Richmond fish kill pics

[reelemin1974]

Took some pics todat around the corner from me. Lots of dead fish.
I just posted a movie in the videos section too.

[theclick]

That big flattie makes me sad The dpi are monitoring the water, and are apparently getting dissolved oxygen levels of only 25% of the minimum amount required to sustain fish life. Hopefully they will do something about it

Thanks for the pics mate, truely sad

[stonecold]

geez the place stinks...its blo#dy rotten. I must say I was a little suprised at the lack of larger predatory fish floating around dead. There are thousands of smaller bream, whiting, mullet and flatties lining the banks. I was expecting to see some larger fish. The odd flattie over 3kg and possibly up to 6kg. But in my observations I havnt seen 1...heres hoping they survived!
I had a bit of a chuckle to myself today, (if that is possible when looking at such a disaster), as I watched an elderly lady prodding the dead fish off the rock wall in front of her house. The fish were floating up river and she had a rather satisfied look on her face as she cleared the stinking mess. I was chuckling as I thought whats going to happen when the tide changes....hehehe yep they're all gunna float right back.
Heard on the news tonght they've voted to close the river to all forms of fishing....indefinately at this stage.

[reelemin1974]

When does the closure take place? Good news I think!!

As to the big fish, I have a theory:

I have noticed heaps of flathead, bream, mullet dead. I have not seen one Jewie. I think it's because those other species are more adaptable to fresh water than jew, so when the fresh started coming down the jew headed out, whereas the others weren't as fussed. When the oxygen was depleted the fish that hung around died and the ones that got out of there are still safe.

There was also heps of big muddies there as well they weren't dead though they were dying.

[FNQCairns]

Heard on the news tonght they've voted to close the river to all forms of fishing....indefinately at this stage.

WHAT! Talk about loosing the plot, we are all in big trouble, there is certainly a case for a ban on netting in any tidal waterway but to stop a bloke/blokes/whoever from throwing a line in when it can NOT make any measurable difference to ANY outcome for the river is just crazy and out of touch in the extreme.

The only saving grace if it is geared toward the duration of the water quality problem, if it stays as a ban on rec fishing once the water clears it will be yet more corrupt behaviour as they could never produce the reasonable justification.
Fluffy, let the populations grow just don't cut it in ecology V recfishing, apart from at an urban legend level of understanding.

cheers fnq

[Lovey80]

Just need a few big boats going flat nacker up and down the river for a few days aerating the water should do the trick

Cheers Chris

[reelemin1974]

Yes but I guess you weren't there when I spoke to 2 different guys within the space of 5 mins who told me how great the fishing was at the mouth. Both were there for the second time that day talking about how they had bagged out on good flatties (breeders I am sure). I am sure they will be back tommorow and the next day until the fish have 'moved on' to their freezers.

A LOT of flathead have been killed this week I don't think we need to take any breeders for the sake of the future.

Thats my opinion and I will be affected by the ban.

[chrisallangler]

Thanks for the post and it's definatley a sad site especialley the big flatties, hopefully the Jewies are sweet.

Chris

[reelemin1974]

One of the 20 or 30 muddies I could see

[Cammy]

poor flattys, i love those fish

cam

[baitwaster]

I wouldn't get too worried about it, it's a natural event that has most likely happened before, and will happen again. The river system would have overcome similar events in the past, and will have the capacity to do it again.

I personally don't think anything should be done, just leave it alone and it will right itself. We don't need to "fix" everything that happens in nature, nor is it always necessary for "someone to do something".

[Jim_Tait]

Baitwaster,

While (infrequent) fish kills are natural 'events' what is occurring in the Richmond every flood flow is far from 'natural' and there is plenty to 'fix' and someone i.e. us collectively should do something about it!! Dismissing our need or ability to do something about it is ill informed and not inthe long term interests of our fishery.

The causes are a combination of things:

(1) increased sediment and nutrient loads the National Land and Water Resources Audit 2002 found that the Richmond River Basin's phosphorus load is now 3X pre-settlement, nitrogen load 2.3 X pre-settlement and sediment load 32 X pre-settlement - hardly natural... and there is a lot that can be done to reduce this (below)

(2) Changed landcover - most of the lower catchment is cleared but the real issues in terms of affecting sediment and nutrient loads and other drivers of water quality is the loss of riparian (stream bank) vegetation and floodplain vegetation. Floodplains of teh lower Ricmond were once vegetated by native paperbark forests and sedge swamps - two types of vegetation that don't rot when inundated by floodwaters - now they are mostly vegetated by exotic improved pastures (that dont like going underwater - they rot and strip oxygen) - also these paperbark and sedge swamps used to slow down catchment run off allowing sediment and nutrient loads to settle on the floodplain protecting water quality inteh estuary but now they dont function like that due to clearing and hydrological changes like drainage (below)

