Fish communities and threatened species distributions of NSW 13958_APR16 Published by the NSW Department of Primary Industries Fish Communities and Threatened Species Distributions of NSW First published May 2016 Second edition July 2016 ISBN 978 1 74256 923 9 Authors Marcus Riches, Program Leader - Aquatic Ecosystems, DPI Fisheries, Wollongbar. Dr Dean Gilligan, Senior Research Scientist, DPI Fisheries, Batemans Bay. Karen Danaher, GIS Analyst, DPI Fisheries, Wollongbar. John Pursey, Senior Fisheries Manager – Threatened Species, DPI Fisheries Port Stephens. www.dpi.nsw.gov.au Acknowledgments Steering committee members: Marcus Riches, Sarah Fairfull, John Pursey, Dr Dean Gilligan, Karen Danaher, Allan Raine (DPI Water), Michael Healey (DPI Water). DPI Fisheries: Katherine Cheshire, Tony Townsend and Aquatic Ecosystems staff for time taken to review and provide comment on draft report. Dr Wayne Robinson (Charles Sturt University), data and statistical analysis, status of fish communities. This Project was funded by the Commonwealth Government’s National Partnership Agreement on Coal Seam Gas and Large Coal Mining Developments. JTN 13958_1 © State of New South Wales through the Department of Industry, Skills and Regional Development, July 2016. You may copy, distribute and otherwise freely deal with this publication for any purpose, provided that you attribute the NSW Department of Primary Industries as the owner. Disclaimer: The information contained in this publication is based on knowledge and understanding at the time of writing (July 2016). However, because of advances in knowledge, users are reminded of the need to ensure that information upon which they rely is up to date and to check currency of the information with the appropriate officer of the Department of Primary Industries or the user’s independent adviser. Fish communities and threatened species distribution of NSW Contents 1. Introduction ......................................................................................................................... 1 1.1 Background ................................................................................................................... 2 1.2 Aim of this report ........................................................................................................... 3 2 Methods .............................................................................................................................. 3 2.1 Project steering committee ............................................................................................ 3 2.2 Primary data acquisition ................................................................................................ 5 2.2.1 NSW freshwater fish database ............................................................................... 5 2.2.2 Threatened fish records ......................................................................................... 5 2.2.3 River Styles ............................................................................................................ 6 2.2.4 Australian Hydrological Geospatial Fabric (Geofabric) ........................................... 6 2.2.5 National Environmental Stream Attributes .............................................................. 7 2.2.6 NSW Strahler Stream Order .................................................................................. 7 2.3 Fish assemblage status indicators ................................................................................ 7 2.3.1 Metrics Indicators and overall fish community status index .................................... 7 2.3.2 Generalised Additive Model analysis...................................................................... 9 2.4 Threatened species distributions ................................................................................. 10 2.4.1 Assigning records to stream segments within the Australian Hydrological Geospatial Fabric ............................................................................................................... 12 2.5 Environmental attributes ............................................................................................. 12 2.6 Production of threatened species distribution maps .................................................... 14 3 Discussion .........................................................................................................................16 4 Case Study: Southern Pygmy Perch in the Lachlan River Catchment ................................18 5 References ........................................................................................................................20 Appendix A – Fish Community Status of NSW ..........................................................................23 Appendix B – Threatened Species Indicative Distributions ........................................................24 Appendix C – Environmental Attributes derived from the National Stream Attributes database version 1.1.5 (Stein et al. 2011) and utilised as relevant variables ............................................38 Appendix D: MaxEnt parameters and output values for each species .......................................40 i NSW Department of Primary Industries, July 2016 Fish communities and threatened species distribution of NSW Figures Figure 1 - Summarised project work flow ................................................................................... 4 Figure 2 - Examples of the test omission rate and predicted area curve and the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve for Western population of Olive Perchlet - Ambassis agassizii ....................................................................................................................................11 Figure 3 Indicative distribution of Southern Pygmy Perch Nannoperca australis used to investigate possible refuge sites. ...............................................................................................19 Figure 4 – Map showing the fish community status of NSW ......................................................23 Figure 5 – Indicative distribution of the Australian Grayling Prototroctes maraena ....................24 Figure 6 – Indicative distribution of the Darling River Hardyhead Craterocephalus amniculus ...25 Figure 7 – Indicative distribution of the Eastern Freshwater Cod Maccullochella ikei ................26 Figure 8 – Indicative distribution of the Eel Tailed Catfish Tandanus tandanus .........................27 Figure 9 – Indicative distribution of the Fitzroy Falls Spiny Crayfish Euastacus dharawalus ......28 Figure 10 – Indicative distribution of the Flathead Galaxias Galaxias rostratus .........................29 Figure 11 – Indicative distribution of the Macquarie Perch Macquaria australasica ...................30 Figure 12 – Indicative distribution of the Murray Crayfish Euastacus armatus ...........................31 Figure 13 – Indicative distribution of the Olive Perchlet Ambassis agassizii ..............................32 Figure 14 – Indicative distribution of the Purple Spotted Gudgeon Mogurnda adspersa ............33 Figure 15 - Indicative distribution of the River Blackfish Gadopsis marmoratus .........................34 Figure 16 - Indicative distribution of the Silver Perch Bidyanus bidyanus ..................................35 Figure 17 - Indicative distribution of the Southern Pygmy Perch Nannoperca australis .............36 Figure 18 - Indicative distribution of the Trout Cod Maccullochella macquariensis ....................37 ii NSW Department of Primary Industries, July 2016 Fish communities and threatened species distribution of NSW Executive non-technical summary Fish and fish habitat underpins the productivity of our State’s fisheries resources. Fish habitat conservation and management also contributes to the NSW Government’s 10 year plan NSW 2021 (see 2021.nsw.gov.au/) which aims to protect our natural environment, including its rivers, wetlands and coastal environments. Fish habitats are not discrete systems but are elements of larger ‘open’ aquatic systems that are often interconnected by water flow, floods, tides, currents, and the movement of biota, chemicals and nutrients within the water column. There are over 1000 species of fish in NSW and tens of thousands of species of crustaceans, aquatic molluscs, beachworms, aquatic insects and other aquatic invertebrates – all of which are classified as ‘fish’ under the Fisheries Management Act 1994. NSW has an estimated 118 species of freshwater fish, including native (57 species), introduced (17), and estuarine vagrant (31) and as yet undescribed (13) species. A number of fish species, populations and ecological communities are listed as ‘threatened’, with primary causes due to the degradation of our river systems and the loss of aquatic habitat. A major issue facing the NSW Government is finding a balance between resource use and the protection of the natural environment. In order to achieve that outcome, the delineation and spatial recognition of key environmental assets is paramount. Whilst spatial identification of natural resource use potential (i.e. forests, coal resources) has been well documented, the identification of aquatic biodiversity is not, and yet it is critical to the NSW Government’s ability to deliver evidence based decision making. The Fish Communities and Threatened Species Distributions of NSW project (FCTSD) consolidates data collected over twenty years of biological surveys, and combined