Oral Presentation Australian Society for Limnology Congress 2013

Identifying the micro-habitat and flow requirements conducive to effective recruitment of the endangered Macquarie Perch (#59)

Prudence McGuffie 1 2 , Mark Lintermans 1 , Dean M Gilligan 2 , Chris Walsh 2 , Dylan van der Muelen 2 , Ross Thompson 1
  1. Institute of Applied Ecology, Canberra University, Canberra, ACT, Australia
  2. Fisheries and Ecosystem Research, Department of Primary Industries, Batemans Bay, NSW, Australia

Macquarie Perch (Macquaria australasica) is a native fish listed as Endangered under the Australian Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999. Populations of Macquarie perch have contracted in distribution and abundance and there are now only four large self-sustaining remnant populations remaining (Abercrombie River, upper Murrumbidgee River, Cotter River and Dartmouth Dam). Therefore active conservation measures are required to facilitate population recovery through gaining knowledge on the species micro-habitat requirments, recruitment biology and the influence of flow on population processes. Such information is critical for threatened species recovery planning and their management. To acheive these objectives we propose an acoustic telemetry study in conjunction with a larval and juvenile sampling program.