SUNTAG News has reported on the recapture of a barramundi 16.6 years after it was first tagged at Queensland’s Mary River Barrage in March, 1994.
The barra grew 66.5cm during that time, about 4cm per year, from 52cm to 1.185m. It was recaptured 53km down the Mary River and beats the previous record for the longest time at liberty of a barramundi by 1.5 years.
That’s fairly slow growth and not much apparent movement over the intervening years. In contrast, a barra recaptured at Corio Bay travelled about 750km down the Fitzroy River from where it was tagged in Lake Theresa before turning north for another 50km or so to the Bay. It was part of a group of 850 fish tagged in November 2007 at between 30 and 50cm and on recapture in October 2010 had grown to 90cm. Some 23 fish from this group have now been recaptured in the saltwater in the Fitzroy River estuary, having negotiated the dam wall and six weirs along the way.
