Native Fish Releases 2000/2001

Native Fish Releases 2000/2001	FN0154
Marc Ainsworth, Geelong July 2001

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1. Departmental Stocking Program

The Department’s native fish stocking program is designed to enhance native fish populations or establish new populations. Fish releases have two objectives: conservation and the provision of recreational fishing opportunities. In the case of trout cod the immediate aim is to ensure survival of this endangered species.

Stocking Plans are developed annually as part of the man-agement consultation process between Fisheries Victoria and DNRE Regional staff. The meetings consider in detail the performance of existing stocking programs, the results of stock assessment surveys, creel or C/ERP survey data, and anything else that has or might impact on the fishery e.g. environmental conditions, water levels. Requests by client groups for changes to current stocking programs and the implementation of new stocking pro-grams are considered. VRFish, the Victorian Recreational Fishing Peak Body, represents recreational anglers at these meetings.

The list of waters identified as suitable or having potential for recreational fisheries based on native fish is lengthy and the demand for fish currently exceeds supply. Stocking Plans are subject to ‘last minute’ variation due to natural factors e.g. flood, drought, or man-made im-pacts such as excessive algal blooms, major works on storages, etc. Explanatory notes are provided where a planned release has been amended. DNRE Regional staff and VRFish agree to amendments before implementation.

Water Stocked	Month/Year	(z) FishSize	Aust.bass	Estuary perch	Golden perch	Murray cod	Silver perch	Trout cod
Albert Park Lake					(a)	.	.	.
Avoca River
Charlton Weir-Emu	4/01	0.5		-	22 000
Batyo Catyo Lake	U/S
Bringalbert Lake	U/S						.
Broken Creek
Whit Bridge-Nathalia	5/01	0.5	-	-	15 000	-	-	-
Broken River
Coomalibee Rd Bridge	4/01	1.5	-	-	20 000	-	-	-
to Scholes Rd Bridge
Buffalo Lake	4/01	0.5	-	-	10 000	-	-	-
Bullen Merri Lake	11/00	0.5	10 000	-	-	-	-	-
Cairn Curran Reservoir	4/01	1.0-1.4	-	-	(b) 16 000	-	-	-
Campaspe River
Rochester-Echuca	1/01	2.5	-	-	-	10 000	-	-
Below Lake Eppalock	2/01	1.3	-	-	-	5 000	-	-
Elmore	5/01	0.5	-	-	22 000	-	-	-
Carpolac Lake	U/S
Cudgewa Creek	1/01	1.0	-	-	-	10 000	-	-
Cullulleraine Lake	3/01	1	-	-	-	-	10 000	-
	4/01	1	-	-	10 000	-	-	-
Eildon Lake	1-2/01	0.9-2.5	-	-	-	50 000	-	-
	4/01	1.8	-	-	53 720	-	-	-
Eppalock Lake	2/01	1.3	-	-	-	22 000	-	-
	3/01	1	-	-	50 000	-	-	-
Expedition Pass Reservoir	2/01	1.3	-	-	-	250	-	-
	5/01	0.4	-	-	1 000	-	-	-
Goldfields Reservoir					(c)
(Maryborough)

Water Stocked	Month/Year	(z) FishSize	Aust.bass	Estuary perch	Golden perch	Murray cod	Silver perch	Trout cod
Goulburn River
Stewarts-Toolomba	12/00-2/01	1.2-1.3	-	-	-	35 000	-	-
Hamilton Lake				/ (d)	-
Hume Reservoir	1/01	0.5-1.4	-	-	-	50 000	-	-
Kerford Lake	04/01	1	-	-	5 000	-	-	-
Kiewa River (Kiewa)	1/01	0.8-1	-	-	-	10 000
King Lake (Rutherglen)	4/01	0.5	-	-	1000	-	-	-
Laanecoorie Reservoir					(c)
Landsborough Reservoir	U/S
Little Boort Lake	4/01	0.5	-	-	5 000	-	-	-
Loch Garry	4/01	1.5	-	-	5 000	-	-	-
Loddon River
Bridgewater-Kerang	1/01	0.8-0.9	-	-	-	20 000	-
Newbridge-Kerang	4/01	0.5	-	-	50 000	-	-	-
Miga Lake	U/S
Mokoan Lake	12/00	1.2	-	-	-	10 000	-	-
	4/01	1	-	-	10 000	-	-	-
Ovens River (Below Wangaratta)	1/01	0.54	-	-	-	-	-	51 700
Pine Lake	U/S
Ratzcastle Lake	U/S
Redbank Reservoir	U/S
Richardson River	1/01	0.9-1.3	-	-	-	10 000	-	-
	4/01	0.5	-	-	5 000	-	-	-
Sambell Lake	4/01	0.54	-	-	5 000	-	-	-
Serpentine Creek	4/01	0.5	-	-	5 000	-	-	-
Seven Creeks (Euroa)					(c)
Sumsion Gardens L. (Wodonga)	4/01	0.5	-	-	1 000	-	-	-
Taylors Lake	4/01	1.4	-	-	20 000	-	-	-
Tchum Lake	U/S
Tullaroop Creek (c)
(Below Tullaroop Res.)					(c)
Victoria Lake (Shepparton)	4/01	1.5			2 500
Walkers Lake	U/S
Waranga Reservoir	1/01	1.0	/	/	/	10 000	/	/
Wimmera River
Crowlands-Jeparit	4/01	1.4 - 1.9			40 000
Wooroonook Lake	U/S
Yariambiack Creek	4/01	0.8			2000
Species Totals			10 000	0	376 220	242 250	10 000	51 700

2. AUTHORISED CLIENT GROUP FISH RELEASES
The Department authorises fish releases by client groups. The stockings may complement the Department’s program, or may be waters for which the Department is unable to provide fish. Requests by client groups are considered in the consultation process described in Part 1. above. Approved proposals must conform to the requirements of the Department’s Policy Statement on Stocking Native Fish. Releases authorised by the Department for which fish stocking details have been confirmed are listed below. Authorised releases for which no stocking report has been received will be listed at some future date when the required information is available. In 2000/2001, a major part of the fish release program funded by the FutureFish Foundation was for species and waters within the ov.beral Fisheries Victoria Stocking Plan. To indicate the extent of this work, client group fish release details are now presented in two parts.

