Lake Tyers Estuary opened to the sea in the early hours of Tuesday, February 18, to the delight of many and apprehension of others.
On the Tuesday afternoon of the opening the East Gippsland Catchment Management Authority (CMA), with support from Parks Victoria carried out water quality monitoring across the lake. The oxygen levels at Toorloo Arm were extremely low, two per cent at surface, and were also low in Boggy Creek at 40 per cent. All other sites across the lake had moderate to high
oxygen levels.
East Gippsland CMA was
concerned by these results and was keeping a close eye on the lake, asking people to contact them if fish were looking to be impacted.
“On Wednesday afternoon, East Gippsland Shire Council and East Gippsland CMA staff saw a couple hundred of small fish had gone belly up near the Nowa Nowa wetlands walk,” Bec Hemming, chief executive officer of East Gippsland CMA, said.
“We were starting to think this was the start of more bad news to come.”
“On Thursday afternoon further inspections were undertaken in Toorloo Arm and no dead fish were found.
“We were relieved with this news. There isn’t a lot of science on fish movement during estuary openings. We suspect they move downstream towards the ocean, and where there is more oxygen.
“The lake is looking great, the water is clear, there are lots of waterbirds enjoying the changes in conditions and we are hearing reports fishing is a little hit and miss.
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“It is great to see the agencies working together. East Gippsland Shire Council have done a power of work to clean up the facilities at Nowa Nowa and Lake Tyers Beach; the community have kept everyone up to date with the changes in the lake and providing reports to agencies. Parks Victoria and Gippsland Ports have provided ongoing support with monitoring conditions and intelligence. We thank everyone for their contributions and hope the conditions in the lake continue to improve.
“We continue to learn from each estuary opening, as every estuary system and opening is different.”
The Nowa Nowa community is relieved the water levels have receded after such an extended time of inundation.
President of the Nowa Nowa Community Development Group Bernie Rossi was happy to see the East Gippsland Shire did a clean up at the boat ramp and picnic area but said there are many issues still to be addressed.
“The dead trees are a big concern, particularly as limbs will begin to fall, there are erosion problems and there needs to be discussions about raising the assets to protect against inundation,” he said.
Bernie is also concerned the jetty at the boat ramp is still closed off by red tape, not allowing access to this is curtailing visitor usage and there appears to nothing wrong with the structure.
“We are also apprehensive that the pontoon removed by the shire has not been fixed or replaced. There was money allocated to do this and I fear that it may disappear if not started before the end of the financial year. They committed to us that it would be replaced and our community is keen to see progress made,” he said.
“We need the East Gippsland Shire Council, East Gippsland Catchment Management Authority and the Department of Department of Energy, Environment and Climate Action to all work on the same plan and have follow up meetings with the Nowa Nowa Community Development Group.”
Bernie is concerned about the lack of communication from council with his community, saying no calls have been returned.
Another resident said they need to meet with all authorities to examine how the situation was handled and what could be done differently in the future.
“We need to get everyone together to discuss this now, not leave it until the next event when there could be another set of public servants who have no experience in what occurred this time,” they said.
