Sweetwater Fishing Forums
General Category => General Discussion => Topic started by: Pinhead on October 13, 2010, 03:33:35 AM
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Probably a stupid question but..with Somerset and Wivenhoe dams open, does anyone have any estmates/guesses what the damage will be to the fish stocks in these dams? A friend that lives along Neurum Road up near Woodford told me they have had 13 inches of rain..plsu all the rain in the Sunshine Coats hinterland, all that water has to arrive yet..sure will be a huge intake into both dams.
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Probably a stupid question but..with Somerset and Wivenhoe dams open, does anyone have any estmates/guesses what the damage will be to the fish stocks in these dams? A friend that lives along Neurum Road up near Woodford told me they have had 13 inches of rain..plsu all the rain in the Sunshine Coats hinterland, all that water has to arrive yet..sure will be a huge intake into both dams.
G'Day Greg,
I have absolutely no doubt that many thousands, possibly hundreds of thousands of fish will go over the walls of the dams. While this may have a negative impact on the lake fishing, it will enhance the fishing downstream a hundred fold. In saying the above, IMHO the majority of fish won't go over the wall; depending on their size/sex/ time of year etc many fish will try to push upstream. Where a door closes, a window opens.....
Fish are stocked every year into Lakes Somerset & Wivenhoe so we just get on with the job at hand. I'm not stressed about it, but have a concern about noxious pest fish being spread further/faster than we had expected & the prospect of lungfish getting trapped/killed below Somerset when the flows stop. We saw a few killed below Samsomvale not long ago, but that was nothing to the total the general public "didn't see" but was kept very quiet; the fish getting buried.
SEQWater I'm sure are in a position to be able to manage any event like this in the future with fish transporters etc.
It would be good if they'd share a little more info with the Fish Stocking group however in the above regard to fish mortality / entrapment.
Cheers,
fitzy..
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Seq water would appear to have changed their policy re fish rescue as the PRFMa have not been asked to participate in the last 2 overflow events at NPD.
They have erected fencing to prevent any public access to the downstream area immediatly below the dam wall.
With only one fish transporter and so many dams having overflow events at the one time one would have to wonder if they really have the manpower and infrastructure to manage even with staged shutdowns.
Cheers
Ray