TRAGEDY EMINENT FOR CANIA DAM - FISH WILL DIE

Thousands of fish, stocked by the local community, will die, if a proposed release of water for irrigation purposes from Cania Dam near Monto, proceeds this winter.
This is the opinion of the Freshwater Fishing and Stocking Association of Queensland Inc. (FFSAQ), as announced today by it's President, Mr. Les Kowitz.

"FFSAQ cannot concur with Sunwater's position that the remaining 4000ML of water will allow fish stocks to survive", Mr Kowitz said.

Mr Kowitz said that the Queensland Government appears to have ignored advice from it's own Queensland Fisheries Service that fish survival at this level, at best, is very doubtful. It is now very clear that the Queensland Government, through the Premier and Minister's Robertson and Palaszczuk, must intervene, and prevent this tragedy from occurring.

The Queensland Government has now to make a decision to either support the recreational fishing and tourist industry it has shared in so successfully developing , for the past 15 years, or to destroy the fishery for a handful of downstream irrigators, whose resulting benefit must surely be questionable, Mr Kowitz said.

It is tragically ironical for the Queensland Government on one hand to be developing the concept of the Recreational Fishing Enhancement Programme, and then on the other allowing it to be destroyed. If fish die, the Queensland Government will be totally answerable to the 800,000 recreational fishers in Queensland. Of course there would be an expectation that compensation would be forthcoming, Mr Kowitz said.

Mr Kowitz said, the Queensland Government has a responsibility to act proactively and with urgency, to ensure that the Cania fishery is preserved for all Queenslanders, and not be devestated for the perceived benefit of a few irrigators.

COMMONSENSE MUST PREVAIL

For more information, contact:
Les Kowitz, President FFSAQ Inc.
Phone 07-41716815
leskowitz5@yahoo.co.uk