Sweetwater Fishing Forums
General Category => News Views & Press Releases => Topic started by: Editor on October 13, 2015, 10:00:47 AM
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Rare Fish Found At Woods Lake
The Arthurs paragalaxias appears, after nearly 20 years, to be re-establishing in Woods Lake.
The Arthurs paragalaxias is a small native fish that once inhabited both Arthurs and Woods lakes. During the mid 1990’s, numbers of this native fish within Woods Lake declined to low levels. By 1997, the fish could not be found at Woods Lake, this is despite the species remaining abundant at adjacent Arthurs Lake. A lake level agreement was put in place to minimise turbidity within Woods Lake that would hopefully assist with recovering the population. However, despite numerous surveys, the species could not found. During 2002 in a further attempt to recover the population, the Inland Fisheries Service began transferring small numbers of Arthurs paragalaxias from Arthurs Lake to Woods Lake. This initially proved to be unsuccessful and in 2008 the number of fish transferred was increased to a minimum of 500 individuals annually over a five year period. The last transfer of fish was undertaken during November 2012. Despite these efforts only two Arthurs paragalaxias were found during annual monitoring (both in Feb 2009) and these were believed to be from a transfer conducted a few months earlier.
However, during 2014, scientist from Entura undertaking a study on the saddled galaxias in Woods Lake found eleven individuals of the Arthurs paragalaxias over a three month period, including egg broods that had been laid under rocks. This finding instigated IFS to undertake a dedicated survey during the last week of September this year. Over two nights monitoring, 34 Arthurs paragalaxias were found from a range of sites throughout Woods Lake. Most were mature fish with females containing large numbers of well-developed eggs indicating they were close to spawning. These results are the first conclusive evidence that the species is becoming reestablished after an absence of nearly twenty years.
Source: Rare Fish Found At Woods Lake (http://www.ifs.tas.gov.au/news/rare-fish-found-at-woods-lake-1)