Seqwater engaged Biodiverse Environmental to provide its fish salvage services at the Ewen Maddock Dam dissipator.
Following substantial rain and flooding, a large number of native and invasive fish species had flowed over the spillway and had become trapped within the dissipator. Biodiverse Environmental’s Ecologists were engaged to capture and release the trapped aquatic fauna.
Initial activities involved the dewatering of the Ewen Maddock Dam spillway dissipator to assist in destocking large fish caught in the spillway structure. To capture the fish, a custom-made drop drag net with coarse mesh was used to corral the fish into a smaller area to begin dip netting and fish salvage. All native aquatic fauna was transferred to a custom-made storage vessel, which has large volume, aerated tanks and turtle storage containers.
The captured fish were identified to species level, with native species being released back into the main dam.
