Swamp News - Media Watch

28th June 2009
By Damian Bathersby

Several lungfish lie dead below the North Pine Dam, south of Brisbane. Photo: Contributed

A leading Sunshine Coast environmentalist has accused the state government of deliberately downplaying last week’s lungfish kill at North Pine Dam which, he believes, should spell the end of the Traveston Crossing Dam proposal.

President of the Conondale Range Committee, Ian Mackay, claimed SEQWater had both under reported the number of lungfish killed and over exaggerated the success of its “rescue operation” to return the relatively few survivors to the water.

“This couldn’t have come at a worse time for the state government, with the Traveston Dam proposal now well overdue in being passed up to federal environment minister Peter Garret for approval,” Mr Mackay said.

“There’s no way you can mitigate against this sort of catastrophe.”

“When a dam overflows, or water needs to be quickly released, a lot of aquatic species, particularly fish and turtles go over the top and only a few survive the torrential pummelling.

“This is no waterslide experience. It’s a deadly malestrom. Some of the dead lungfish at North Pine were found wedged in trees.”

Ever since Traveston Dam had been proposed, premiers and government ministers had boasted about how many times it would have overtopped if it had already been built, he said.

The proposed dam had been downsized by splitting it into two stages in what he described as a “transparent effort” to lever it past the federal approval process.

“What that means is that you have a much smaller dam with exactly the same catchment as before, you’re bound to get more filling and overtopping, especially in wet years like this one.

“It’s like putting a small bowl to catch a torrential flow from a stormwater pipe.

“It’ll fill quite easily, won’t hold all that much water and will regularly overflow.

“In this last week we’ve had brought home to us that every overflow will act as a fish and turtle cull.”

Mr Mackay called on federal environment minister Peter Garrett to instigate a full investigation into the extent of the North Pine lungfish kill as well as the alleged efforts to downplay it.

“This dreadful event should be the nail in the coffin for the Traveston Dam proposal,” he said.

Update on Sunday, June 28, 2009 at 10:56AM by

stevem

25th June 2009

PROTESTERS say a large kill of vulnerable lungfish at a south-east Queensland dam is a national outrage.

The force of a torrent of water released by authorities from North Pine Dam, north of Brisbane, on Wednesday battered at least 50 of the lungfish to death.

Conservationists say some of the lungfish, whose main habitats are the Mary and Burnett rivers, were up to 1.5 metres long, indicating they could be 100 years old.

Save the Mary River Co-ordinating Group secretary David Kreutz, who made the discovery on Wednesday, said the incident was an indictment of the Queensland government, which plans another dam on the Mary River.

“Going on these North Pine Dam fish kills, there’ll be absolute mayhem for lungfish when the (existing) Burnett River’s Paradise Dam eventually overflows, with its far worse ‘stepped’ spillway,” Mr Kreutz said.

“To then lumber the Mary River with a Traveston Dam lungfish and turtle killing device would be just the last straw for this species.

“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.

“This should be a national outrage.”

He said statements from the government on Wednesday that “up to 100 native fish went with the release, including around 12 lungfish” are a gross understatement of the facts.

It was the third such release of water from North Pine Dam in recent months and hundreds of bass, yellow belly and catfish were also spewed over the dam wall.

Save the Mary River Coordinating Group president Glenda Pickersgill said the government had failed to salvage any survivors.

Comment was being sought from the government.

Update on Sunday, June 28, 2009 at 11:55AM by

stevem

Dam opponents protest lungfish deaths

25th June 2009
By Gabrielle Dunlevy and Steve Gray

The deaths of vulnerable lungfish at a southeast Queensland dam has been branded a national outrage by lobby groups, but authorities dispute their claims.

Water was released from North Pine Dam from Monday morning to Tuesday night as a safety measure, as heavy rain threatened to overfill the dam.

Conservationists say 50 rare lungfish were battered to death, some of them up to 1.5 metres long, indicating they could be 100 years old.

Save the Mary River Coordinating Group secretary David Kreutz (Kreutz), who made the discovery on Wednesday, said the deaths were an indictment of the Queensland government, which plans to build the Traveston Crossing Dam on the Mary River.

“Going on these North Pine Dam fish kills, there’ll be absolute mayhem for lungfish when the (existing) Burnett River’s Paradise Dam eventually overflows, with its far worse ‘stepped’ spillway,” Mr Kreutz said.

“To then lumber the Mary River with a Traveston Dam lungfish and turtle killing device would be just the last straw for this species.

“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.

“This should be a national outrage.”

But the dam’s manager, SEQ Water, says only 20 lungfish were killed, with 25 to 30 rescued and returned to the dam.

Spokesman Mike Foster said he was happy with the response of SEQ Water staff and the Pine Rivers Fish Management Association, who are present whenever dam gates are opened in case of “fish kills”.

“We are well aware of the importance of the lungfish to the ecosystem; that’s reflected in the swiftness of the actions we take,” Mr Foster said.

Pine Rivers Fish Management Association spokesman Shayne Dunna said rescuing lungfish that went over the dam walls was “a labour of love”.

“Fortunately they are a very robust fish and the one thing that is on our side is they have been known to survive out of the water for two or three days,” Mr Dunna said.

“Of course we don’t leave them that long, we get to them as soon as we can, and we have got a pretty good track record.”

Mr Dunna described the lungfish as a complex species and doubted whether the fish found dead this week were 100 years old, as they were difficult to age.

He said his group would support more research into the lungfish population in North Pine Dam, which is in its best condition in almost a decade thanks to significant rainfall.
© AAP