IT’S A DAM WASTE
IT’S enough to bring tears to the eyes of the most hardened angler.
Driven by raging torrents of oestrogen, these sexcrazed barramundi were attempting to get downriver during the March rain for a spawning frenzy in the mangroves. Many of them never made it. They went belly- up when they headbutted the rocks at the base of the 40 metre Burdekin Dam wall.
Nature is a cruel beast at the best of times, but what a tragic price these lovelorn fish were made to pay for thinking with what was between their fins rather than with their God- given brain.
But, for every libidinous, on- the- charge, Burdekin Dam barra that went to the big fish shop in the sky, hundreds successfully navigated their way through the 110km of river water below the wall to the lovefest down in the bayou.
Here, in the seagrass channels and the mangrove forests, thousands of randy barra which had travelled down freshwater creeks and rivers along the Burdekin coast, gathered for what can only be described as an Xrated romp in the swamp.
Secretary of the Burdekin Fish Restocking Society Alan Griggs said tagged barra from the dam were already being caught in the nets of professional fishermen down in the salt water sections.
Mr Griggs said that for every fish that was killed, hundreds made the journey down river from the dam wall to the ocean.
“The water only ran 300cm over the wall this year. The barras have a better chance when it is running a lot more water over the dam wall. It is still a big drop to the bottom, but they have a better chance when there is more water,” Mr Griggs said.
“They are hardy. They can lose a lot of scales and take a few big knocks and still keep going.”
Mr Griggs said the restocking group put around 40,000 fingerling barra into the Burdekin Dam every year and about the same number in the river down- stream from the dam wall. “We also stock lagoons and creeks in the Burdekin shire area,” he said.
He said a percentage of the fish that were released into the dam and the river and local creeks were tagged. He said some of the tagged fish from the dam had been caught as far away as Cooktown and Rockhampton.
He said the average size barramundi in the Burdekin Dam was one metre.
Mr Griggs shot down in flames the popular theory that barra had to be 75cm long before they turned into breeding females.
He said barramundi 57cm long had been caught in the salt water section of the Burdekin that were female and carrying roe.
“We’ve had them 57cm that are full- blown female carrying one kilogram of roe,” he said. “The so- called fishing experts who say that anything 75cm and over should be released is crap.”
He said the restocking group had a permit to buy and release seven million fingerlings a year.
“We are a small group and they cost one dollar each. We can only afford between 60,000 and 100,000 a year. And we only tag a few because the tags cost another dollar,” he said.
And those lucky barra that made it over the wall and down the river to the bayou?
They are out there somewhere, making little barras in the eternal sea of love.