<span class="highlight">Yabbies</span> in The Cooper

Hi Stephen,
We were up at Ski Beach Innamincka about ten days ago and had the yabbie nets out over night and only caught about 50 small fish I can see why now all the yabbies were off to get their photos taken.

Cheers
Graham

lack of oxgen or some other habitat destruction

- some rippers in there

BTW its a turtle nowadays

they used to be know as tortoises to differentiate them from sea turtles and the truly aquatic pig nose turtle but that went by the by and now there turtles

i think too many people were associating tortoise with the land dwelling models found elswwhere

That's amazing Stephen !

Last year at the Innamincka Common they tasted real good, but the numbers in your photograph, are incredible.

Hope you got your share
CHeers
Bucky

wow, thats interesting, my guess is that it is nothing out of the "ordinary" given we se above the waterline thousands and thousands of birds appear from seemingly noware and breed double the norm rate then my guess it is also happening below the water in order to maintain the "food cycle" .....
Last wet season it was wetter as in more rain and higher levels in the rivers, this year lower levels but more consistant rains and with it came zillions of frogs, i mean zillions of native frogs (thats really good) like i have never seen, flying insects were bad also, so my guess it runs into the Gulf and the prawn season will be big .....
About five years ago i had a freind in Maningrida fishing a bit up the river, all was just a normal day until he noticed all this stuff floating down the river, looked like logs, it was CROCS of about 1-2 m long, thousands and all heading out to sea, went on for about 1/2 an hour then just stopped, he said he has never seen so many crocs in one spot and all heading out to sea like some migration ......
We probally live in a land of extremes a little like up north east coast this year, everyone calls it a "bad" year, big cyclones and the worst floods ............. it was simply a really GOOD wet season and Australia needs it.
Cheers
Joe

Stephen
I have seen that twice in the past 30 years. It was like that at Durrum Downs on the Cooper near Ballera about 2 weeks ago. We had yabbies for days. Just using a shovel to pick them up.
I don't know what causes it but when it happens it is spectacular.
Skip

Stephen,

That is unreal. I was there a last year after the rains and peope were catching fish in a milk crate as the fish were gathering at the bridge washway trying to get up stream over the causeway. Unreal to see this!
What an amazing difference water can make to this unique country.
Thanks for the photo's.

regards Will

this has made me think and ask the question

what is the most amazing abundance of wildlife have you seen?

for me it was the late 70s or maybe 1980

i was a kid at school at the wudinna Area School on the upper eyre Penninsula when 000s of pelicans decended on the town oval and the school oval literally covering all sports feilds in town. over about 3 days they thinned out and dissapeared.

I got told it was the pelicans which had moved to Lake eyre for the 74 filling stopping over for a rest on the way back to the coast as the lake dried out

will never forget that

Got to say the giant fruit bats at Belligen in Northern NSW is a sight to see on sunset when the fly across the sky in the hundreds!!

Will76

Stephen - I have been advised that the same thing happened in 2000 and it is related to the yabbies returning to their place of birth. They have been washed down stream by the flood water and are now returning.


A J