What he didn’t expect was to end up with 288 crayfish in less than two-and-a-half hours.
“We got the call out to make a trip to Koondrook and we certainly didn’t expect to end up with so many crays in such a short period of time, in fact, in the end, we had to stop collecting them because we could only fit so many in the van,” Mr Lampard said.
“People just kept bringing them to us to save as many as possible.”
He said the crayfish were all found within a short distance either side of the Koondrook-Barham Bridge and because there were so many, NSW Department of Planning and Environment staff would be returning to the area in coming days.
The Murray crays are exiting the river due to a hypoxic blackwater event caused by recent flooding.
While there is never a good time for a blackwater event, the timing couldn’t be worse with crayfish eggs beginning to hatch.
Mature female crayfish carry their eggs and juveniles under their tails which is extremely risky when a female is forced to exit the river.
A blackwater event occurs when big rains and heavy flooding wash organic material into waterways.
When the large volumes of organic material begins to decompose, the bacteria uses up the oxygen in the water leaving less dissolved oxygen available to fish and crayfish.
Mr Lampard said the rescued crayfish would be sent to the Narrandera Fish Centre where they would be looked after by experts and returned to the river when conditions improved.
The rescued crayfish ranged in size from babies to over the legal size limit; eight were females with eggs in varying stages of development.
Mr Lampard said OzFish would follow the flood downstream to try and rescue and protect as many crayfish as possible.
“OzFish has permits in place to allow us to move crays until December 31, we will reassess after that time if we need to continue,” he said.
As the manager of restoration projects, Mr Lampard said it had taken a decade for the crayfish population to recover from the last blackwater event in 2011.
“While this is distressing, we just have to focus on saving as many crays as we can.”
He said working for OZFish was his dream job.
“I have been around fishing and waterways all my life and I have a deep passion for the environment. I started working with OzFish as a volunteer and became a paid employee a few years ago.”
He said OzFish was Australia’s only fishing conservation charity.
It operates across the country through a network of members and volunteers with the aim of creating and supporting habitat restoration projects which benefit waterways.
The not-for-profit was founded by anglers, waterway stewards and ocean lovers with a desire to make a positive change to Australian watercourses.
