Chris Wisniewski starts leave today and will retire from his Section Manager (Fisheries Management) role, in July. Chris received his letter of appointment from the Commissioner of Inland Fisheries, Rob Sloane on Christmas Eve, 24 December 1988 and started on the job as a fisheries inspector based in the Hydro village at Tarraleah 16 February 1989.

After 18 months at Tarraleah Chris was transferred to Liawenee and worked closely with Phil Potter and Val Dell maintaining law and order on the Central Plateau.

In September 1995 Chris was appointed as the fisheries inspector on the Carp Management Program based in Hobart, spending long periods of time at the lakes.

Early days on the carp program he oversaw the building and maintenance carp containment structures while keeping the poachers, targeting the monster Lake Crescent trout, at bay. During this period Chris worked closely with John Diggle learning about and developing strategies to eradicate the carp.

Chris led the carp team for many years and saw the eradication of carp from Lake Crescent in 2009. He was then successful in getting millions of dollars in federal government funding that enabled the increased effort that resulted in the eradication of carp from Lake Sorell.

Chris built the first modern concrete prototype spawning trout trap at Liawenee in 2006 and then the other remote traps across the Plateau that followed. This supports the adult trout stocking program to this day.

Chris said “Reflecting, my most important achievement was seeing the carp management program through from beginning to end and ridding Tasmania of carp.  In more recent times I have enjoyed working on and seeing the revival of the wild rainbow trout run at Liawenee and the return this is having for anglers fishing in the Great Lake”.

“I enjoyed being the IFS lead coordinator for World Fly Fishing Championship 2019, working with the committee and meeting the international guests”.

Through his work on carp management Chris has been invited to present at national and international conferences in Darwin, Canberra, Melbourne, Hamilton New Zealand, Nashville Tennessee, and St Paul/Minneapolis Minnesota.

Rob Freeman will be acting in the Section Manager (Fisheries Management) role over the coming months.