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Threatened and Potentially Threatened Freshwater Fishes of Coastal New South Wales and the Murray-Darling Basin S.A.Morris1, D.A.Pollard1, P.C.Gehrke2 & J.J.Pogonoski1, 3 1 NSW Fisheries Office of Conservation, Cronulla Fisheries Centre, Post Office Box 21, Cronulla, NSW 2230 2 NSW Fisheries Office of Conservation, Port Stephens Fisheries Centre, Private Bag 1, Nelson Bay, NSW 2315 3 Fish Section, Australian Museum, 6 College Street, Sydney, NSW 2000 Report to Fisheries Action Program and World Wide Fund for Nature Project No. AA 0959.98 December 2001 NSW Fisheries Final Report Series No. 33 ISSN 1440-3544 Threatened and potentially threatened freshwater fishes of coastal New South Wales and the Murray-Darling Basin by S.A.Morris, D.A.Pollard, P.C. Gehrke & J.J.Pogonoski. ISSN 1440-3544 Published 2001 © Copyright NSW Fisheries, Sydney Fish Illustrations by Jack Hannan, NSW Fisheries Printed by NSW Fisheries Contents i TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS .......................................................................................................................... IV EXECUTIVE SUMMARY .............................................................................................................................V NON-TECHNICAL SUMMARY ................................................................................................................ VI 1. INTRODUCTION ....................................................................................................................................... 1 1.1. BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY................................................................................................................. 1 1.1.1. Threatened species.......................................................................................................................... 2 1.1.2. Alien species ................................................................................................................................... 3 1.1.3. Indicators of change ....................................................................................................................... 3 1.1.4. Commercial and recreational fishing ............................................................................................. 3 1.1.5. Recent trends .................................................................................................................................. 3 1.1.6. Current management ...................................................................................................................... 4 1.1.7. Recent NSW Fisheries research...................................................................................................... 5 1.1.8. Future research needs .................................................................................................................... 5 1.2. AIMS AND OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY.................................................................................................... 6 2. METHODS .................................................................................................................................................. 7 2.1. SELECTION OF TAXA FOR INCLUSION ...................................................................................................... 7 2.2. SYNTHESIS OF AVAILABLE INFORMATION ............................................................................................... 9 2.3. SPECIALIST WORKSHOP AND CONSULTATION ....................................................................................... 10 2.4. COLLABORATION WITH STAKEHOLDERS ............................................................................................... 10 3. CONSERVATION CATEGORIES AND CRITERIA........................................................................... 11 3.1. HISTORY OF CONSERVATION CATEGORIES AND CRITERIA .................................................................... 11 4. SPECIES CONSERVATION SYNOPSES.............................................................................................. 13 4.1. SPECIES CONSERVATION SYNOPSES ARRANGED IN PHYLOGENETIC ORDER ......................................... 13 Non-parasitic lamprey............................................................................................................................ 15 Short-finned eel....................................................................................................................................... 17 Freshwater herring................................................................................................................................. 20 Climbing galaxias................................................................................................................................... 22 Barred galaxias ...................................................................................................................................... 25 Common galaxias ................................................................................................................................... 27 Mountain galaxias .................................................................................................................................. 30 Murray jollytail....................................................................................................................................... 33 Australian grayling................................................................................................................................. 35 Freshwater catfish .................................................................................................................................. 38 Murray hardyhead.................................................................................................................................. 43 Darling hardyhead ................................................................................................................................. 43 Non-speckled hardyhead ........................................................................................................................ 44 Crimson-spotted rainbowfish.................................................................................................................. 47 Ornate rainbowfish................................................................................................................................. 50 Olive perchlet ......................................................................................................................................... 53 Macquarie perch..................................................................................................................................... 56 Golden perch .......................................................................................................................................... 60 Eastern cod............................................................................................................................................. 63 Trout cod ................................................................................................................................................ 66 Murray cod ............................................................................................................................................. 72 Morris et al., 2001 WWF & Fisheries Action Program ii Contents Silver perch .............................................................................................................................................75 Welch’s grunter.......................................................................................................................................80 Spangled perch........................................................................................................................................82 Southern pygmy perch.............................................................................................................................85 Oxleyan pygmy perch..............................................................................................................................88 Two-spined blackfish...............................................................................................................................92 River blackfish.........................................................................................................................................95 Congolli...................................................................................................................................................98 Southern purple-spotted gudgeon .........................................................................................................100 5. SYNTHESIS FROM SPECIES CONSERVATION SYNOPSES........................................................103 5.1. CRITICAL HABITATS ............................................................................................................................103 5.2. KEY THREATENING PROCESSES...........................................................................................................104 5.3. DIVERSITY HOTSPOTS..........................................................................................................................105 6. RECOMMENDATIONS.........................................................................................................................106 6.1. SUGGESTED COMMUNITY PROJECTS AND RECOMMENDED ENGINEERING SOLUTIONS.........................106