A little fish making a big comeback!

Imagine you’re a little native fish, living your best life… then all of the water that you need to survive disappears, leaving you and your kin with little hope for survival. Following the millennium drought, Yarra Pygmy Perch – a gorgeous little native fish – disappeared from the Lower Lakes and was the first freshwater fish extinction in the Murray Darling Basin. Fortunately, some fish were rescued during the millennium drought and have been breeding in surrogate wetlands thanks to private landholders. For the second year in a row, Yarra Pygmy Perch have been reintroduced to their former homes near Hindmarsh Island/Kumerangk, on the Lower Murray River, to help re-establish the species back into the wild. Fifteen years of hard work, determination and collaborative efforts are having great conservation outcomes with 9,000 fish released during the 2023/2024 summer and a further 7,000 fish released this summer.

The long-term efforts to save the Yarra Pygmy Perch have been led through a partnership between Nature Glenelg Trust, the Murraylands and Riverland Landscape Board, and the Hills and Fleurieu Landscape Board, with support from the Big Little Four working group, the University of Adelaide, Flinders University, the Department for Environment and Water and the Ngarrindjeri Aboriginal Corporation.