More baby barra released into Lake Kununurra
A further 70,000 baby barramundi have been released into Lake Kununurra as part of a plan to transform the waterway into a fisherman's paradise.
The latest release last week follows an initial 30,000 fingerlings put into the lake in January to kick-start a four-year restocking that will eventually see more than half a million fish set into the wild.
The fingerlings were bred at the Kimberley Training Institute's Broome Aquaculture Centre from locally sourced brood stock and transported more than 1000km in tanks.
Hatchery manager Anthony Aris said it was difficult to keep so many fish in a small tank alive for a long journey.
He said the fingerlings then had to be adjusted to the conditions of the area they were being released in.
"For the last few hours we have been running the lake's water through the tub to adjust to their salinity and PH, temperature and oxygen," Mr Aris said.
"Now what they have to do is find shelter, adjust to the conditions and find food.
"Those that don't will die or be eaten.
"In fact, a large portion of them will be eaten in the next week."
Mr Aris said he was hoping for a 10-20 per cent survival rate, but it would likely be closer to just 5 per cent.
"The lake here is a beautiful opportunity to do this, as we have so much fabulous habitat here," he said.
"But there are lots of predators … birds are the problem more than the fish.
"I am very confident we will see these fish at 200-300cm in six to 12 months' time, and in 18 months we will be looking at one kilogram fish."
Beyond that, Mr Aris said people would start to hopefully see some legal-sized fish.
He said the entry point for this release, the Argyle dam wall, had been specifically chosen to keep the fingerlings as far away as possible from the diversion dam wall.
"We have a team in from the Northern Territory which is helping us survey how they are going, to get some baseline data," Mr Aris said.
"Ongoing, their job will be to see how the fish are going and surviving."
Mr Aris said part of the process for tracking the fish was to dip them into a chemical dye called calcine.
"You can't see it to the naked eye, but as we sample the lake, we can take samples from the fish without killing them and put it under and ultraviolet light and see if it is fluorescent," he said.
