The Carp Management Program (CMP), on the 9th – 10th of May, held its annual two day workshop to review the past year’s work and to plan for the coming season. Attending were representatives from the Inland Fisheries Advisory Council, the Tasmanian Land Conservancy, Tasmanian Eel Exporters, The Australian Government Department of Environment, State Government Department of Primary Industries, Parks, Water, and Environment

• Key findings from the workshop were:
  • Surveys did not detect any carp in Lake Crescent or downstream in the Clyde River. Carp remain contained to Lake Sorell
  • No spawning or recruitment was detected in Lake Sorell
  • Intensive fishing pressure during 2015/16 saw a dramatic decrease in catch per unit of effort.
  • Over 40 900 carp have been removed from Lake Sorell. Less than 3% of the original population remain.

• The plan for the coming year:
  • Despite diminishing returns the current carp population is still vulnerable to intensive netting. This strategy will continue to be used until catch rates have decreased to the point where this is no longer efficient.
  • Radio tracking will also continue to be used over the 2016/17 season to assist in spawning prevention.
  • If ideal spawning conditions arise in spring 2016 (i.e. rising water levels combined with warm settled weather in spring), this may trigger a large proportion of fish to push inshore, thus becoming vulnerable to our fishing strategies. It is possible that an event like this could result in the majority of the remaining carp being removed, thus enabling a “mop up” of remnant fish over the following year.
  • It is expected that the strategy will shift in the 2017/18 season to a monitoring-based approach, using sterilised male transmitter fish to detect and remove the remaining carp in Lake Sorell.