Raise your glass for our farmers
RATTLE ‘n Hum bar tender Erin O’Loughlin is looking forward to pouring beers in the Let it Pour fundraising event across the Far North this weekend to raise money for drought relief. Venues taking part also include The Jack, The Pier Bar, PJ O’Brien’s, Apres Bar & Grill in Palm Cove and the Mareeba Gateway Hotel.
A HIGHLY invasive fish never before found in Cairns has been caught by biosecurity officers in a suburban creek.
A single mirror carp was discovered last week by a member of the public in a segregated pool of Freshwater Creek, behind the Redlynch Cyclones Football Club fields at Brinsmead.
A Biosecurity Queensland (BQ) spokesman said after the fish was euthanised, officers conducted surveillance in the area and found no other carp.
Common, koi and mirror are all varieties of the same species of carp, and all are restricted invasive fish under Queensland’s Biosecurity Act.
The fish pose a major environmental threat to the state’s waterways, as they rapidly outnumber native fish such as barramundi, and greatly disturb aquatic environments through destructive feeding habits.
The maximum penalty for keeping carp is $65,275.
Last month, BQ officers euthanised about 60 koi carp that were being kept in a backyard pond at a Townsville property.
Introduced carp have spread throughout the state’s southeast, including the Murray-Darling River, Paroo River, Warrego River, Nebine Creek, Culgoa River, Barwon River and Macintyre River.
They are also abundant in the Logan and Albert rivers south of Brisbane.
Carp were previously reported in the Johnstone River basin in 1980, in an ornamental pond in the Mulgrave River basin in 2000, and in 2008 in a farm dam at Lake Tinaroo.
According to BQ, all of the reported carp were removed and none of these incidents resulted in any self-sustaining populations of the species.
Paul Aubin, the co-ordinator of Cairns based recreational fishing lobby group CAREFISH, said exotic fish should never be disposed of into waterways.
“The North has plenty of problems with invasive species and we do not need carp in our waterways,” he said.
“If a breeding pair or a pregnant female has been released, then it will be almost impossible to stop an infestation short of massive poisoning – something no one wants.”