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These efforts create a unique period of collaboration between fishers, farmers, landholders, communities, government and non government organisation’s along with our major partner, BCF to come together and do whatever it takes to save our native fish in an emergency and help to recovery the waterways once the threat is over.

Fish Emergency Recovery Projects

Nymboida River, NSW

Nymboida River, NSW

The utter destruction of this habitat due to the fires has created new issues such as woody weeds, erosion in gullies, and the decimation of old-growth trees and riparian zone. OzFish and Landcare Australia have joined together with landowners and recreational fishers to start the journey of ...

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Timbarra River, NSW

Timbarra River, NSW

The Rocky River is a perennial stream of the Clarence River catchment and is located in the northern rivers of NSW. During the bushfires of November 2019 this area was heavily impacted destroying the habitat of the threatened species Eastern freshwater cod (Maccullochella Ikei). The utter ...

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Manning River and the Manning River Helmeted Turtle

Manning River and the Manning River Helmeted Turtle

The endangered Manning River helmeted turtle's habitat was damaged in the Black Summer bushfires of 2019-2020. The OzFish Manning Chapter partnered with MidCoast2Tops Landcare to complete noxious weed removal at five sites, totalling 5 kilometres of riverbank, in the upper reaches of the ...

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Macquarie River, NSW

Macquarie River, NSW

Like many of our major rivers and lakes, the Macquarie River in NSW is drying out and our native fish are in desperate need of our help to survive. A major fish rescue being driven by recreational fishing volunteers from Dubbo's Inland Waterways OzFish Chapter in partnership with NSW ...

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As many fire-affected communities continue to recover and rebuild, there is a constant reminder of the devastating toll that drought, fire and floods have taken on our fish and aquatic life. And it can be seen in our waterways, with record numbers of fish kills, widespread habitat loss plus poor water quality. There are also still places with little to no water where much precious native fish have simply suffocated.

Native fish in Australia will continue to experience droughts, devastating bushfires and severe rain events and these events destroy habitat. OzFish gets recreational fishers activated on critical projects to help Australia’s fish populations recover from these challenges.

It was the summer of 2019/2020 when Australians watched on in horror witnessing images and videos of dead fish dominated the news and flooded social media. Heartbroken anglers fought back tears as they described what they were witnessing in drought-affected rivers.

It was also a turning point for Australia’s largest fishing conservation movement, OzFish Unlimited, as volunteers in the hundreds mobilised to save native fish from suffocating in many areas across the Murray-Darling Basin. These efforts created a period of collaboration between fishers, farmers, landholders, communities, government and the organisation’s major partner, BCF. Seeing these fish perish would not happen under their watch.

Now the Fish Emergency Recovery programs at OzFish actively monitors bushfire, flood and drought affected waterways, restores habitat for threatened aquatic species impacted by these catastrophic events and is ready to mobilise at the next emergency.

Environmental disasters: what happens to our native fish?

Bushfire 

  • Ash from fires washes into waterways clogging fish’s gills; it smothers plants and animals destroying productivity; excess ash also leads to an increase in bacterial blooms that consume oxygen in the water
  • The fires destroy the plants and trees on the side of the water which either feed fish directly from leaves, flowers or seeds or via the bugs and grubs that fall off the plants
  • Fires strip the leaves from trees, leading to reduced shade which increases water temperature

Drought 

  • Fish need water flows for oxygen to breath, so when the water stops flowing fish don’t get the oxygen they need, leading to fish kills
  • Fish that are surviving in pools will often die after rainfall as these initial flows are full of sediment and organic matter that consumes the oxygen

Floods

  • Too much water at the wrong time can create large fish kills and destroy fish habitat.
  • Heavy rainfall events can cause large amounts of sediment and rotting matter to run into our waterways, reducing water quality for fish by removing the oxygen out of the system and causing fish to suffocate.

Our Fish Emergency Recovery projects include:

  • Working in collaboration with other groups to save endangered species
  • Working in partnership with government organisations to rescue and relocate fish in crisis
  • Helping to source, prepare and assemble specialist equipment and engaged in methods such as electro-fishing, netting and line-fishing to rescue native fish
  • Helping install aerators to pump oxygen into targeted areas where fish may seek refuge
  • Helping with clean up of fish kills or debris from floods
  • Waterway recovery programs to access the impacts of fire, floods and drought
  • Monitoring programs to assess how waterways are recovering after the impacts of a natural disaster

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At OzFish we are incredibly proud of the rescue and emergency recovery efforts undertaken by so many of our OzFish volunteers, our fish need more help to recover now more than ever. And you can help.

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