Report on preliminary survey of freshwater fish in the Djelk wetlands, November 1996, October 1997

About the report

The Djelk wetlands are located in four coastal river catchments near the town of Maningrida in Central Amhemland, NT. The country in these catchments is managed for the landowners by the Bawinanga Aboriginal Corporation (BAC). As part of the ongoing process of developing management strategies for the area the BAC is pursuing the possibility of deriving income from sustainable wild harvest of freshwater fish for the aquarium trade.

Assistance in this process is being provided by the Environmental Research Institute of the Supervising Scientist (eriss). The first step in this process is to document the fish species that occur in the wetlands. This will be followed by market research on the economic potential of such a project. Once target species are determined by the market research, the size and methods of a sustainable harvest will be evaluated. This report presents results of a preliminary survey of fish undertaken in November 1996 by staff from eriss and BAC rangers.