SARDI Report Series Is an Administrative Report Series Which Has Not Been Reviewed Outside the Department and Is Not Considered Peer-Reviewed Literature
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Baseline Fish Monitoring Program for the Northern and Yorke NRMB Region 2014 David Schmarr and Rupert Mathwin SARDI Publication No. F2014/000471-1 SARDI Research Report Series No. 805 SARDI Aquatics Sciences PO Box 120 Henley Beach SA 5022 November 2014 Report to the Northern and Yorke Natural Resource Management Board Schmarr, D. W and Mathwin, R. Baseline Fish Monitoring Program for the Northern and Yorke NRMB Region 2014 Baseline Fish Monitoring Program for the Northern and Yorke NRMB Region 2014 Report to the Northern and Yorke Natural Resource Management Board David Schmarr and Rupert Mathwin SARDI Publication No. F2014/000471-1 SARDI Research Report Series No. 805 November 2014 II Schmarr, D. W and Mathwin, R. Baseline Fish Monitoring Program for the Northern and Yorke NRMB Region 2014 This publication may be cited as: Schmarr, D. W. and Mathwin, R. (2014). Baseline Fish Monitoring Program for the Northern and Yorke NRMB Region 2014. Report to the Northern and Yorke Natural Resource Management Board. South Australian Research and Development Institute (Aquatic Sciences), Adelaide. SARDI Publication No. F2014/000471-1. SARDI Research Report Series No. 805. 68pp. South Australian Research and Development Institute SARDI Aquatic Sciences 2 Hamra Avenue West Beach SA 5024 Telephone: (08) 8207 5400 Facsimile: (08) 8207 5406 http://www.sardi.sa.gov.au DISCLAIMER The authors warrant that they have taken all reasonable care in producing this report. The report has been through the SARDI internal review process, and has been formally approved for release by the Research Chief, Aquatic Sciences. Although all reasonable efforts have been made to ensure quality, SARDI does not warrant that the information in this report is free from errors or omissions. SARDI does not accept any liability for the contents of this report or for any consequences arising from its use or any reliance placed upon it. The SARDI Report Series is an Administrative Report Series which has not been reviewed outside the department and is not considered peer-reviewed literature. Material presented in these Administrative Reports may later be published in formal peer-reviewed scientific literature. © 2014 SARDI This work is copyright. Apart from any use as permitted under the Copyright Act 1968 (Cth), no part may be reproduced by any process, electronic or otherwise, without the specific written permission of the copyright owner. Neither may information be stored electronically in any form whatsoever without such permission. Printed in Adelaide: November 2014 SARDI Publication No. F2014/000471-1 SARDI Research Report Series No. 805 Author(s): David Schmarr and Rupert Mathwin Reviewer(s): Chris Bice and Juan Livore Approved by: Assoc Prof Qifeng Ye Science Leader - Inland Waters & Catchment Ecology Signed: Date: 27 November 2014 Distribution: Northern & Yorke NRM Board, SAASC Library, University of Adelaide Library, Parliamentary Library, State Library and National Library Circulation: Public Domain III Schmarr, D. W and Mathwin, R. Baseline Fish Monitoring Program for the Northern and Yorke NRMB Region 2014 TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ......................................................................................................... VI EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ........................................................................................................... 1 1. INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................................ 3 1.1. Background.................................................................................................................. 3 1.2. Objectives .................................................................................................................... 4 2. METHODS .......................................................................................................................... 5 2.1. Study Reaches ............................................................................................................ 5 2.2. Site selection ............................................................................................................... 5 2.3. Fish Sampling Methodology ......................................................................................... 7 2.4. Abiotic Data Collection ................................................................................................. 8 2.5. Processing Non-Target Taxa ....................................................................................... 9 2.6. Developing BCG Scores .............................................................................................. 9 3. RESULTS ..........................................................................................................................11 3.1. Fish Results ................................................................................................................11 3.2. Non-Target Fauna.......................................................................................................13 4. DISCUSSION ....................................................................................................................14 4.1. Rocky River ................................................................................................................17 4.2. Bundaleer Creek .........................................................................................................19 4.3. Broughton River main channel ....................................................................................20 4.4. Wakefield River, Wockie Creek ...................................................................................21 4.5. Wakefield River main channel .....................................................................................22 5. CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS .....................................................................25 6. REFERENCES ..................................................................................................................27 APPENDIX A ............................................................................................................................30 APPENDIX B ............................................................................................................................68 IV Schmarr, D. W and Mathwin, R. Baseline Fish Monitoring Program for the Northern and Yorke NRMB Region 2014 LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1. Map of survey sites sampled in autumn 2014. ............................................................. 7 Figure 2. A) Inserting polystyrene buoys inside fyke nets forces a section of the cod end above the waters surface . B) This area acts as a refuge for air breathing taxa allowing them to survive until the net is processed. .......................................................................................................... 8 Figure 3. Eastern long-necked turtles (Chelodina longicollis) were measured (maximum carapace length) before being returned to the water. Length frequency distributions show two modes are present in the observed population suggesting two age classes were collected. .....14 Figure 4. Willow Pond was dominated by gambusia which appear to have thrived in the disturbed conditions caused by bushfire runoff..........................................................................18 Figure 5. The Bundaleer Reservoir flow diversion weir on the Balanbreni property is a significant physical structure and may be blocking upstream fish passage in the Bundaleer Creek. A SARDI ecologist can be seen standing on the lip of the weir to provide scale. ..........................20 Figure 6. Long-necked turtles (Chelodina longicollis) were found throughout the region. ..........22 Figure 7. Artificial in-channel structures like this historic bridge at Martindale Hall may interrupt fish movement between refuge pools, removing recolonisation routes. .....................................23 Figure 8. The eel-tailed catfish (Tandanus tandanus) is native to the Murray-Darling Basin which is believed to have been translocated to The Rocks in the late 1970’s. .....................................24 LIST OF TABLES Table 1. Details of sites sampled during the survey in autumn 2014. Sites were selected to represent both previously sampled (marked with an asterisk) and novel sites. Observers were Rupert Mathwin (RM), David Schmarr (DS) and Jennifer Munro (JM). ....................................... 6 Table 2 The biological condition gradient (BCG) generates scores for species detected and also for expected native species that were not detected. Due to a lack of historic data in this region some assumptions have been made regarding the historic ranges of regionally common fish species that have never been reported in these catchments. ....................................................10 Table 3. Raw abundance of fish caught during 2014 survey. ....................................................12 Table 4. Other fauna captured in fyke nets during 2014 survey. ................................................13 V Schmarr, D. W and Mathwin, R. Baseline Fish Monitoring Program for the Northern and Yorke NRMB Region 2014 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This study was funded by the Northern and Yorke Natural Resource Management Board, with project support and site selection carried out by Jennifer Munro. The authors would like to thank Chris Bice and Juan Livore for their revisions which have aided in the final report. Thanks also to Luciana Bucater for her assistance