The plan to determine whether a carp herpes virus is released into Australian waterways will not be reviewed by the Federal Government until at least October this year, around nine months after it was originally expected to be published.
The Fisheries Research and Development Corporation (FRDC) is responsible for developing the plan and submitted its recommendation to the Federal Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment in January this year.
Fishing industry and water stakeholders expected the Federal Government would review the FRDC's recommendations and make them public at this time, but they were never released and the plan was criticised for a lack of transparency.
The department defended keeping the plan in confidence and a spokesperson said there was ongoing scientific work that needed to be completed and the need to "integrate key research results into a single document [to] best facilitate government consideration".
But five months later, the department said the coronavirus pandemic has complicated the time frame to complete extra scientific research needed for the plan.
"The work is being undertaken by the CSIRO at its bio-secure Australian Centre for Disease Preparedness … [which is] currently focusing on COVID-19," a department spokesperson said.
The additional work includes researching the seasonality and secretion of the of the carp virus and quantifying the rate of transmission by skin-to-skin contact and water-borne pathways.
Cost of carp clean up questioned
Riverland councils late last year discussed the impacts of a potential virus release, with the Murraylands and Riverland Local Government Association calling for the clean-up effort to be properly resourced.
The lobbying efforts date back to July 2017, when the Mid Murray council carried a motion that stated "councils should not be required to undertake any clean up of [a] fish kill at their own cost".
A September 2019 report commissioned by the FRDC acknowledged there would be tourism impacts for the Mid Murray, Renmark Paringa, Loxton Waikerie, Berri Barmera and Coorong council areas.
The report detailed concerns from local industry stakeholders about masses of stinking dead fish being left floating in the water in areas that relied on tourism.
Decision still months away
Initial steps to finalise the plan will not begin to be determined by the Department and the FRDC until October this year, when it said the COVID-19 situation and CSIRO's capacity to complete its research should be clearer.
"[Then we can] look at the steps to finalise the plan and when it could be considered by governments," a department spokesperson said.
"While the plan has taken longer than originally anticipated, taking this time is prudent to ensure a robust plan is developed.
"It is intended that once the FRDC's work has been completed, the final plan will be publicly released."
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