A Sunshine Coast fish hatchery continues to call for a moratorium on the use of some farm chemicals after the discovery of more deformed fish, including a three-headed embryo (picture featured), in stock from the Noosa River. The Queensland Government set up the Noosa Fish Health Task Force earlier this year to investigate the problems.
The hatchery owners said they are adhering to all bio-security guidelines in their own operations but that they continue to get deformed fish from brood stock taken from the Noosa River.
One suspected cause of the deformities is via the use of the toxic pesticide endosulfan on nearby nut plantations. Australia continues to allow the use of endosulfan in agriculture, despite its use being banned by more than 60 countries, and despite Bayer, the pesticide’s manufacturer, intending to stop producing the pesticide because of risks associated with it.
The chemical has alleged links to reproductive and developmental damage in animals and humans.
An interim report on the Noosa fish deformities and role of pesticides is available link at:
http://www.dpi.qld.gov.au/cps/rde/dpi/hs.xsl/28_14238_ENA_HTML.htm
According to Fisho’s fish biologist, Dr Ben Diggles, appendices 1 and 5 of the above report are compulsory reading for anyone interested in how Aussie native fish may be affected by farm chemicals
(pesticides, herbicides). Diggles adds that Appendix 5 (link below) shows that these chemicals are out there and detectable at biologically significant levels in our waterways.
