The state government today announced four new fish habitat projects worth $267,000 to make fishing better across Victorian rivers.
Victorian Minister for Agriculture, Jaala Pulford, today announced new projects on the Goulburn River in Seymour, downstream from where the Goulburn Broken Catchment Management Authority (CMA) has installed nearly 300 snags for native fish such as Murray cod.
“It’s great to see all the project partners – including local anglers, landholders and government agencies – working together to improve our rivers,” Pulford said.
Goulburn Broken CMA will manage two of these new projects worth $69,000.
The first will install snags in the lower Goulburn River at three sites near its confluence with the Murray River.
The second will place boulders and snags into the water to create more diverse fish habitats on the Rubicon River.
Increasing fish habitats is a great way to improve fishing in the long term because it provides new homes for fish where they can feed, shelter and breed.
The iconic Snowy River will benefit too, thanks to a $110,000 project to be undertaken by the East Gippsland Catchment Management Authority.
This project will improve fish habitat density and connectivity that will assist stocked populations of Australian bass and other migratory native fish.
The fourth new fish habitat project is on the Mitta Mitta River where the North East CMA will deliver $88,000 worth of fish habitat work between Lake Hume and Eskdale.
Adding habitat also helps optimise the return to anglers from annual stockings of Murray cod, grown at the Victorian Fisheries Authority’s Snobs Creek hatchery. More than 135,000 Murray cod fingerlings have been stocked into the lower Mitta Mitta River since 2012.
The new fish habitat projects are funded through recreational fishing licence fees and are part of the 2017-18 Recreational Fishing Licence Large Grants Program.
