Students gain river insight

Primary school students studying the Wimmera’s carp problem have had a first-hand look at the aquatic pest.

Grade-five pupils from Horsham Holy Trinity Lutheran College were on the spot on the Wimmera River to learn how authorities found and removed carp from waterways using electrofishing.

Wimmera Catchment Management Authority and Dr Dion Lervasi and Dr Adam Pope from Austral Research and Consulting showed the students how the system worked on carp ‘hotspots’.

Electrofishing uses an electrical current to temporarily stun fish so authorities can remove them with nets.

Students had an opportunity to closely analyse a large carp caught by the method.

The demonstration tied in with latest Wimmera CMA surveys to track the success of an ongoing carp-monitoring program started three years ago.

Wimmera CMA’S Greg Fletcher said preliminary results from 11 sites including weir pools, rivers and creeks indicated numbers were remaining either static or dwindling, with no evidence of breeding during the past year.

Mr Fletcher said results were pleasing, with carp-removal works and help from anglers being effective in reducing the population across the region.

He said it was great to see the keen interest from young people in environmental issues.

“The students were really interested in hearing that carp house thousands of eggs, and fascinated to see the eggs up close,” he said.

Carp have been a menace in the Wimmera’s waterways for decades with evidence suggesting their feeding behaviour muddies water, which in turn threatens other species.

The Wimmera carp removal program is part of the State Government’s Water for Victoria project.

The project aims to improve conditions for native fish and obtain more data on carp numbers and sizes to provide information for future carp-control activities such as the potential release of the carp herpes virus.