This cycle previously characterised the Murray River. Mac would also go into bat (another problem for an animal lacking opposable thumbs) for the restoration of the natural, seasonal cycle of high winter/spring flows, and low summer/autumn flows. Picking up the phone is one problem when you’re a Murray Cod an unconnected river system is even worse. Indeed, all of the food web that sustains Mac and his like, relies on the fact that rivers operate as systems and not discrete units that have been separated by weirs, regulators and levee banks. He would reciprocate by contributing to a diverse ecosystem: largely through his feeding, but also through his movement, “nest” making, territorial behaviour and other activities. Apart from the obvious issues associated with having an aquarium for an office, and the lack of opposable thumbs for holding telephones, how would Mac return the Murray-Darling Basin’s rivers to a state that would make him, his families and friends happy and healthy?įirstly, Mac would be keen to see the whole Basin considered as one interconnected system, comprising many interdependent components, and involving upstream-downstream, and main channel-to-floodplain periodic connections, mediated by water.īeing the top predator in the system, he relies on many smaller animals – like other fish, yabbies, shrimp, mussels and water birds – and plants to sustain his large size. Let’s imagine for a minute that a Murray cod – let’s call him Mac Peelii - replaced Tony Burke as water minister, responsible for the Murray-Darling Basin.
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