Small bedrooms have renewed hope for endangered eastern freshwater cod
August 24, 2023 8:31 PM Subscribe
How these small bedrooms have renewed hope for endangered eastern freshwater cod. The eastern freshwater cod has been described as just as important as a crocodile or white shark. Now, experts have designed a nesting box that has delivered promising results.
build them up, yum
posted by Greg_Ace at 8:47 PM on August 24, 2023 [6 favorites]
posted by Greg_Ace at 8:47 PM on August 24, 2023 [6 favorites]
🎶 well since my baby left me / I found a new place to dwell / it’s out halfway between Coffs and Grafton / a wood cod hotel 🎶
posted by Fiasco da Gama at 8:56 PM on August 24, 2023 [5 favorites]
posted by Fiasco da Gama at 8:56 PM on August 24, 2023 [5 favorites]
"So these boxes showed that the possibility is there, that it will work. It's a real positive."
Possibly assisted by an Act of Cod...?
posted by Greg_Ace at 9:33 PM on August 24, 2023 [4 favorites]
Possibly assisted by an Act of Cod...?
posted by Greg_Ace at 9:33 PM on August 24, 2023 [4 favorites]
That there is a codified breeding program.
posted by Thella at 1:04 AM on August 25, 2023 [2 favorites]
posted by Thella at 1:04 AM on August 25, 2023 [2 favorites]
'triangular studio, water views' $2000pm, no cats, streeteasy.com
posted by lalochezia at 6:27 AM on August 25, 2023 [3 favorites]
posted by lalochezia at 6:27 AM on August 25, 2023 [3 favorites]
This is an interesting approach, and also interesting that they are taking the nesting box idea and experimenting with boring holes in logs to see if that works as well. Putting logs back in the river provides a whole host of geomorphic and habitat functions, versus the plywood hotels which provide breeding but nothing else. But, any improvement is better than no improvement, so I hope they are if nothing else able to scale up the hotels. It sounds like this is a lynchpin species, so figuring things out will be critical.
In the west of the US, I'm not aware of anyone using anything like this for freshwater fish habitat, and these would not fit easily into existing permitting options for installing in waterways in this region. (You could probably get them permitted, just not through the expedited fish habitat permitting options; you'd have to do it the slow way.) But in the midwest of the US, I've seen designs and photos of cover structures made of boards and other non-natural materials that are a different shape, but providing a similar function -- see the "lunker structure" drawing here, for example.
Of course, these are all bandaids on a gaping wound. The actual problem is the more than a hundred years of river manipulation (comparatively shorter in Australia and the west of the US; many hundreds of years in places that were colonized earlier), damming, and other activities that lead to rivers devoid of large wood, overly sedimented, and lacking vegetative structure. Reversing that, were anyone to want to do so, would take just as long as it did to damage the river in the first place.
posted by Dip Flash at 6:37 AM on August 25, 2023 [2 favorites]
In the west of the US, I'm not aware of anyone using anything like this for freshwater fish habitat, and these would not fit easily into existing permitting options for installing in waterways in this region. (You could probably get them permitted, just not through the expedited fish habitat permitting options; you'd have to do it the slow way.) But in the midwest of the US, I've seen designs and photos of cover structures made of boards and other non-natural materials that are a different shape, but providing a similar function -- see the "lunker structure" drawing here, for example.
Of course, these are all bandaids on a gaping wound. The actual problem is the more than a hundred years of river manipulation (comparatively shorter in Australia and the west of the US; many hundreds of years in places that were colonized earlier), damming, and other activities that lead to rivers devoid of large wood, overly sedimented, and lacking vegetative structure. Reversing that, were anyone to want to do so, would take just as long as it did to damage the river in the first place.
posted by Dip Flash at 6:37 AM on August 25, 2023 [2 favorites]
Dip Flash, the major issue for most Australian rivers is not dams, it's
a) toxic algal blooms due to fertiliser run off;
b) the river being choked with ash and sediment after major bushfires;
c) the water level in the river being too low because farmers are taking too much water (in some cases because the government is overly generous with water permits; in other cases, because the farmers are illegally taking more water than they are legally permitted to take.)
posted by chariot pulled by cassowaries at 6:44 AM on August 25, 2023 [3 favorites]
a) toxic algal blooms due to fertiliser run off;
b) the river being choked with ash and sediment after major bushfires;
c) the water level in the river being too low because farmers are taking too much water (in some cases because the government is overly generous with water permits; in other cases, because the farmers are illegally taking more water than they are legally permitted to take.)
posted by chariot pulled by cassowaries at 6:44 AM on August 25, 2023 [3 favorites]
Dip Flash, the major issue for most Australian rivers is not dams, it's
Good points. I started to write up a long response but I doubt anyone wants to read that. The summary version is that the issues in both places are overall fairly similar though particulars differ (including things like in the US people are trying to restore native willows, whereas in Australia those same willows are an invasive species that causes problems). But all the usual anthropogenic impacts like excessive irrigation withdrawals and the low-head dams that are used to divert that irrigation water, impacts from farming and grazing, denuding of riparian vegetation, wildfire impacts, etc., are all broadly common both here and there.
posted by Dip Flash at 7:45 AM on August 25, 2023
Good points. I started to write up a long response but I doubt anyone wants to read that. The summary version is that the issues in both places are overall fairly similar though particulars differ (including things like in the US people are trying to restore native willows, whereas in Australia those same willows are an invasive species that causes problems). But all the usual anthropogenic impacts like excessive irrigation withdrawals and the low-head dams that are used to divert that irrigation water, impacts from farming and grazing, denuding of riparian vegetation, wildfire impacts, etc., are all broadly common both here and there.
posted by Dip Flash at 7:45 AM on August 25, 2023
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posted by adept256 at 8:44 PM on August 24, 2023 [5 favorites]