The costly fight to save the Hazelwood barramundi after the power station's shutdown

Updated

When the Victorian Government released thousands of barramundi into the cooling ponds at Hazelwood power station, it was hoped the tropical game fish would be a tourism boon for the area.

Instead, the coal power station's owner announced they were shutting up shop, causing the warm water to cool and forcing authorities to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to keep the fish alive.

The past year and a half has seen illegal fishing, warnings of contamination, a cull, and more than 1,000 barramundi stunned and moved — and the story's not over yet.

Here's how it's unfolded so far:

Barramundi released

April 21, 2016

Authorities released 7,000 barramundi, ranging in size from 5 to 35 centimetres, into the hot water of Hazelwood's cooling ponds.

The State Government spent $150,000 stocking the tropical fish, which are normally found in waters in northern Australia.

Barramundi are a prize catch for anglers and it was expected the lake would become a tourist hotspot, attracting people from around the country.

The water in the ponds was heated to between 22 and 30 degrees Celsius as it circulated through the generator stacks.

Hazelwood to close

November 3, 2016

The owner of the power station announced it planned to close the plant in five months.

The news caused shockwaves in the community as more than 750 workers prepared for unemployment.

It also raised questions about what would happen to the cooling ponds and the tropical fish, which relied on the water heated by the power generator.

Illegal anglers

December 2, 2016

Anglers grew impatient with the State Government and descended on the pondage before the start of the fishing season after it was delayed by two months.

The illegal fishing was condemned by authorities, who warned anglers would be fined if caught.

The anglers were fishing in areas that would never be opened to recreational fishing and drew the ire of local farmers.

No luck on day one

December 9, 2016

The Hazelwood barramundi fishery was officially opened and people lined the water's edge hoping to hook one of the game fish.

Thousands of people entered a ballot to be one of the 25 boats allowed on the water each day and hundreds of people flocked to the shores of the lake during the first weeks of the fishing season.

On the opening day frigid weather created poor fishing conditions and not one barramundi was caught.

Fish begin to thrive

January 24, 2017

After a tough start, things began to improve for anglers. One fisherman reported catching dozens of barramundi during one session.

Some of the fish reached 84 centimetres in length.

As fishing continued, the State Government was working to predict how the barramundi would react when the generator was switched off.

The experts were unsure of the minimum water temperature barramundi could survive in.

Questions of survival

March 23, 2017

The Victorian Fisheries Authority stationed a person on the Hazelwood pondage to monitor for dead fish.

There were growing concerns the water temperature would drop and its quality would degrade when the power station was taken offline later that month.

Hazelwood powers down

March 31, 2017

Hazelwood shut its doors and the main supply of hot water ran cold.

Hot artesian water being pumped from the base of the mine was expected to keep part of the pondage warm until the mine void was rehabilitated.

Following the plant's closure, the water temperature started to fall by 1C per day and it quickly fell below 20C.

The State Government reported the fishery had injected $700,000 into the local economy.

Eat fewer barramundi

April 4, 2017

Concern over chemical contamination led Victoria's Environment Protection Authority to issue new advice around eating barramundi from the pondage.

When the fishery was first opened, the recommendation was to eat no more than three serves of the barramundi per week.

But new guidelines around consuming chemicals found in firefighting foams known as PFAS saw that revised down to one serve per week for adults and one serve per fortnight for children.

Food source dying out

May 15, 2017

Small feral fish living in the pondage, which the barramundi rely on to survive, started to die off as the water temperature fell.

The Victorian Fisheries Authority reported 300 small cichlids and tilapia had washed up dead.

By this point the temperature of the water had dropped to 14C.

Barra stunned and moved

May 22, 2017

Hundreds of surviving barramundi found their way from the cold water to a warm channel, close to an inlet of hot water being pumped from the mine void.

The fish that remained in the cooler water were caught and moved to the channel.

Fisheries officers "electro-fished" the barramundi, sending a pulse into the water to stun the fish before gathering them into barrels and relocating.

The hot area was inaccessible to anglers and was bordered by land owned by Hazelwood's owners Engie and Gippsland Water.

Sick fish culled

July 17, 2017

The Victorian Fisheries Authority culled 500 sick and starving barramundi after cold weather killed off their major source of food.

The cull left about 1,500 of the fish to survive in the warm area of the pondage, which had been sealed off from the larger body of water by Engie to provide a reliable water supply for firefighting.

The dead fish were frozen then disposed of in landfill, in a process approved by Victoria's Environment Protection Authority.

The fish clean-up operation cost the Government $60,000.

Rainbow trout introduced

September and November, 2017

In order to feed the starving barramundi and create a replacement fishery for anglers, 8,000 rainbow trout were released to the pondage.

Weeks after the fish were introduced, surveys conducted by fisheries could not track down any of the trout, indicating they may have been eaten.

Fishing opened again

January, 2018

The State Government allocated $80,000 to turn a nearby 500m strip of land owned by Gippsland Water into a new fishing zone.

The narrow area of land separates a reservoir from the hot water channel where the barramundi now live.

The money will see new fences and a carpark built, and the fishery is due to reopen to anglers by the middle of January.

The work brings the total spend on the barramundi project to more than $270,000.

Topics: fishing-aquaculture, rural, illegal-fishing, government-and-politics, state-parliament, morwell-3840, vic

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