COD CARNAGE

It stinks: a muddy, ungraceful death to Murray cod fishery

Written by JEFF ZEUSCHNER. Wangaratta Chronicle: 4 Feb 09

VETERAN Wangaratta angler John Skinner was almost in tears.

"It’s a bloody crime," he yelled yesterday, trying to ignore the pungent smell of death emanating from rotting Murray cod, he estimated in their hundreds, littering the muddy, shallow depths of Lake Mokoan.

"Nearly all of these cod would be between 20 to 30 kilograms… probably been in the lake since 1986 when they first released 20,000 with a view to make it one of the state’s leading cod fisheries.

"It was that, but now look at it…what a disgrace…it’s a shocking site which would devastate any fresh water angler…it’s just criminal."

Mr Skinner took his canoe out hoping to rescue any cod, but instead was left having to trudge in knee deep mud, and a thin layer of putrid water, with white rotting carcases of the monster cod baking in the soaring heat.

"No cod would be able to survive in this," he said, critical of Goulburn Murray Water and the Department of Sustainability and Environment for not doing more to try to save the most endeared of all native fresh water fish species, prior to the lake’s decommissioning later this year.

"The lake’s water level is less than two per cent of its total capacity," he lamented.

"Why couldn’t they have kept it at around eight per cent, which is the equivalent level they say it will be maintained at when converted into a wetland.

"The cod would have survived at that level, even in this heatwave, and water could have been flushed out of the lake into the channels later in autumn, where cod would have been easier to net or rescue and be relocated."

DSE spokesman, Tony Long, said yesterday that unfortunately there simply wasn’t the water available due to the drought conditions, with little water harvested and no allocation in the Broken system, for which Mokoan was built as a storage.

He said DSE officers were at the lake yesterday where they located and removed the bodies of some 30 Murray cod.

"We haven’t seen the numbers you are reporting, but it wouldn’t be a surprise if that was the case," Mr Long said.

"We’ve been doing a lot of work in the past year trying to save native species," indicating that netting operations had seen 1.3 tonnes of Murray cod and 1.6 tonnes of yellowbelly relocated.

Officers were out in a boat yesterday in the deepest remaining part of the lake (about five feet) trying to catch further fish, but the turbidity meant use of voltage to stun fish was ineffective, with only three caught and relocated.

"We’ll try again on Wednesday, and we are looking at the possibility of one further netting operation," Mr Long said.

"Unfortunately the drought, and intense heat will see more fish die, as more water disappears through evaporation.

"Such (evaporation) losses are showing why the lake needs to be decommissioned."