As the 15/16 season comes to a close a significant reduction in carp captures has been confirmed. 1,222 carp were captured in 2014/15, while only 750 carp were captured in 2015/16 and this is despite a 260% increase in gill-netting effort. This follows the historic trend of declining carp capture as the population is continually depleted.
The warmer weather this summer also provided favorable conditions for carp capture, over cooler previous years where colder water temperatures were attributed, in part, to low catch rates.
To succeed in completely eliminating the remaining carp a number of methods to supplement the use of gillnets will be applied. Historically radio transmitter fish have been successful and 6 new radio transmitter carp were released into Lake Sorell in mid-March, and six more will be released at the beginning of the 16/17 carp season.