(3) Hydrological changes - the rate of run off from the upper Richmond catchment now occurs much faster due to the removal of vegetation from the catchment - water that moves faster can carry more sediment and nutrient load (part of hat strips oxygen inteh estuary) - also when this run off gets to the lower catchment it doesn't get slowed down on floodplain wetlands because thay have largely been cleared and drained - this loss of detention function means that the water runs straight into the estuary with its load of oxygen consuming - sediment, nutrient and organic matter. Also a lot o fthese drains are cut through acid sulphate soils (ASS) in near coastal areas and these are also tide gated to keep tides out (so upstream areas can be turned from tidal to fresh and used for pasture - of questionable productivity margin) - when ASS dries out (due to exclusion of tides) they generate acid drain when wet again (i.e. in a big rainfall even) and also large loads of oxygen consuming sulphitic ooze - a major driver of Richmond river fish kills!

Therefore there is a lot that can be done about restoring 'nature's' ability to protect water quality in the Richmond estuary and minimise fish kill events

(1) catchment revegetation - especially riparian (stream bank) and floodplain areas

(2) reduce sediment and nutrient loads - by improved controls / managment of soil erosion in the catchment, and nutrient sources (on farm fertiliser use, sewage treatmennt plants, cattle access to waterways) and by putting the filters back into teh catchment - riparian, floodplain forests and detention areas (undrained floodplains)

(3) Change land use on floodplains - get rid of tide gates, fill in drains (especially in ASS areas), let tidal areas be tidal again (sea level rise is happening anyway so lets get the jump on it) revegetate lower floodplain areas back to paperbarks and sedge swamps - the pasture production of these areas is worth two parts of sweet FA compared to their ecosystem services value to estuary water quality and fishery production

(4) Dont say she's right, its natural, there is nothing we can do about it..etc etc .. get off our bums (all of us) and get our industries, community and pollies to provide the initiatives that are required to deliver the types of changes listed above on a river basin scale!!!

[stonecold]

Gday FNQ, the powers that be closed the river to all fishing for 6 months in 2001. Not sure how far upriver it went but the closure finished at the tip of each seawall.
Powers that be can be a nervous bunch and truth be told I dont think they know exactly what to do in this situation. I think they are working on the theory that they need to be seen to be doing "something". They have a pretty safe bet with this decision as they can be seen to be doing "something", (which is basically telling everyone to do "nothing" in the river) without adversly effecting the ecology or anybody in a powers that be decision making role having to put his nuts on the chopping block. Mind you the decision was supported by ecofishers.

Sorry baitwasher dont agree.

Fishkills on this scale are not a natural occurance...as a soil chemist I make my living as an agricultural consultant. I also work with the DPI on these issues every week. Its the she'll be right attitude of many that makes these issues worse. I've seen first hand the cane farmer who has dug 12km of drains in his 500ha property 4m wide and 3m deep. The entire length of which he has exposed acid sulfate soils...thats not natural. The fact that he joined his drain complex to the Richmond flood mitigation system didnt help either, (how f#*&ing selfish is that), hang on theres more, he has also installed 2 huge pumps, and I'm talking 600mm outlets to help pump any flood residues out of his cane paddock back into the drainage system. I shouldnt isolate this chap. Ive also seen Joe Blo at the back of Bungawalbyn swamp, Joe slashes and bales the reed beads twice a year, to sell the bales to the city gardeners for mulch (these reed beds are the ones that help "filter" the organic material from flood waters) ahh that doesnt matter it was only a piddly 120Ha. Ive also seen forestry companies cultivate 200ha only to have the top 100mm of soil lost in an erosion event in, that ended up in the local creek. Should I continue cause theres plenty more. One thing I find a little disgusting about this is, that if you talk to these chaps they say...Its my land and I'll do what I want or what I need to do to make it profitable....well guess what, the bit of paper might say you own it but what you do on it is everyones business!

We as people did not have that effect years ago....its not natural. One of the major issues here is that it takes a few weeks to dig a drain 12km long but years to discover the real impact on the ecology.

Ahh time to go I'm startting to ramble

[baitwaster]

I stand corrected, obviously I have not researched the subject and I mistakenly assumed that this was a natural occurrence from the excessive amount of run-off due to increased rain, and that this run-off would carry the same load of sediment regardless of the type of terrain it flows over. I was not aware that a great deal of the sediment carried is attributed to the use of surrounding land, and can be minimised.

Thank-you both for the information, perhaps I will look into things a bit more before opening my big mouth in future.

Shane.

[stonecold]

Dont panic Shane the only way we learn about these issues is to talk about them and share our experiences.

I may have heard wrong myself last night as I have just heard a conflicting report on the radio saying that fisheries are still undecided on the river closure, the local paper says the same. I'm sure I heard correctly last night...I'd only had 1 beer so I cant blame that. Maybe it was the kids screaming..ahh maybe I just heard wrong.

Cheers