About 600 mature Murray cod returned to South Australia’s Lake Bonney
RecFish SA says the stocking is intended to support recreational fishing and tourism, while an ecologist cautions that the fish are unlikely to solve the lake’s carp problem.
About 600 mature Murray cod were released into Lake Bonney in South Australia’s Riverland in early October, ABC News reported. The return of the native fish to the lake, which is connected to the River Murray, is intended to support breeding and recreational fishing after cod had disappeared from its waters.
RecFish SA, which delivered the project, said almost 600 fish weighing about two tonnes were stocked in the Lake Bonney system. ABC News reported that the state government and its newly established Recreational Fishing Authority backed the project. Some of the cod were up to a metre long, according to RecFish SA chief executive Asher Dezsery, who described them as mature breeding fish.
Why Murray cod disappeared from Lake Bonney
Dezsery told ABC News that water-quality problems had contributed to the lake becoming segregated from the river and that fish kills had removed its cod population. The release therefore returns mature fish to a place where they had been absent for years, rather than adding young fish to an existing lake population.
Ngintait elder Norman Wilson described both the lake and the cod as culturally significant. He told ABC News he hoped some of the fish would move into the river system and return to the lake to breed.
Fishing hopes and ecological limits
RecFish SA says the stocking aims to expand recreational fishing opportunities and support regional tourism. Berri Barmera mayor Ella Winnall, who helped return fish to the lake at an early October event, told ABC News she hoped the cod would give residents and visitors another reason to come to Lake Bonney and Barmera.
Charles Sturt University ecologist Paul Humphries told ABC News that Murray cod play a role in the food chain and can act as habitat engineers. He cautioned that releasing a few hundred cod was unlikely to resolve the lake’s carp problem: carp breed rapidly, and cod tend to favour main river channels.
Fishing for Murray cod is closed during the breeding season. South Australia’s catch-and-release season is due to resume on January 1, 2027, ABC News reported.
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Sources and context
- Back where they belong, Murray Cod bring new life to SA's Lake BonneyABC News
- Two Tonnes of Murray Cod Stocked into Lake BonneyRecFish SA
AI-assisted article checked against the listed sources. NewsJaws did not conduct interviews or attend the reported events.