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Relative Condition of the Freshwater Fish Community in the Macleay Basin: North Coast New South Wales Ecohealth Program

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Relative Condition of the Freshwater Fish Community in the Macleay Basin: North Coast New South Wales Ecohealth Program Relative condition of the freshwater fish community in the Macleay Basin: North Coast New South Wales Ecohealth Program Gavin Butler, Dean Gilligan, John St Vincent Welch, Harry Vivers, Andrew Bruce, Johnathon Doyle & Toby Piddocke. Fisheries NSW Grafton Fisheries Centre PMB 2, Grafton, NSW, 2460 Australia Report to Local Land Services North Coast March 2016 Relative condition of the freshwater fish community in the Macleay Basin: North Coast New South Wales Ecohealth Program. September 2015 Authors: Butler, G.L., Gilligan, D., St Vincent Welsh, J., Vivers, H.A., Bruce, A., Doyle, J. & Piddocke, T.P. Published By: NSW Department of Primary Industries (now incorporating Fisheries NSW) Postal Address: Grafton Fisheries Centre, PMB 2, Grafton, NSW, 2460 Internet: www.dpi.nsw.gov.au NSW Department of Primary Industries, Local Land Services North Coast, Office of Environment & Heritage and Kempsey Shire Council. This work is copyright. Except as permitted under the Copyright Act, no part of this reproduction may be reproduced by any process, electronic or otherwise, without the specific written permission of the copyright owners. Neither may information be stored electronically in any form whatsoever without such permission. DISCLAIMER The publishers do not warrant that the information in this report is free from errors or omissions. The publishers do not accept any form of liability, be it contractual, tortuous or otherwise, for the contents of this report for any consequences arising from its use or any reliance placed on it. The information, opinions and advice contained in this report may not relate to, or be relevant to, a reader’s particular circumstance. ISSN 1837-2112 Note: Prior to July 2004, this report series was published by NSW Fisheries as the ‘NSW Fisheries Final Report Series’ with ISSN number 1440-3544. Then, following the formation of the NSW Department of Primary Industries the report series was published as the ‘NSW Department of Primary Industries – Fisheries Final Report Series’ with ISSN number 1449-9967. The report series was then published by Industry & Investment NSW as the ‘Industry & Investment NSW – Fisheries Final Report Series’ with ISSN number 1837-211. It is now published as the ‘NSW Department of Primary Industries – Fisheries Final Report Series’ with ISSN number 1837-2112. Table of Contents i TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF TABLES ............................................................................................................................................ II LIST OF FIGURES .......................................................................................................................................... II ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS .............................................................................................................................. III SUMMARY ................................................................................................................................................ IV 1. BACKGROUND .................................................................................................................................... 1 2. METHODS ........................................................................................................................................... 3 2.1. STUDY AREA ......................................................................................................................................... 3 2.2. SAMPLE SITES ....................................................................................................................................... 6 2.3. FIELD METHODS .................................................................................................................................... 7 2.4. DATA ANALYSES .................................................................................................................................. 10 2.4.1. Reference Condition and Recruitment ................................................................................... 10 2.4.2. Metrics, Indicators and the Overall Fish Condition Index. ...................................................... 10 3. RESULTS ............................................................................................................................................ 15 3.1. GENERAL FINDINGS .............................................................................................................................. 15 3.2. EXPECTEDNESS INDICATOR .................................................................................................................... 18 3.3. NATIVENESS INDICATOR ........................................................................................................................ 18 3.4. RECRUITMENT INDICATOR ..................................................................................................................... 21 3.5. OVERALL FISH CONDITION ..................................................................................................................... 21 4. DISCUSSION ...................................................................................................................................... 26 5. REFERENCES ...................................................................................................................................... 31 Hastings Catchment Ecohealth Butler et al. Tables and Figures ii LIST OF TABLES Table 1. Sites and methods used to sample the freshwater fish in the Coastal Plains, Lowland, Midland Slopes, Upland and Highland altitude zones across the Macleay Basin. ............................. 5 Table 2. Freshwater fish species predicted to have occurred in the Macleay Basin prior to European colonisation.. .................................................................................................................................... 11 Table 3. Fish species predominately found in estuarine-marine waters predicted to have occurred within freshwater habitats in the Macleay Basin prior to European colonisation. ........................... 11 Table 4. Lengths (mm) used to delineate new recruits for the fish species sampled in the Macleay Basin.. ............................................................................................................................................... 13 Table 5. Numbers of fish caught from sites in the Coastal Plains (CP), Lowland (LL), Midland (ML), Slopes (SLP), Upland (UP) and Highland (HL) altitude zones across the Macleay Basin. .. 16 Table 6. Basin-wide weighted average and confidence limits for the Macleay Basin fish community. .......................................................................................................................................................... 21 Table 7. Expectedness Indicator, Nativeness Indicator, Recruitment Indicator, SRA ndxFS values and the corresponding ratings for fish at sites in the Coastal Plains (CP), Lowland (LL) and Midland (ML) altitude zones across the Macleay Basin. ............................................................................... 24 LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1. Sites sampled to determine the health of freshwater fish across the Macleay Basin.. ...... 4 Figure 2. Selection of photos of sites sampled from across the various altitude zones in the Macleay Basin. ................................................................................................................................................ 10 Figure 3. Expectedness Indicator (SR – FIe) scores for the fish assemblages at the 27 sites sampled across the Macleay Basin.. ............................................................................................................... 19 Figure 4. Nativeness Indicator (SR – FIn) scores for the fish assemblages at the 27 sites sampled across the Macleay Basin. ................................................................................................................ 20 Figure 5. Recruitment Indicator (SR-FIr) scores for the fish assemblages at the 27 sites sampled across the Macleay Basin………………………………………………………………………. 22 Figure 6. Overall Fish Condition Indicator (SRA ndxFS) scores for the fish assemblages at the 27 sites sampled across the Macleay Basin.. ......................................................................................... 23 Macleay Basin Ecohealth Butler et al. Acknowledgements iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS We would like to thank the North Coast Local Land Service (formerly Northern Rivers Catchment Management Authority), Kempsey Shire Council, Office of Environment & Heritage and Fisheries NSW (NSW DPI) for assisting with funding to undertake this project. Thanks specifically to Ron Kemsley, John Schmidt, Max Osborne and Tony Broderick for managing and helping with the project from within the respective organisations. Big thanks to all the land owners who allowed us access through their properties so that we could undertake sampling. Thanks must also go to Wayne Robinson, Terry Hillman and Frederick Bouckaert from the Murray-Darling Basin Authority’s Sustainable Rivers Audit team for advice on calculation of the fish metrics, and to Steve Carter from Environmental Dynamics for providing the ‘Fish Expert Rules’ systems software and guiding us through its implementation. Finally, thanks to Dr Bob Creese, Director Fisheries Research (retired), Fisheries NSW, who provided support and guidance for the project. Sampling was undertaken within the guidelines outlined in Animal Care and Ethics Permit No. 98/14. Macleay Basin Ecohealth
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