Fish Movement and Migration

Category

Barriers to fish screen adoption

By Lucy Stuart November 29, 2023

Fish screens can be a useful tool for irrigators and lifesavers for fish — without fish screens over irrigation pumps, debris and wildlife can be sucked up into pipes that draw water from rivers. This causes fish and other creatures to become trapped and die, which in turn partially or fully blocks the pipes, forcing

The plight of Southern Pygmy Perch and the local efforts for recovery

By Lucy Stuart August 31, 2023

Once used as a common bait fish across the Murray-Darling Basin, the now threatened Southern Pygmy Perch (SPP) has now disappeared from most historically known locations. In NSW there are only three broad locations remaining located nearby the towns of Dalton, Holbrook and Albury. The upper Lachlan drainage near Dalton is the most far-north population

Monitoring and managing fishways – what happens after construction?

By Lucy Stuart August 3, 2023

Some time ago, we published an article about the fishways at the Koondrook and Cohuna weirs that were constructed in late 2021. More recently, we pondered on the development of performance standards for fishways and what a good fishway looks like. Although still in development, the researchers at Arthur Rylah Institute (ARI) have been collecting

Redfin perch and the EHN virus

By Joy Becker and Lucy Stuart July 19, 2023

Epizootic haematopoietic necrosis virus (EHNV) is a lethal virus that infects fish through the body surface or gastrointestinal tract. Once in the host, it multiplies in the blood forming organs such as the spleen and kidney and destroys them in the process, ultimately killing the fish. EHNV is only present in Australia, endemic to catchments

Are Golden perch sizes impacted by closeness to townships?

By Lucy Stuart April 24, 2023

Golden perch (Macquaria ambigua) are one of the most desirable species within the Murray-Darling Basin (MDB). They are widely distributed and are a common large native fish in the MDB. The species can grow up to 23kg — however, most are typically less than 5kg. Their potential size makes them a popular fish for many

What have the recent floods meant for the Coorong, Lower Lakes and Murray Mouth?

By Kate McKenna April 5, 2023

Recent floods flowing down the Murray River have well and truly reached the Coorong, Lower Lakes and Mouth of the Murray. All 593 openings across 5 barrages, which for the last 80 years have controlled flows at the Mouth of the Murray, were fully open over the summer, with freshwater, saltwater, fish and other creatures

Hume Dam photographed from above on a bright sunny day, with a small flow visible.

Attraction flow supporting native fish migration

By Kate McKenna March 27, 2023

‘Flow hydrodynamics’, ‘turbulent kinetic energy’, ‘rheotactic behaviour’ - whilst these terms might not mean much to you, they are essential parts of native fish migration in the Murray-Darling Basin. The Murray-Darling Basin is one of the most regulated river systems in the world, home to over 10,000 barriers preventing fish from migrating. These barriers

The Menindee Main Weir is open in December 2022.

Making the Connection: Providing Temporary Fish Passage at the Menindee Lakes

By Iain Ellis February 3, 2023

Fish Movement Weirs and regulators in rivers and lakes can impede or block the movement of native fish, impacting their ability to migrate and move to suitable feeding or breeding areas. While all fish need to move around to some degree, ‘flow-specialists’ like Golden perch and Silver perch need to move along rivers as part

Developing performance standards for fishways

By Lucy Stuart January 30, 2023

In response to the fragmentation of rivers and streams, fishways have become a popular method of mitigating the impacts of dams and weirs by helping to; facilitate fish movement and migration and create access to habitats. Habitat fragmentation poses a great risk to biodiversity, with riverine fish species particularly vulnerable to human development. Fishways, also

Microplastics in Australian freshwater fish

By Kate McKenna December 19, 2022

Microplastics are a global problem, infiltrating all levels of food systems and ecosystems. Now a multi-level governance issue, reaching across international, national and local scales, microplastics are most known for their impact on oceanic ecosystems, however, freshwater ecosystems are equally significantly impacted by plastics. Microplastics have been noticeably less researched in freshwater ecosystems compared to

Guide: Golden perch rehabilitation after a major fish kill

By Kate McKenna November 14, 2022

Like many other important native freshwater fish species within the Murray Darling Basin, Golden perch (Macquaria ambigua) were immensely impacted by the 2018-19 fish kills in the lower Darling River.  A 2021 study involving 18 researchers (by Zampatti et.al) looked into the species’ historical and current population demographics in the Darling River. The study provided guidance on how best to manage our

How agencies in the Murray-Darling Basin will support fish populations this summer?

By Kate McKenna November 12, 2022

With a wet summer already here and more rain on the horizon, how will water managers and agencies within the Murray-Darling Basin be supporting rivers and fish populations this summer? This article will explore where responsibilities lie between water management agencies in the Murray-Darling Basin, what they will be doing to help native fish and