21.10.2006

FISH don’t use elevators very often.

That’s what scientists from the Department of Primary Industries have found after tagging 1285 lungfish on the Burnett River.

A report ( downstream.pdf  upstream.pdf ) tabled in State Parliament last week showed that only seven of the 41 tagged lungfish that approached the upstream entry of the Ned Churchward Weir fishlock went through.

But this is the technology that Premier Peter Beattie promised would protect the lungfish in the Mary River, allowing them to migrate despite the Traveston Crossing dam.

The wall at Traveston Crossing will be higher than the 37m high Paradise Dam, whereas the failing fishlock at the Ned Churchward Weir scales a wall just 10m high.

Trade Minister Warren Truss asked how the state planned to protect the lungfish, Primary Industries Minister Tim Mulherin said fishlocks weren’t good enough and Queensland Conservation Council co-ordinator Toby Hutcheon said the only way to ensure the lungfish survived was to scrap the Traveston Crossing dam.

Save the Mary River steering committee member and fisheries consultant dealing with threatened species David Kreutz effectively said “duh!”.

“It (the fishlock) has been proved unreliable and problematic,” he said.

“That evidence says what the Save the Mary River environmental committee have said all along: that the Beattie government will be unable to mitigate the effects of the dam on the threatened species of the River; and that imposes serious questions of the environmental conduct of the Beattie government with regard to lungfish and other threatened species on the Burnett River.

“The bottom line is under legislation we have to look after these creatures that can’t speak for themselves. If the reports say they can’t negotiate a 10 metre wall they need to do studies on the existing technology before they even advocate to build this dam.”

Mr Kreutz will take his message about the Traveston Crossing dam to San Francisco in February when he speaks at the American Association For the Advancement of Science.