The barramundi stocked in the Hazelwood Pondage, Victoria, were growing at a rapid rate and the newly established fishery was going from strength to strength, until the power station warming the pondages waters recently shut down.
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Fishing World’s Martin Auldist has reported that not all is lost however, and there was some positive news regarding the fishery, and that it is by no means the end of the road for the Hazelwood fishery.
Many barramundi have swum out of the main body of water in the pondage in search of warmer water. The area where they are now congregated houses a pipe that continuously delivers warm water from a natural aquifer beneath the nearby Hazelwood coal mine.
Futurefish Director, David Kramer, says that many barramundi relocated themselves, but that other fish had been captured by Fisheries Victoria staff using electrofishing techniques and moved to the warmer water. “So far there hasn’t been a single dead barra found,” Kramer told Fishing World. “The natural hot water could sustain the fishery for another 7 years. And the good thing is that many fish are nearly a metre long”.
Fisheries Victoria executive director Travis Dowling was similarly optimistic about the outlook for the remaining barramundi. “The hot water channel looks like it will maintain a temperature that will get the barra through winter. And we anticipate that if the barra do survive winter they will, come the warmer months, spread out again across the lake," said Dowling.
"We've done some sonar testing, and we anticipate there's two to three tonne of barra that are sitting up in the warm water channel," Dowling said. “There may still be 4000 to 5000 barra in the pondage”.
About 7000 barramundi were placed in the pondage about 18 months ago by Fisheries Victoria, to give Victorian fishermen the chance to catch the prized sportfish, native to the waters of northern Australia. A recent survey of 3,500 anglers who had visited the pondage to fish for the barra revealed that anglers had spent in excess of $700,000 in the region while doing so. Given that it cost only $150,000 to establish the fishery it has been a huge economic success story for the region, even if the remaining barra don’t see another day.
It’s not all beer and skittles, however, as fishing is currently prohibited in the channel where most barra have migrated to, and, for now, the number of barramundi remaining in the part of the lake where fishing is allowed could be only about 200.
Submit: matt@reddenhansen.com.au.
