Saving our crays |
 A WHOPPER: Verita Stewart shows off one of the Murray crayfish she has caught during her research. Research to curb decline in numbers: public help sought Written by STEVEN BURKE. ELDORADO’S Verita Stewart is on a mission to help save the Murray crayfish. The 22-year-old Honors student at La Trobe University is investigating the decline in cray numbers for her thesis, ‘Impacts of recreational fishing on the Murray crayfish’. And her method of study is so far proving to be the envy of most cray enthusiasts. She spends hours at a time in a tinny catching crays and recording their details, before releasing them back into the Ovens River. The only problem is, Verita hasn’t been catching nearly as many crays as she’d hoped for. "Numbers have declined a lot over the past 20 years," she said. But Verita is hoping she can help turn that trend around. "A lot of people love craying," she said. "But if they want to keep craying we need to find out why numbers are declining and how we can make it more sustainable into the future." Verita has her theories on why cray numbers are in decline. "One of the reasons could be due to the nature of fishing regulations," she said. "At the moment you can take no more than five at a time, and the crays have to measure more than 9cm (occipital carapace length). "You also aren’t allowed to take female crays with eggs, and females are almost always carrying eggs for the open season (from May to August). "This means you are rarely taking a female in the open season, causing a skew in the sex-ratio and leaving all small males to deal with larger females." Other theories include environmental, such as water levels and pollution, or that people are simply taking too many crays, causing stocks to diminish. But nothing is proved, and she is asking for public help. "I want to know where people fish for crays, if the crayfish catch has changed, and how much effort does it take to catch crays?" she said. To help Verita, cray fishermen (and women) are asked to complete a confidential survey - accessed at www.monkeysurvey.com/s/murraycraysurvey, or for a hard copy, contact Dr Susan Lawler on (02) 6024 9874 or email s.lawler@latrobe.edu.au. Verita’s thesis will be passed on to fisheries managers to help the Murray cray population. |
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