Access for water activity at Warren Reservoir in the Barossa Valley has been temporarily closed for visitors to enable the reservoir’s native fish and turtle relocation.
SA Water said that while the water would remain closed until September, visitors could still explore the reserve’s eastern nine-kilometre trail loop with the southern car park and amenities remaining open.
It said that to relocate the reservoir’s native fish – which included Murray Cod, Golden Perch and Silver Perch – and remove its harmful species, commercial fishers had begun working on the water to catch the estimated 16,000 fish.
Senior Manager of SA Water’s Capital Delivery, Peter Seltsikas said that with the fish, Warren’s native long-neck turtles would soon be moved into South Para Reservoir.
“We identified at least 30 long-neck turtles during our recent fish study and they’ll be ‘coming out of their shell’ and swapping postcodes as part of our work to safely relocate the reservoir’s native fish,” Mr Seltsikas said.
“With the reservoir’s water level now sitting below 20 per cent capacity, commercial fishers have begun their six-week operation which includes a combination of electrofishing and power hauling, working from six boats,” he said.
“Electrofishing is a safe method that briefly stuns the fish so they can be netted, whereas power hauling is the use of a large mechanical net which is pulled through the water to collect a larger number of fish.”
Mr Seltsikas said that once the fish were stunned they would be sorted by allowing native fish to swim to the top of the net and manually scooped into aeration tanks to keep them comfortable while they’re transported and released at South Para.
He said that while there was no water access at Warren, anyone keen for a paddle or a fish could check out South Para Reservoir.
