Gladstone Fish Health Investigation 2011 - 2012 - Western Basin ...

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December, 2010- The OverflowPicture A. Shows a healthy fish from Lake Awoonga, photographed during the start of theflood event in Lake Awoonga- Mint Condition!December 12, 2010, the much anticipated flood event arrives and with it many barramundiexit Lake Awoonga. Most of these fish were in the 90-130cm bracket and approximately 4 -12yrs old. Thousands of fish went over in the first week or so. Around 30 fish in 30 secondswas the highest count I witnessed in my many visits to the wall lookout. It was rare to sit for aminute or two and not see a fish go over; it was usually multiple fish per minute. At just 1 fishper minute, the rate is equal to around 1440 a day. That's over 10,000 in a week. The rate offish escaping varied, and was basically impossible to record once the water reached the 4m+mark over the wall as the water was a raging white water torrent, but the rate of escapeslowed considerably as the water level subsided. Printed figures of only 10,000 fish escapingthe lake were neither accurate nor supported- those making the calls having reason to downplay the situation rather than allowing reality to come forth. Even the modern figures of20,000 - 30,000 seem unsupported considering the variables that were in play. Night timecounts were impossible with no lights to assist and considering barramundi are instinctivelyactive at night time it stands to reason to question what actually did escape in the dead ofnight, especially when the various lunar movements and wind change trigger periods aremicroscoped; the environmental stimulants that often dictate barra movement. Threeprofessional fishing guides worked Awoonga daily up until the spill event. Two have nowmoved on to other work ( myself included), the third has not landed a barra from the lake innearly 12 months- a huge portion of Awoonga's adult barra have vanished. Personally I haveseen only two documented barra captures from Awoonga in the last 11 months since the spillevent. The remaining fish are laying low.Around 1000 dead fish were counted along the shores of the Boyne from the dam wall andout to the harbour- obviously fish that died from wounds caused by the fall- some had headwounds, others had lost huge amounts of scales and skin and had red areas where therewas no slime, skin or scales. Dead fish up to 135cm were found and measured by my close139
friends. Rapidly rising flood waters made a proper count impossible as dead and dying fishended up 20 - 50km from the dam wall and out into the harbour and open ocean in no time.Dying barra were picked up on the surface in blue water locations.Within just one week of the initial spill over I witnessed many new fresh and lively arrivals(escapee lake fish), detected with the use of high definition depth sounder in areas within theharbour up to 43km from the dam wall. (over 20 km from Boyne River mouth) These fishseemed to rest in small schools on the bottom in deeper water- possibly adjusting to thechange. Whilst none of these new arrivals were captured on a lure in this early period, theirpresence was noted. (February's information will highlight their immense behaviouralchange)Photo B. Awoonga Dam Overflow event 2010.January, February, March- Mystery and Intrigue.100% capacity was reached around December 12, 2010, and 140.25% and 4.094m abovespillway was reached on 28th December ( GAWB INFO) and the dam was still flowing overon Sunday 23rd January, 2011, about 0.42m above. (About 40 days of spill and counting). Itwasn't until late June 2011 that Awoonga actually stopped spilling over the wall. DuringJanuary there were mixed reports from anglers of these escapees starting to feed and strikelures in the Boyne River system. First reports shared stories of weak fish that didn't fight veryhard and many that floated away and died after release obviously showing signs of ill healthfrom the overflow ordeal. Anglers stopped fishing for a period and when the fish showedgreater health signs so began a period in the Pike's Crossing region (upper Boyne) known asthe 'Turkey Shoot of 2011' where literally thousands of barra were captured by hundreds ofanglers in narrow waters. (boats, kayaks and off the shore) This radical fishing below thedam wall included the whole month of February and trickled into March until a large exodusof fish that coincided with another mini flood and water rise from Awoonga during very earlyMarch.140
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Department of Agriculture, Fisherie
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ContentsTable of tables 1Table of f
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Mullet (Mugilidae) 80Banana prawn (
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Figure 7. Barramundi caught in the
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Figure 38. Sharks caught in the Cal
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Phase 1 (August 2011-February 2012)
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The results in this study support t
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ecognised expertise and research pu
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Mr Mitchell reported high catches u
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Figure 2. Sampling sites within the
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Phase 2: Expanded Gladstone Fish He
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Mud crab (Scylla serrata): Mud crab
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For mud crabs, hepatopancreas, gill
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Table 2. The number of fish, crusta
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Significant findings and discussion
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Commercial barramundi catch and cat
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Figure 6. Eye condition observed in
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Conditions observed in barramundi s
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Figure 12. A barramundi caught in t
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provided another environmental stre
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was somewhat reduced because post-m
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4,000Commercial effort (days fished
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Size structure of mud crabs observe
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Figure 21. Examples of shell abnorm
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Of the 58 crabs observed to have sh
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HistopathologyLipid storage vacuola
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Commercial fishing effort for mulle
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Figure 28. (a) Mullet caught in Rod
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June/July: Mullet samples were coll
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Sharks and raysThe monitoring progr
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Observational findings Phase 1Phase
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Encysted larval parasites were foun
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in particular bull sharks, have bee
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Commercial banana prawn catch for t
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Observational findings Phase 2April
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Laboratory testing Phase 1Seven riv
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four displayed signs of redness. Th
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Conditions observed in pelagic fish
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FinfishObservational findingsDuring
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ConclusionsIn 2011, a wide range of
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Mud crabsFisheries Queensland did n
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Owens, L. 1983. Bopyrid isopod Epip
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Candidate speciesThe monitoring pro
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Table 1: Candidate species for each
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Sample processingSample processing
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Herring/grinner/Australian threadfi
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For example: the third specimen, re
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oooGonad - present/absentHepatopanc
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Cloudy eye,swollen,redness orhemorr
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Red pin pointmarks - nogeneral redn
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Lesion photos Description GradeThis
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L4continuedoperculumgrazing;cuts or
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Appendix A-3: Fish health assessmen
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Appendix B - Statistical report: Gl
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analyses, but this was not done for
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was a significant (P < 0.05) locati
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Percentage with fin condition > 015
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Table 3.6b. Effects of locations an
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Table 3.7d. Spleen categories - cou
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32Bundy2Bundy1UpBoyne1UpBoyne2LwBoy
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Table 3.9c. Regional group means an
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Table 4.2c. Effects of locations an
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4.5 Summarising by regionsThe means
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Ta ble 5.2a. Effects of locations a
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5.5 Summarising by regionsThe means
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6.3 ResultsThere was no significant
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Table 6.5 lists the mean values whe
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Standardized residualsStandardized
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Table 2.3f. Muscle lesions.Lake Fit
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Table 4. 1f. Muscle lesions.Fitzroy
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Table 5.6. Regiona l m eans for the
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Contaminants in Tissue ofFish and C
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Contaminants in Tissue of Fish and
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Department of Science, Information
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Page 203: Appendix E - Time line BarraBy John
Page 207 and 208: To make note - condition loss was e
Page 209 and 210: May/June- FinsMy initial observatio
Page 211 and 212: Thes e escapee were now also in awo
Page 213 and 214: Figure N. Barramundi showing net ma
Page 215 and 216: September- Deaths and SicknessFigur
Page 217 and 218: There is numerous distinguishing fe
Page 219: Department of Agriculture, Fisherie
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Gladstone Fish Health Investigation 2011 - 2012 - Western Basin ...

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