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2024 Wet Tropics Waterway Health Report Card

New fishways helping fish to swim uphill
Release of this year’s waterways health report card

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2024 Wet Tropics Waterway Health Report Card highlights the benefits of constructed fishways

New fishways are helping iconic species like barramundi, mangrove jack and mullet to breed up in waterways across the Far North. The latest Wet Tropics Waterway Health Report Card, released today, highlights how recently constructed fishways have removed barriers for juvenile fish and opened up more than 100 kilometres of creek and river systems.

Wet Tropics Waterways Chair, Phil Laycock, said surveys at a new fishway in Insulator Creek recorded more than 1000 fish moving through in just one day.

“It’s exciting to see the immediate impact that fixing barriers can have for fish movement in our waterways,” he said. “Up to half of the 80 plus fish species in the Wet Tropics need connectivity between freshwater, estuarine and marine environments to complete their lifecycles. But thousands of potential barriers such as weirs, causeways and culverts, can prevent them from thriving.”

Fishways are a relatively new solution in this region. They are a series of underwater rock stairs, with deep pools between each one for resting, that slow the flow of water and help fish to navigate barriers.

The Wet Tropics Waterways Partnership has been collating data on fish barriers since 2017 as part of its annual release of the Wet Tropics Waterway Health Report Card.

“Fish populations and diversity are an important indicator of waterway health,’’ Mr Laycock said.

“Over the last few years, we’ve been building up a more comprehensive picture of fish connectivity across the region as more ground-truthed data has become available.

“Surveys of fish barriers in waterways connected to estuaries, from the estuary to 100 metres above sea level, have now been completed for the Daintree, Mossman, Barron, Murray and Herbert catchments.

“The next step is to identify funding opportunities for surveys in the remaining catchments, and to start fixing the highest priority barriers so we can increase fish movement and improve fish stocks for both commercial and recreational fishers.”

Mr Laycock said the Wet Tropics Waterways partnership would be teaming up with OzFish Unlimited and James Cook University to host a fish-focused forum on Thursday 19 September, with a range of speakers talking on the importance of habitat, water quality and connectivity to support fisheries.

Wet Tropics waterways in ‘good’ condition

The newly released Wet Tropics Waterway Health Report Card reveals that most freshwater rivers and estuaries from the Daintree to Ingham’s Herbert River continue to be in ‘good’ condition.

This year the grade for the Daintree has changed from ‘very good’ to ‘good’ because of declines in scores for water quality indicators, and the Barron continues to be graded ‘moderate’ due to modifications from urban development, water supply infrastructure, grazing, forestry and crops.

The annual report card assesses the region’s nine catchments and eight estuaries as well as the inshore marine and offshore marine zones, by analysing and integrating scientific monitoring data from a number of organisations.

Produced annually by the Wet Tropics Waterways partnership, the report card is an initiative under the Reef 2050 Water Quality Improvement Plan, an Australian and Queensland Government framework to improve the quality of water flowing to the Great Barrier Reef lagoon.

Minister for the Environment and the Great Barrier Reef and Minister for Science and Innovation, Leanne Linard, commended the partnership for its efforts to enhance water quality in the region.

“It is encouraging that most waterways in this region are in good condition, as well as the success of the recently constructed fishways. However, it’s clear we have more work to do.

“This latest report card will be used as a benchmark for continued water quality improvements.
“The Miles Government is committed to working with, and empowering, community groups and natural resource management organisations to take meaningful action to help conserve our environment.
“These valued partners work together to improve the health of their waterways and produce this local report card.

“We are investing $1.25 million annually across the five regional report card partnerships, with the Wet Tropics Waterways last year receiving $310,000 in funding.”

The Wet Tropics Waterways partnership is supported by the Queensland and Australian governments, local councils, industry, community and other partners including the host of the partnership, Terrain NRM.

 

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