IUCN lists the yabby’s status as “vulnerable”.
This is surprising to me as I had always considered them commonplace. What say you?
Also, its formal name, Cherax destructor, sounds like a curse from the Harry Potter universe but that is a side issue.
A lot of IUCN listings are pretty questionable. Often they are based on poor or insufficient data.
This listing is based on:
“A) Population reduction in the form of either of the following:
d) actual or potential levels of exploitation
e) the effects of introduced taxa, hybridisation, pathogens, pollutants, competitors or parasites.”
Given that C. destructor is widely farmed for commercial purposes, the first criteria is pretty shaky. The second criteria applies to almost every native Australian freshwater crustacean and fish.
I’d take this listing with the pinch of salt I’d be throwing in the pot while cooking them up.
dv said:
IUCN page on the common yabbyIUCN lists the yabby’s status as “vulnerable”.
This is surprising to me as I had always considered them commonplace. What say you?
Also, its formal name, Cherax destructor, sounds like a curse from the Harry Potter universe but that is a side issue.
They are commonplace but their places are becoming less common.
mmmm yabbies
The number of farm dams (i.e potential yabbie habitats), particularly around the Murray-Darling system is actually on the increase in Australia. With the breaking of the drought in 2010-2011 the yabbie ought not to be in any serious danger.
Jungle Perch (Kuhlia rupestris) are listed as “Least Concern”. In Australia, they used to have a range from the Richmond river, NSW to the tip of Cape York (officially they still do). The reality is that due to alteration and degradation of habitat, along with their angling qualities, these fish are now only common North of Townsville. Although they are still around further south, there is now a bag limit of 1 fish per person and a minimum size of 21cm. While IUCN deon’t seem to think they have a problem, Qld fisheries obviously do and they’re the ones who are in the field conducting assesments.
http://www.iucnredlist.org/details/183158/0> A lot of IUCN listings are pretty questionable.
I’ve noticed that the listings tend to miss invertebrates.
eg. the IUCN listings contain 10 weevil species (including “least concern”) as against 60,000 weevil species known worldwide, and weevils are one of the families most in danger from logging.
If there is a farm dam in Victoria that hasn’t got them, then it is a very new dam.
Some people buy specific equipment for capturing and killing yabbies, known as yabby pumps to the hunters or tube of death to yabby protection societies.
In the Port Stephens area you can often see wastrel environmental vandals pumping yabbies at low tide to put on hooks to try and catch non existent fish from a fished out environ.
The critters you pump with a yabby pump for bait are Trypaea australiensis not Cherax destructor.
Teleost said:
The critters you pump with a yabby pump for bait are Trypaea australiensis not Cherax destructor.
No need to go bringing logic into this.
sibeen said:
If there is a farm dam in Victoria that hasn’t got them, then it is a very new dam.
How do they get from dam to dam?
walk.
mollwollfumble said:
sibeen said:
If there is a farm dam in Victoria that hasn’t got them, then it is a very new dam.
How do they get from dam to dam?
they can walk fairly long distances
mollwollfumble said:
sibeen said:
If there is a farm dam in Victoria that hasn’t got them, then it is a very new dam.
How do they get from dam to dam?
walk