Shrinking blackfish population near Killarney the 'canary in the coal mine'

Shrinking blackfish population near Killarney the 'canary in the coal mine'

Source: ABC Southern Qld

11/28/2021

Credit: Department of Agriculture & Fisheries

A tiny species of fish once caught by the bucketful in Queensland's upper Condamine River is on the verge of extinction.
Scientists are worried the northern river blackfish – more commonly known as the nicky fish or the nicky long cod – could be the signalling an environmental collapse in the Murray-Darling Basin river system

The species, already highly vulnerable to localised extinctions, is in severe decline.

Over the next two years Southern Queensland Landscapes will try to reduce sediment and increase natural habitat in the streams where the fish still live, including in Killarney, at the headwaters of the Condamine River in Southern Queensland.