Scientists decry deaths of endangered lungfish

SCIENTISTS worldwide are outraged by the death of scores of Australian lungfish, the oldest living link to the first animals to walk on land.Experts estimate that only a few thousand lungfish, or Neoceratodus forsteri, remain in rivers and streams around the Burnett River catchment of southeast Queensland, including the Mary River, site of the proposed Traveston Dam. Queensland Bulk Water Supply Authority, trading as Seqwater, confirmed to The Australian that it released water from the North Pine Dam twice last month, after unusually heavy rainfall. After the spills, residents found more than 40 dead or dying lungfish in a short stretch of riverbank below the dam wall. "It's outrageous," Macquarie University evolutionary biologist Jean Joss said. "It wouldn't happen if they were koalas." Professor Joss said international scientists had expressed concern to her over the incident. According to Professor Joss, Australia's sole species of lungfish is the most primitive of the world's five remaining species of lungfish, the first animals to "walk on fins" and breathe air. A spokesman for Tim Mulherin-- the Minister for Primary Industries, Fisheries and Rural and Regional Queensland -- said the department would talk to the Environment and Resource Management Department and Seqwater to "identify if there are ways of releasing water from the state's dams that may minimise fish losses". Scientists say the lungfish provides a unique opportunity to study the genetic and physiological adaptations that made life on land possible. Professor Joss said lungfish genes might lead to a greater understanding of human physiology. "A lot of the genetic material I ship (to overseas laboratories) is for study of lung disease," said Professor Joss, who has bred the fish in her laboratory. The lungfish deaths came 2 1/2 years after then Queensland deputy premier Anna Bligh met Professor Joss to discuss ways to conserve the fish should the Traveston Dam go ahead, destroying critical lungfish habitat.Leigh Dayton, Science writer July 06, 2009 Article from: The Australian