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RESEARCH ARTICLE (Open Access)
Contents Vol 75(15)

Risk v. reward for responsive movements by a highly mobile fish species in a flow-constrained and barrier-laden river

Gavin L. Butler https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4933-5306 A B * , Leo M. Cameron A , Daniel W. Coleman C , Brendan C. Ebner https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8808-4998 A , Jason D. Thiem https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5585-8560 D and Luke Carpenter-Bundhoo https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9637-5231 B
+ Author Affiliations
- Author Affiliations

A New South Wales Department of Primary Industries Fisheries, Grafton, NSW 2460, Australia.

B Australian Rivers Institute, Griffith University, Nathan, Qld 4111, Australia.

C NSW Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water, Level 0, 84 Crown Street, Wollongong, NSW 2500, Australia.

D New South Wales Department of Primary Industries Fisheries, Batemans Bay, NSW 2536, Australia.

* Correspondence to: gavin.butler@dpi.nsw.gov.au

Handling Editor: Paul Frazier

Marine and Freshwater Research 75, MF24053 https://doi.org/10.1071/MF24053
Submitted: 8 March 2024  Accepted: 6 September 2024  Published: 16 October 2024

© 2024 The Author(s) (or their employer(s)). Published by CSIRO Publishing. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-ND)

Abstract

Context

Understanding the movement behaviour of flow-dependent fish species is a foundational principle underlying the effective management of highly modified riverscapes.

Aims

To determine how variations in river discharge and instream barriers affect the residency, survival and movement of golden perch (Macquaria ambigua) in the degraded Gwydir River system within the northern Murray–Darling Basin.

Methods

We monitored the movement of 25 acoustic-tagged golden perch for up to 3 years by using a linear array spanning ~180 km of the main river channels across the lower Gwydir system.

Key results

Golden perch were largely sedentary for extended periods, with movements constrained by the barrier maze that now defines the system. High flows facilitated passage over instream barriers, with the highest periods of activity occurring in spring and early summer, and to a lesser extent in autumn.

Conclusion

Our findings are indicative of a highly constrained and isolated population of golden perch that is now likely to be neither a source nor a sink, but is in effect a false sink perpetuated by re-stocking practices.

Implications

The rehabilitation of the fish community in the Gwydir and other systems in similarly poor condition throughout the Murray–Darling Basin will require major institutional and societal change.

Keywords: environmental flows, false sink, golden perch, human-induced rapid environmental change, Macquaria, rheophilic, river regulation, source–sink dynamics.

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