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View Full Version : Major Ecological Disaster in Murray Darling Basin



wheelerdog
04-02-2009, 08:09 PM
I am not responsible for the text below but pass it on at request, i can provide contact details by PM if anyone needs them. This a clear case of ill informed govt boffins doing things by the book and not accounting for conditions on the ground.



Attached are just a few photos, which is a small portion of the massive fish kill which has occured here on the lower end of the Merran Creek in recent days.

This should be considered a major ecological disaster. The relevant fisheries officers inform us that it will take a minimum of 10 years for the aquatic population in the creek to recover, if ever. Some of these dead fish could possibly be in excess of 50 years old.

Combine this with the major fish kills in the upper Niemur and Colligen Creeks, which are the feeders to the Wakool River, within the last week is a epic disaster of unprecedented proportions. These creeks, in the heart of the Murray Darling Basin are the prime fish and aquatic life breeding streams. When you consider this disaster to have been man-made, the relevant authorities (State Water) and their chief advisors within the Department of Natural Resources, should be held accountable. This is a case of gross mismanagement, apparently in the name of water savings. What are the water savings for? The environment? If this isnt the environment, then what is? This disaster should've and could've been avoided by simply maintaining a continual flow through these water ways. By our mathematical calculations more water would have been saved maintaining a continual flow, than by the current policy of allowing the systems to run dry, then be replenished by a series of periodical, minute, low volume flows.

Any fool knows that to release a flow of water when the forecast temperature is to exceed 40 degrees for in excess of a fortnight is ludicrous. To run deoxygenated water over red hot sand into existing refuge holes is automatically going to destroy most of or if not all the existing fish and aquatic life.

Not only is this an ecological disaster, the flow-on effect will also have a massive impact on the economies of the people and townships within these regions.

We must ensure that this disaster is never repeated so there is a future for the next generation.

WE NEED THE VOICE OF THE PEOPLE NOW !! PASS THIS MESSAGE ON, IN ANY WAY POSSIBLE.

Kind regards,



http://www.4wdlinks.com.au/albums/merran-creek-fish-kill-Feb-2008/merran_creek_fish_kill_04.sized.jpg



http://www.4wdlinks.com.au/albums/merran-creek-fish-kill-Feb-2008/merran_creek_fish_kill_03.sized.jpg