Scales of injustice: feral fish fallacy? Tuesday October 19 Sodens Australia Hotel, Albury Science in the Pub visits Albury! We have been invited by the Murray-Darling Freshwater Research Centre to help celebrate National Water Week by looking at the introduction of feral fish into Australian waters. Is it a problem? Where should the money be going? Stocking our rivers with trout? Trying to eradicate carp? Perhaps we should be harvesting and selling carp flesh. To help us answer these questions and yours, we have Dr Paul Humphries who is a Research Fellow with the CRC for Freshwater Ecology and Monash University, and Dr Andrew Sanger, the Senior Fisheries Manager (inland) with NSW Fisheries based in Albury. They have very different views on the problem. To keep them from coming to blows, we have our scintillating Science in the Pub comp�re, Dr Paul Willis-ABC TV Quantum reporter and Radio Science broadcaster-to lead the discussion. Paul will be aided and abetted by Bernie Hobbs, from ABC science online and Triple J. To introduce you to them: Andrew Sanger Andrew Sanger's major interest is in native fish biology. He sees his major challenge as balancing the goal of enhancing and protecting recreational fisheries with competing native fauna conservation and environmental values. Andrew's career started in 1986 with his PhD from the University of Melbourne in 1986 on the evolution and ecology of river blackfish. Following this, he spent 10 years with the Inland Fisheries Commission in Tasmania conducting research on the conservation of endangered native fish, the management of fisheries and limnological problems in Hydro-Electric Corporation reservoirs. Andrew was also involved in general recreational and commercial fisheries research in the inland waters of Tasmania. He has authored and supervised the preparation of several recovery plans for threatened aquatic fauna in Tasmania. Andrew is currently the Senior Fisheries Manager (inland) with NSW Fisheries based in Albury. His responsibilities include the management of commercial and recreational fisheries in inland NSW, including the carp and trout fisheries. He is Involved with stocking programs for both trout and native species in NSW. He is Chair of the Fisheries Scientific Committee that considers nominations for listing of Threatened Species and communities in NSW and President of the Australian Society for Fish Biology. Andrew's favourite pastime? Fly fishing for trout! Paul Humphries My first few fishing experiences, at about age 5, were amazingly unsuccessful. And it wasn't until many years later that my father told me that this was probably because he was concerned for our safety and we didn't have any hooks on. I graduated to hooks, but was rarely more successful. It was then I decided to pursue a career involving fish so that I could actually catch them and see what they looked like. After completing my undergraduate degree and honours at Monash Uni and being an apprentice furniture removalist in 1985, I spent 2.5 years in the frozen wastes of Tasmania studying for my MSc at the University of Tasmania. There I learned to fall off bridges, break ice to catch fish, get bogged repeatedly in cars and, in between, explored the life history of lake and river forms of a species of native freshwater fish. In late 1987 I made my way to Western Australia (after a short stint driving taxis in Melbourne), where I completed my PhD studying fish communities in a southern estuary. I also dabbled in marine fish work for a time and earned some extra money identifying deep sea fish for CSIRO. In 1991 I returned to Tasmania with my partner and worked for the Inland Fisheries Commission, running an environmental flows study in four northern rivers. I left Tasmania again in late 1994 and took up a position with the CRC for Freshwater Ecology at the Murray-Darling Freshwater Research Centre in Albury (although employed as a Research Fellow at Monash Uni) and have worked on a large scale environmental flows experiment for the last 5 years. I have 2.7 cute kids and a wonderful partner. I co-supervise 4 gifted PhD students and a larrikan honours student and my main interests are aquatic ecology, fish, recruitment processes, wine making and drinking, learning the cello, arguing and eating Indian food. Andrew's abstract in verse: 'The Problem is Carp' In rivers of old (which weren't quite so cold) a snag was a thing to adore. For a cod in the know Could get out of the flow In a deep hole just out from the shore. He could lie there all day And at night go and prey On yabbies and shrimp by the dozen. And he'd grow and mature, Just making sure To defend his old snag from his cousins. When the time came to mate Up the Kiewa he'd migrate To date that pretty young thing from Mt Beauty. Then he'd shag 'er, and swagger Right back to his snag, After doing his egg rearing duty. And he'd grow old, carefree, Living under his tree Year after year as a winner. 'Til along came a big drought that'd sort him right out to become a young Murray cray's dinner. Now, we want to know why People fish with a fly When a set line was our father's gear. But as the millennium dawns Cod no longer spawn Up the Kiewa or anywhere near. See, the waters too cold, The dams so big to behold Let the rivers run full every summer. The snags are removed Unwanted, unloved 'cause they might cause a flood-what a bummer! Cattle congregate, Urinate, defecate Then trample the banks as they're going. And their nutrient hit Of mud, piss and shit Blooms blue-green when the river stops flowing. When the pumps are turned on The small floods are gone Into dams, to later grow cotton. When we say 'nuff's enough' Cockies splutter and cough And say, `Bloody greenies-it's not on!' Other problems exist; There's lots that I've missed, But the message is writ fairly plain. The natives are gone, The river forlorn We've used it, abused it-insane. And yet, when we gather To argue and blather About causes of native decline. We all seem to harp, `THE PROBLEM IS CARP' A scapegoat? Your call not mine. `Science in the Pub'(TM) is an initiative of the Australian Science Communicators (NSW) and supported by the Australian Broadcasting Commission. SciPub has received two grants from the Science and Technology Awareness Program (an initiative of the Department of Industry, Science, Tourism), the most recent of which will be used for presenting Science in Your Pub during National Science Week 1999 in Canberra, Sydney and Melbourne. For further information on `Science in the Pub' please contact Robyn Stutchbury on rstutch@ozemail.com.au of Peripatus Productions Pty Limited, 1 Carisbrook Street, Lane Cove 2066, Tel: 02 9427 6747, Fax: 02 9418 9605 Next Science in the Pub session ASC Xmas Party on December 15 in the Duke Of Edinburgh, to celebrate another year of SciPub!
Science in the Pub™, © 2000. Stutchbury, R, Burton, M.