The Future?
With emerging historical evidence emphasising upland river habitats as the original primary habitat for trout cod (and Macquarie perch), and casting serious doubt over attempts to re-establish self-sustaining populations in lowland habitats, this species will likely remain endangered until it is provided with a few sizeable, trout-free upland river habitats. This process could be undertaken with no serious impacts on the economically and recreationally important introduced trout fisheries in Australia, and indeed could be of great benefit to fishermen and fisheries. However, this appears to be a nettle that no fishery or conservation agency is prepared to grasp, again due to strong cultural cringe towards introduced trout in the wider community and the management bias towards introduced trout amongst fishery agencies.
In the meantime the fishers of south-eastern Australia are missing out on a unique part of their heritage; a beautiful upland native fish that is vastly superior in sporting and fighting qualities compared to introduced trout species, and was revered by early fishers.
Read more about this topic: Trout Cod