Thousands of native fish which were trapped for two years in a pond near Wellington, in central western New South Wales, have been rescued.
The fish were stuck in the dissipator pond below Burrendong Dam, which is used to ease the flow of water as it flows over the spillway and into the Macquarie River.
Murray cod, golden perch and catfish were among the species which became stranded after the 2016 floodwaters receded.
The fish are thought to have either entered the pond over the spillway, or from swimming upstream in the river.
Water New South Wales and DPI Fisheries had been pumping water and oxygen into the pond to keep the fish alive.
Fish out of water
The pond was drained, the fish were netted and moved into transport tanks before being taken to a release point in the Macquarie.
The operation that took nearly all of December last year — one challenge for authorities was moving the fish when the water temperatures were similar, otherwise the fish would have died.
The rescue was being touted as a win for the environment, with the return of fish to the system after two tonnes of invasive carp were culled.
"It was almost two years in the making, this fish rescue," Water New South Wales spokesman Tony Webber said.
"They have been successfully moved and returned to the river [where pest] carp have been culled.
"The estimate is somewhere around a thousand golden perch alone, then on top of that there were catfish, Murray cod, silver perch and European carp, which were separated from the group."
Bigger fish to fry
But recreational fishing group Inland Waterways Rejuvenation Association said the success of the operation was overshadowed by dying fish the state's far west.
"Native fish really are staring down the barrel in the Murray Darling Basin at the moment in the face of this drought," the group's president Matthew Hansen said.
He warned about depleting native fish stocks, with dead fish washing up on the shores of Menindee Lakes.
