STMR 25 June 09 - North Pine lungfish kill damns government

[tanzi]

Yesterday's lungfish kill below North Pine Dam is a damning indictment of the state government’s conservation record on this iconic and vulnerable species. Following the release of water from the North Pine Dam, more than forty dead and dying lungfish were found in just one short stretch of riverbank below the dam wall. It is not known how many more dead would be found washed further downstream.

According to Save the Mary River Co-ordinating Group Secretary, David Kreutz who made the grim discovery yesterday, “the lungfish were up to 1.5 metres in length and were either already dead or very near to death and displayed absolutely horrific injuries.” Mr Kreutz said that although the incident was reported to authorities there had been no rescue or investigative effort mounted on the day the discovery was reported.

“This should be a national outrage. Statements from the government yesterday of "up to 100 native fish went with the release, including around 12 lungfish", are a gross understatement of the facts. It makes an absolute mockery of the state government’s pledge that it can mitigate the effect that dams have on this ancient fish. Going on these North Pine Dam fish kills, there’ll be absolute mayhem for lungfish when the Burnett River's Paradise Dam eventually overflows, with its far worse "stepped" spillway.”

“To then lumber the Mary River with a Traveston Dam lungfish and turtle killing device would be just the last straw for this species,”Mr Kreutz said. “ This is a fish that is absolutely unique to just a couple of rivers in Queensland, but our state government seems to act like there’s plenty more where they came from."

He added that as well as dead lungfish, there were hundreds of bass, yellowbelly and catfish damaged from the spillway fall or stranded in the pools that will dry up in the next few days. "This is the third such event resulting directly from the operation of North Pine Dam in recent months, but it is the first that we have been able to get our own independent documentary evidence."

“When is this government going face up to the fact that shallow media spin will do nothing to ensure survival for the lungfish?" said Save the Mary River Coordinating group President, Glenda Pickersgill.

"Yesterday's tragedy graphically demonstrates what going over a dam wall does to this globally significant threatened species"

What really floored us was the delayed response from the Queensland government, with no effort made to salvage any survivors.” Ms Pickersgill said.

Dam opponents are following the upcoming legal challenge to the Paradise Dam which will be heard in the Federal Court in September.

The case, mounted by the Wide Bay Burnett Conservation Council and a coalition of Environment groups is significant because aspects of the Paradise Dam fishway are proposed as the model for the fishway on the controversial Traveston Crossing Dam, which has yet to gain either state or federal environmental approvals.

“There could scarcely be a more poignant way to drive the message home to the state government, “Dams kill lungfish. Stop wasting our money and scrap the proposed Traveston Crossing Dam”, Ms Pickersgill said. END

www.savethemaryriver.com

(Lungfish were introduced into a number of rivers in south-east Queensland in 1896 in an effort to secure the species’ long term survival. It appears that only the populations in Pine and Brisbane rivers have endured. They are believed to live to around 100 years of age and the size of the ones killed today suggests they were quite old.)