The real title should be the 'Draft Plan to Eliminate Trout'!

For many years we have argued that a small group who reside in government departments have long harbored the desire to eliminate trout from the rivers and streams from Australia. If ever there was any doubt about their agenda it is fully revealed in the draft, native fish strategy for the Murray Darling Basin 2002-12.

To quote from the draft plan page 21, "A Demonstration Reach on the Lower Mitta Mitta" is proposed. A 25 million dollar program describes how the Mitta Mitta would be changed into a native fishery. This would involve 13 million dollars to alter the headworks of the dam to draw warm surface water from Dartmouth into the river. Re-snagging, pool creation, flooding, fencing, riparian habitat, carp management and monitoring totaling 25 million dollars is proposed. Elimination of alien species (brown trout) is part of this plan.

Currently the average temperature of the river is 15 degrees. To provide for natives the temperature would be raised to average 20 degrees to trigger spawning cycles of trout cod, murray cod and golden perch, temperatures of 20 degrees plus combined with an environmental flow that produces late spring floods that connect all of the billabongs and ox-bows.

Let's take this proposal apart and see what the results of this interference would be.
If trout were eliminated by raised water temperatures the regional economy would suffer a loss of the current amount expended on recreational angling which is estimated to be 100 million dollars annually. This current amount generates an extensive tourism expenditure based on the trout fishery.

If temperatures were raised, the temperature of the water in Lake Hume would also be raised causing losses to evaporation and the potential loss of water quality through increased algal blooms. Subsequently raised temperatures would draw thousands of carp from Lake Hume into the Mitta Mitta River. Currently carp numbers at kept at bay by lower water temperatures. Carp represent 80% of all fish biomass in the Murray Darling Basin (MDB). These carp occupy waterways that would be otherwise available for native fish populations. The recreational fishers and the people in the towns on the waterways of the Murray Darling System would much prefer the eradication of carp to this silly proposal for the Mitta Mitta.
The estimated cost of CSIRO's 'daughterless carp program' is 20 million dollars. This combined with other methods would eradicate carp from the whole of the MDB.

Further to this the dartmouth Dam was developed to ensure flood mitigation, agriculture, hydro electric power and water storage as a buffer in times of drought.

Can you imagine the farmers in the Mitta Mitta valley agreeing to have their agricultural land inundated every spring? Water is becoming one of the most expensive commodities on the planet. Can you imagine using large amounts of the storage for spring floods to maybe recover a spawning cycle for three types of native fish that can be easily bred and artificially stocked and restored for a tiny fraction of the cost proposed?

The loss of the current fishery is also compounded by the addition of 'Aquatic Reserves' (Inland Marine Parks). These study sites are designed to eliminate any fishing. Aquatic reserve status is planned for the Mitta Mitta demonstration reach. Any tourism based on recreational angling would be eliminated. All hook and line fishing would be eliminated. Fishing as a recreation would be banned wherever native fish classed as 'endangered' are placed/stocked in a river. Their agenda is clear. The people who make these proposals have the same motive, the eradication of all forms of angling.

The answer to these dilemmas is not the removal of dams or the use of highly expensive proposals such as those listed for the MItta Mitta and other areas of the MDB, but rather to work on the restoration of the lower and middle reaches. Control of salinity, carp eradication and ensuring adequate flows supplemented by extensive stocking programs would soon return native fish populations. These objectives are already being achieved successfully.
Agricultural practices, water quality issues, riparian vegetation management and the like are essential to the immediate restoration of native fish habitat.

Water quality is enhanced by cold water emissions from impoundments. Rich in oxygen, clean and free of sediment the water below dams provides complex communities of flora and fauna, macro and micro invertebrate populations. These high quality waters also provide for town water supplies and stock and domestic waters for human populations downstream.
To raise the temperatures of rivers is fool hardy and destructive. Look at the balance sheet below.

Warming Water Flows as Proposed in the MDB Draft for the lower Mitta Mitta

Losses Benefits

* loss of water quality * water temperatures more suitable to some native fish
* increased turbidity * no economic or social benefits can be discerned
* losses to evaporation
* increased algal blooms
* loss of 100 Million dollar cold water species
(Trout/Recreational Angling)
* expenditure on annual flooding
(loss of storage to environmental flows)
* inundation of agricultural land
* invasion of carp
* cost of re-establishment programs
* cost of headworks alterations

Estimated Losses - $200 million annually Estimated Benefits - no tangible economic benefits identified

Not only will implementing this proposal cost 25 million dollars it will also result in the loss of hundreds of millions of dollars annually.
ALTERNATIVES

Utilise the proposed expenditure in a different way. The 25 million dollar proposed expenditure could be used for reform of habitat and agricultural practices to improve and control salinisation. Breeding and stocking programs to restore native fish populations. Carp eradication. These items would create benefits below Hume Dam that would accrue to the entire MD system downstream. This is an alternative to a wasteful proposal in a confined area with dubious benefits in economic or regional social outcomes.

Click Here to See the Proposal for the Mitta Mitta. Will print to A4 size.