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Eugene

(61,595 posts)
Mon Sep 9, 2019, 07:53 AM Sep 2019

Australia launches emergency relocation of fish as largest river system faces collapse

Source: The Guardian

Australia launches emergency relocation of fish as largest river system faces collapse

There are doubts the Noah’s Ark plan for the Lower Darling will be enough to prevent more mass fish kills

Anne Davies
@annefdavies
Mon 9 Sep 2019 07.06 BST
Last modified on Mon 9 Sep 2019 07.22 BST

Faced with a looming ferocious summer with little rain forecast, the New South Wales government has embarked on a Noah’s Ark type operation to move native fish from the Lower Darling – part of Australia’s most significant river system – to safe havens before high temperatures return to the already stressed river basin.

Researchers have warned of other alarming ecological signs that the Lower Darling River – part of the giant Murray-Darling Basin – is in a dire state, following last summer’s mass fish kills.

Professor Fran Sheldon, from Griffith University’s Australian Rivers Institute, said only one surviving colony of river mussels had been found along the river and there were signs that river red gums were under severe stress.

“If the river red gums die, and some are hundreds of years old, there will be a domino effect. Banks will collapse, there will be massive erosion and it will send sediments down the river.”

-snip-

Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2019/sep/09/plan-to-relocate-fish-as-australias-largest-river-system-faces-ecological-collapse

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Australia launches emergency relocation of fish as largest river system faces collapse (Original Post) Eugene Sep 2019 OP
This is truly frightening. Sanity Claws Sep 2019 #1
Are we having fun yet? The_jackalope Sep 2019 #2
Aren't they optimistic NickB79 Sep 2019 #3

NickB79

(19,114 posts)
3. Aren't they optimistic
Mon Sep 9, 2019, 09:52 AM
Sep 2019
The government said the fish would be able to migrate back up the 500km of the Darling when the drought ended.

“When flows do return to normal, the fish will be able to migrate to their ‘homes’ back upstream, without the need for additional intervention,” Marshall said.
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