THE discovery of a fish previously believed to be extinct in Victoria has halted the planned drawdown of Third Reedy Lake north of Kerang.
Goulburn-Murray Connections was on the verge of beginning the process, which would see the lake’s water level drop, when on October 29 two southern purple spotted gudgeon fish were netted by survey crews engaged by the project’s survey team.
The southern purple spotted gudgeon were thought to be extinct in the southern Murray-Darling basin.
The last known population in the area was recorded in Cardross Lakes, near Mildura, in 1996 and was thought to have died out with the subsequent drying of those lakes.
It was declared extinct in Victoria in 1998.
However, the species is still quite common in Queensland.
Freshwater ecologist Dion Iervasi, who was leading the survey team which made the find, described it as “very exciting” and “a career highlight”.
“It was an amazing moment,” Mr Iervasi, from Austral Research and Consulting, said.
“As soon as I pulled it out, I knew what it was.
“We weren’t looking for them.
“We were doing some monitoring for fish aggregation at the outlet.
“We were hoping to watch fish leave the lake.”
The two fish were found at separate sites a fair distance apart, Mr Iervasi said.
“They’re a cryptic species,” he said.
“They are really only moving about during spawning time and are pretty hard to catch.
“We were probably lucky to have been there at the right time.”
DNA tests are currently underway to confirm that the fish found belong to the species and to establish how prevalent they are in the lake.
News of the find has been hailed as “a major environmental discovery” by the Victorian water minister, Lisa Neville.
The state government said if the find is confirmed, it will work with water corporations, catchment management authorities, the Victorian Fisheries Authority, environmental consultants, fish experts and the community to develop an appropriate strategy to protect and recover the species.
The Goulburn-Murray Connections Third Reedy project has involved years of planning and major work to divert water from the irrigation channel which runs into Third Reedy Lake from Middle Reedy Lake by means of a bypass channel and a pipeline to the southwestern side of the lake.
The project aims to save 1.6 gigalitres of water annually and return the lake to its pre-irrigation-system state as a natural freshwater marsh.
As part of the $10 million initiative, a new regulator and fish passage, pump station and access bridge has been constructed.
Additional surveying was being carried at the lake following a meeting of recreational fishers late last month which raised concerns about the fish in the lake.