NOTE: Under Section 530 of the Fisheries Regulations 1998, it is an offence to stock fish into any Victorian water, both public and private, without the written permission of the Director, Fisheries Victoria. Penalty: up to $2 000.

Water Stocked	Client Group	Month/Year	(z)Fish Size	Aust.bass	Golden perch	Murray cod
Avoca River	FutureFish Foundation (t)	1/01	1.2	-	-	10 000
Cudgewa Creek	FutureFish Foundation (t)	1/01	1.0	-	-	10 000
Cullulleraine Lake	FutureFish Foundation (t)	3/01	1.2	-	-	10 000
Eppalock Lake	FutureFish Foundation (t)	10/00	0.4	-	50 000	-
	FutureFish Foundation (t)	2/01	1.3	-	-	25 000
	Bendigo Legion Angling Club(t)	2/01	1.3	-	-	5 000
Goulburn River Below McKoys Bridge	FutureFish Foundation (t)	12/00	1.2	-	-	25 000
Gunbower Creek	FutureFish Foundation (t)	1/01	0.8	-	-	10 000
Kiewa River	FutureFish Foundation (t)	1/01	0.8-1.0	-	-	10 000
Little Murray River	FutureFish Foundation (t)	1/01	1.2	-	-	5 000
Loddon River Bridgewater-Kerang	FutureFish Foundation (t)	1/01	0.8-1.0	-	-	10 000
Mokoan Lake	FutureFish Foundation (t)	12/00	1.2	-	-	10 000
Taylors Lake	FutureFish Foundation (t)	1/01	1.3	-	-	10 000
Waranga Reservoir	FutureFish Foundation (t)	1/01	1.0	-	-	10 000
Wimmera River Horsham	FutureFish Foundation (t)	1/01	1.3	-	-	5,000
Sub Total				-	50 000	155 000

2b. Client Group Releases, Other.
.

Water Stocked	Client Group	Month/Year	(z)Fish Size	Aust.bass	Golden perch	Murray cod
Broken Creek	Goulburn Valley Sportfishing Club (p) (t)	5/01	0.5	-	2 500	-
Bullen Merri Lake	FutureFish Foundation (t)	11/00	0.6	30 000	-	-
Eildon Lake	FutureFish Foundation (t)	10/00	0.4	-	48 500	-
	FutureFish Foundation (t)	1/00	1.0-2.5	-	-	25 000
Hanging Rock Lake	Woodend Angling Club	5/01	n.a.	-	300	-
Mokoan Lake	Goulburn Valley Sportfishing Club (p) (t)	4/01	1	-	10 000	-
Nine Mile Creek	Goulburn Valley Sportfishing Club (p) (t)	5/01	0.5	-	2 500	-
Snowy River	Native Fish Australia – Gippsland	?/00	n.a.	2 050	-	-
	Native Fish Australia – Gippsland	?/01	n.a.	800	-	-
Wimmera River Jeparit	Jeparit Angling Club (p) (t)	4/01	1.9	-	500	-
Sub Total				32 850	64 300	25 000
Total Client Group Releases				32 850	114 300	180 000

3. TOTAL RELEASES

Water Stocked	Aust.bass	Estuary perch	Golden perch	Murray cod	Silver perch	Trout cod	TOTAL
Department	.10 000	-	376 220	242 250	10 000	51 700	690 170
Client groups	.32 850	-	114 300	180 000	-	-	327 150
	.42 850	-	490 520	422 250	10 000	51 700	1 017 320

4. NOTES

The Native Fish Release Program 2000/2001 involved 62 transport man-days with vehicles travelling 25 515 km. These figures include assisting client group releases marked (t). Departmental expenditure on fish purchases was $144,721 excluding administration, transport and release costs. This expenditure includes $65,000 from the Recreational Fishing Licence Trust Fund.

Total release weights were 716 kg for Departmental releases and 304 for client group releases. These totals do not include the weights for several client group releases where no weight of fish data is available (noted by ‘n.a.’).

(a) Scheduled release of golden perch cancelled due to very restricted recreational fishing access to the lake.
(b) Target figure of 50 000 golden perch not met due to shortage of fish.
(c) Scheduled allocation not stocked due to shortage of golden perch
(d) No estuary perch available for stocking.
(p) Fish purchased by client groups as part as part of the Department’s “piggy back” program enabling advantage to be taken of bulk purchase rates i.e. more fish for the dollar.
(t) Fish transport provided by Fisheries Victoria.
(z) Average weight of released fish, measured in grams.
U/S Water conditions were unsuitable for fish stocking.
The month and year of fish release is expressed as 00/00. The first two digits are the month i.e. 3 = March, 12 = December, the second two digits show the year 00 = 2000, 01 = 2001.

This publication may be of assistance to you but the State of Victoria and its officers do not guarantee that the publication is without flaw of any kind or is wholly appropriate for your particular purposes and therefore disclaims all liability for any error, loss or other consequence which may arise from you relying on any information in this publication.

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