Murray cod and spangled perch have been located in a creek connected to the Murray River in South Australia for the first time in 12 years.
Key points:
- Murray cod and spangled perch have not been located in the creek since 2011
- A survey project manager says the recent flood was likely a contributing factor
- It is hoped more planned developments of the creek will boost future numbers
The state Department of Environment and Water [DEW], with the help of the local landscape board and the SA Research and Development Institute, undertook the regular fish survey in Bookmark Creek near Renmark during May.
Four medium to large-bodied native fish, including Murray cod, spangled perch, golden perch and bony herring, were found.
Andy Harrison, DEW’s project manager for sustaining Riverland environments, said even a small number of the fish was a good sign.
“We did actually find 8,000 fish so quite a few, so the Murray cod and native fish were lesser numbers but it was really that Murray cod find that was particularly encouraging for us,” he said.
“The way they did it this time was to use electro-fishing techniques, where they go along the creek with a boat and use an electric rod which zaps the fish and they float to the top and they can catch them and count them that way.”
Bookmark Creek is an 8-kilometre anabranch of the Murray River that bypasses Lock 5 and 13km of the river’s main channel.
Mr Harrison said habitat restorations and this year’s flood event were the likely reasons for the find.
“It’s probably a promising sign that conditions in Bookmark Creek are improving. There’s been a lot of work done by the community and landscape board to improve the conditions in the creek,” he said.
“It’s possibly as well a response to the recent floods.
“There’s a lot more water moving around the system, a lot better connectivity, so the fact that fish were moving around a bit more is probably another reason they were found this time.”
Redeveloping Bookmark Creek
The $37.6 Sustaining Riverland Environments project is funded by the federal government through the Murray-Darling Basin Authority.
Bookmark Creek is part of the project, with major work taking place in 2024 to reinstate natural flows and restore habitat conditions.
“There’s a structure at the moment that impedes flow, a pipe structure, and what we’ve been doing is working with the local community to design a structure that will allow better flows and to be able to control those flows,” Mr Harrison said.
“It also allows for better movement of fish, so there’s an integrated fish way which is incorporated into the design, and a canoe passage in the design.
“The fact there was already some [Murray cod and spangled perch] hanging in there shows there’s really promising signs that the foundations of the habitat is there, and the work that we’ll be doing hopefully next year will show, hopefully, the populations will increase and be more sustainable in the future.”
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