VICTORIA’S Department of Primary Industries has engaged the University of NSW to conduct a trial to stock eastern king prawns in Lake Tyers.
This follows the success of a similar trial run in the coastal lakes on the NSW South Coast.
Planning for Victoria’s Lake Tyers project started in January 2011, with the first field trip to identify suitable sites and collect habitat information undertaken in March 2011.
The experimental design for the trial is currently being developed by the University of NSW and aims to prepare a production model for Lake Tyers to guide the number of prawns to be stocked, and evaluate the growth and survival of released prawns and potential effects of prawn stocking and prawning on the lake’s ecosystem.
Initial sampling trips have been completed in the lake and a detailed habitat map is now being produced, and preliminary samples are being sorted. The production of a prawn productivity model for Lake Tyers is hoped to be achieved for October 2012, and is expected to provide estimates of the best stocking density for the lake in late 2012 – and other Victorian lakes in the future.
