Creek to be poisoned in pest fish cull
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The Department of Primary Industries (DPI) will dam and poison five kilometres of a far north Queensland creek to stop an exotic fish pest spreading through the Gulf of Carpentaria.
The DPI says the tilapia fish has infiltrated Eureka Creek about 90 kilometres west of Cairns.
It says the use of a fish poison in a flowing waterway has never attempted in Queensland before.
The Member for Cook, Jason O'Brien, says a five kilometre section of the creek will be dammed, before the poison is introduced to kill the pest.
He says the native fish will be stunned and removed before this happens.
"The poison they will use dissipates over 12 hours, so they will dam the river, they will put the poison in, it will kill the fish and 12 hours later it will have dissipated - so that there is no risk they will monitor the water before they open up the dam again," he said.
Mr O'Brien says the poison is considered environmentally safe.
"The Eureka Creek, which is a tributary to the Walsh, which runs into the Mitchell, they have found tilapia, they are going to stun the water to take out as much of the native fish as they can and then they are going to use a poison to poison the tilapia to try and rid them completely from that section of Eureka Creek," he said.
Tilapia are considered to be one of the world's worst introduced fish species.
