queensland Lake Moogerah

[Brendon N]

Want to lake Moogerah today with Aaron H and there was a larg amount of dead fish inc bass. eels, golden perch. Does any one know why? We ended up at Maroon and got 10 bass on G Vibes.

B

[MichaelJ]

any pics?

[CrayfishMates]

I will guess the dam is about 15%. With low levels, a fair bit of rain it will have stirred up quite a bit of effluent trapped in the mud bottom. Combine that with some higher temps the bioload on the dam will have doubled leaving very little of the breathing stuff for the fish. Just a guess though and could be poison.

[Feral]

Yep, its the time of year when low impoundments start having fish kills due to low oxygen levels and warm water. Although 15% is a bit higher than you would expect it to happen, but Moogerah has always been a dirty dam due to the run off from agriculture in the area (IE lots of \"fertiliser\" to feed the blue green algae, I've seen the water emerald green with Algae)

[Aaron H]

Its kind of scary when the eels and catfish are belly up and then seeing thousands of bony bream gasping for air it was time to get out of there, unfortunately we did not see it until after we launched and headed towards the wall, I'm worried legs might drop off from polluted water while launching:unsure:

At least we did alright at Maroon even though we were supposed to be at Lenthalls:(

[Fisher_90]

On channel 9 news now guys

[Fisher_90]

Its starved of oxygen from the recent rain as said above, Should stay out of the water and dont consume campground water.

[Fisher_90]

Taken from News.com.au
/>http://www.news.com.au/couriermail/story/0,23739,22968668-3102,00.html

QUEENSLAND'S environmental agency has blamed recent heavy rains for a large fish kill at Lake Moogerah west of Brisbane.

A large number of dead fish were found at the weekend in Lake Moogerah, near Boonah, a popular place for bushwalking, camping and fishing.

The discovery prompted the local water authority, SunWater, to warn visitors to keep out of some parts of the lake and avoid the campground water supply.

But an Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) investigation found no sign of pollution and concluded the fish died from lack of oxygen.

An EPA spokesman said recent heavy rain had depleted oxygen levels in the water.

\"Initial reports indicated that a number of the fish were gulping on the surface,\" the spokesman said.

\"This would be consistent with oxygen starvation.

\"The dam has recently been inundated with heavy rains quickly increasing the dam levels.

\"It is not uncommon for the sudden flush of water into the dam to bring low-oxygenated water to the surface, which could lead to oxygen starvation.\"

The phenomenon is particularly common in high-temperature conditions, and the EPA has found no visible signs of pollution at the site.

SunWater is cleaning up the dead fish as quickly as possible and has collected water quality samples.

[Cowfish13]

Interesting stuff Fisher_90.

Hopefully this same sort of thing won't happen in dams like North Pine and Somerset

[Feral]

Aaron - Lenthalls? - You need a new map!

[Brian D]

I was gonna say the same Feral but about the fish kills, serves him right for sneaking off for a fish without letting us know.

[Brendon N]

We where all ready to go but got stuck at work. Any one who knows Aaron should know that he goes every weekend lol

[Aaron H]

hopefully a fortnights time will be up at Lenthalls

[CrayfishMates]

They have absolutely no means of turning the water over in the dam. It is after all only small. Nothing like running pumps and pipes to pick up the water from the bottom and dump it on the top. A lovely fountain will do the trick lol. Anyway the term the EPA is having trouble with is \"thermal stratification\" very common in dams that are low and surrounded by mountains as no wind can stir the surface and gulping is called \"piping\" and fish doing that will be dead in three days max.

just for a bit of trivia.

[faulked]

how viable would airation bee in the dams crayfish

[CrayfishMates]

faulked, they do it in the north pine dam. No point in using actual air in bodies of water that big just just lifting the bottom water to the top would do quite a bit for the aeration. Even go so far to use the pumps on the wall to shoot water out over the dam for 50 meters or so would give the fish a fighting chance. The fish would crowed around it when the dam does this. I would have thought the EPA would have actioned even a fire truck pump or something similarly mobile to help the fish out. Will take at least a week for the dam to settle down again.

Whats the point of a protection agency if they are not protecting out fishing spots lol

[Feral]

They are not interested in Dams, not a natural water body, not a natural fish population (stocked).

Quite a few dams have aerators, more to do with water quality than for the fish though! In addition to North Pine, Kurwongbah, Lake Mac Donald and Callide are ones I know have them.

[CrayfishMates]

Apparently they are just going to leave the fish there to rot. That should be interesting.

[Feral]

The Ski lice should have an interesting time for a week or two then!