I have pleasure in presenting the second Native Fish Strategy Annual Implementation Report.

The Strategy is designed to bring communities and governments together to enhance native fish populations throughout the Basin over the next 50 years. The central purpose of the Annual Implementation Report is to provide a framework for the reporting of national and state progress towards implementation of the Strategy.

In the second year of the Strategy considerable effort continues to be focused on awareness activities; this work has been facilitated through the employment of state-based Native Fish Strategy coordinators. The development of the ‘Daughterless carp’ technology, the trialling of a number of fish counting devices, and several projects investigating various impacts of flows on native fish ecology, also proceeded at full pace.

On-ground achievements included the commencement of construction of vertical slot fishways at Locks 9 and 10, and the completion of several prototype fishways at the Barrages.

The Strategy’s Community Stakeholder Group undertook a very successful week-long ‘Darling River Tour’ in May 2005, meeting with local government, catchment management organisations, Indigenous people, recreational fishers, school children and the general public; a similar event is now planned for 2006 in the south-east NSW/north-east Victorian part of the Basin.

In June 2005, the Fish Management and Science Committee sponsored a workshop on ‘Fish in Wetlands’, which brought together scientists, managers, conservationists, and community groups to review the current state of knowledge on this issue, and recommend priority actions for future management.

State and territory governments have made significant progress in implementing the Strategy, especially in areas such as fish passage, habitat rehabilitation, and the maturation of the ‘demonstration reach’ concept. The cooperation of those governments was greatly appreciated in the preparation of this document.

Wendy Craik
Chief Executive Officer