The future for managing fishes in the Murray‐Darling Basin, south‐eastern Australia

Abstract

There are few places in the world where concerns over the decline of freshwater ecosystems and their fishes are more apparent than in the Murray-Darling Basin (MDB), south-eastern Australia. The rivers of the MDB are in poor condition, and fish populations were estimated to be at 10% of pre-European levels (Murray-Darling Basin Commission 2004), with many species considered of conservation concern (Lintermans 2007). Issues regarding fish in the MDB are not new; concerns for popular commercial species such as Murray Cod were first documented over 100 years ago (Dannevig 1903), and by the late 1970s, threats to MDB fishes had been clearly identified (Cadwallader 1978). While early concerns were largely regarding commercial fisheries, the great importance of angling (Henry & Lyle 2003) and the associated socio-economic values and benefits to the recreational fishery of the MDB ($1.35 Billion direct expenditure per annum: Ernst & Young 2011), along with serious conservation concerns, are now paramount. By 2000, there was a growing sense of urgency to rehabilitate fish populations before it was too late, and this culminated in the development of the Native Fish Strategy (NFS) (Murray-Darling Basin Commission 2004), with an emphasis on rehabilitation rather than just sustainable management. Such efforts were needed to protect and restore all fishes, including those key species targeted by recreational fishers. In its first decade (2003–2013), the NFS fundamentally changed fish management in the MDB (Koehn & Lintermans 2012). This included major advances in research and management practices and advocating an overarching and achievable restoration goal to: rehabilitate native fish communities of the Basin back to 60% of their estimated pre-European levels after 50 years of implementation. This was reinforced by engagement of the community and recognition that this would take several decades to deliver. Some key achievements included the following: 1 Development, testing and implementation of one of the world’s largest fish passage programmes from Lake Hume to the Sea.