Duncan, M. and Graham, P., 2017.  Koondrook-Perricoota Forest Icon site fish condition monitoring report - 2016 Annual Report.  Report to Forestry Corporation and the Murray-Darling Basin Authority, 33p.

Summary

The Koondrook-Perricoota Forest (KPF) is a large floodplain forest located adjacent to the Murray River in southern New South Wales and is one of The Living Murray icon sites, containing significant wetland and creek ecosystems.

To assess the condition of the fish community and monitor progress toward the KPF refined ecological objective for fish, a fish condition monitoring project was implemented in 2011 after drought-breaking floods entered the KPF in 2010 and created fish habitat in wetlands and creeks.

The KPF Fish Condition Monitoring project has two major monitoring objectives:

• Annual assessment of the condition of the KPF fish community
• Assessment of change in the condition of the KPF fish community over time.

This report documents the results of the fish condition monitoring at Koondrook-Perricoota Forest project in 2016 and the changes in the fish community monitored since 2011.

The main findings are:

• There were only four sites in the KPF that contained water. One site was connected to the Murray River (Lock Lagoon) and therefore had a different fish community present than the sites isolated within KPF. Lock Lagoon contained the only large-bodied species detected in KPF in 2016; bony herring, golden perch and silver perch.
• Carp were almost absent at the three isolated KPF sites with only two individuals captured.
• Native fish biomass within KPF waterbodies in 2016 averaged 63% of total fish biomass. Abundance of native fish in KPF waterbodies in 2016 averaged 86% of all fish collected and this is the highest recorded since monitoring began.
• Expectedness metrics were higher than in previous years, although this is largely due to the presence of silver perch in Lock Lagoon.
• Six small-bodied native fish species had recruits present in KPF in 2016.