The society’s president, Kerry Pfeiffer, contests the need to scale back restocking and is concerned about future moves that could restrict trout fishing streams even further.
“Yes, trout are introduced, I accept that they are an environmental issue and we need to manage that. But they are also serving a social purpose and so long as we manage it well, and we consider things like galaxiids and we find ways for them to survive, I can’t see why it should be stopped,” Pfeiffer said.
He contends that the worst damage from trout to native species occurred when the species was introduced in colonial days, and there are ongoing impacts from habitat loss and farming. Fertilisers affect water quality and livestock trample river banks, raising sediment levels in the streams and making it harder for galaxiids to survive.
The path forward, he says, is to continue stocking trout but also invest in survival programs for galaxiids, such as breeding and stocking them in refuge areas – stretches of river trout can’t reach, such as the streams above waterfalls.
“We need sanctuaries for them and we’ve got to invest money into fencing off stock and making sure that there’s a riparian zone with vegetation along river banks … then we can have thriving populations,” Pfeiffer said.
The Monaro Acclimatisation Society wrote to the NSW government in April: “It is our considered view that as these native fish and trout have co-existed for some 130 years, that solutions where both can continue to cohabit within the Snowy River system are possible and need to be explored.”
There are about 1 million recreational fishers in NSW and more than 800,000 in Victoria. Thousands regularly enjoy walking mountain and forest streams angling for the aggressive, hard-fighting brown and rainbow trout.
Conservationists and biologists say introducing European species into Australia’s fragile environment is an anachronistic practice that must be significantly scaled back if galaxias are to survive.
In April, conservation groups wrote to federal environment minister Tanya Plibersek demanding urgent action to save the Yalmy galaxias in the lower Snowy River and its tributaries in east Gippsland. The habitat was devastated by the Black Summer bushfires and a survey in March 2023 found just 20 examples of the fish.
“Native galaxias fish are some of Australia’s most threatened species, with 14 assessed as having at least 50 per cent chance of becoming extinct in the next 20 years,” said Biodiversity Council director James Trezise.
“In evolutionary terms trout are a new arrival, being dropped onto the continent one second before midnight compared to the native species that have lived here for millions of years.”
Trezise said it was “self-defeating” for government environment departments to work to save galaxiids while fisheries agencies were introducing feral species that prey on them.
“Invasive trout are one of the biggest threats to Australia’s native galaxias and we shouldn’t be adding to the problem by continually stocking our waterways with trout.”
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Guy Verney, a retired public servant and local Landcare volunteer who lives in Canberra, is a keen trout fisherman in southern NSW and a member of the Monaro Acclimatisation Society.
He emphasised the social importance of trout fishing and is concerned that governments might introduce restrictions before compromises are sought.
“My view is you’ve got to communicate and talk about these issues and understand what is at stake for all sides,” Verney said.
“All groups have to be party to that. It just can’t be one side, you’ve got to talk it through and work out if you can find a balance or not.
“Fishing involves the exercise that people should be doing, walking [in the] fresh air and experiencing the environment.”
Verney said for example, a local club, the Australian Capital Territory Fly Fishers, runs the Casting for Recovery program for breast cancer survivors.
The NSW government wrote to the conservation advocacy group the Invasive Species Council in May, stating it was mapping galaxiid habitat and the distribution of trout in the southern half of the state to “identify suitable trout-free habitat”.
NSW Department of Primary Industries said stocking locations were reviewed annually. Trout were “stocked into the most suitable locations for recreational anglers, and important threatened species are protected”.
Plibersek also wrote to the council in May, confirming she had asked state governments “to urge them to take action to protect our native freshwater species”.
The council’s principal policy analyst Carol Booth said her goal ultimately was to prioritise survival of all native species, but even for free-flowing prime trout streams “that’s not incompatible with what will continue to be thriving fishing opportunities”.
However, human impacts must be scaled back, Booth said, given Australia’s native species losses have continued on a steady trajectory since colonisation and galaxiids were among the next most likely next species to disappear.
The Monaro group’s Kerry Pfeiffer says Australia’s harsh environment, coupled with increasing fears for native species survival, spells more uncertainty for trout fishing.
“I don’t know what’s in the future. If we go through some horrendous droughts and bushfires and things like that, I don’t know what things are going to look like coming out the other side,” he says.
Cut through the noise of federal politics with news, views and expert analysis from Jacqueline Maley. Subscribers can sign up to our weekly Inside Politics newsletter here.
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