Original story by Wendy Collis, ABC Rural
It has no jaw, a sucker-like mouth and it swims between the estuary of the Coorong and the fresh water of the lower Murray to complete its life cycle.
The Lamprey fish is still recovering from the drought of 2009 which saw the level of Lake Alexandrina, at the end of the Murray system, drop dramatically.
This is the Lamprey fish.
But a few years ago, water levels were so low in Lake Alexandrina that there were concerns the lamprey might not be able to finish its migration.
Since then, more environmental water flows down the Murray have allowed the fish-ways to open, but a recent survey found only two lampreys.
Wendy Collis spoke to Adrienne Frears, a Wetland Ecologist with the Department of Environment, Water and Natural Resources, at the Goolwa barrage.
“We have had our fish scientists from SARDI aquatic sciences come out and do two weeks of monitoring here at the fish way on Goolwa barrage.
“This species, we think it is only just recovering from the drought.
“We actually only found only two of them here at Goolwa over that two week period; lots of other fish, which was exciting.
“But we think that because of the big period of drought, this species is only just starting to recover.”
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