The Carp Management Program held its yearly Workshop on the 5th of April. We looked at the data collected over the past spring and summer including carp caught and fishing effort. We reviewed how the carp removal is progressing and discussed what can be done to complete the eradication of carp from Tasmania. Dr. Alyssa Marshell, a research fellow/fisheries scientist from the Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies attended the workshop as an independent reviewer. Dr. Marshell produced a report reviewing the the Carp Management Program and made recommendations.

Here is Dr Marshell's report.

Key points from the workshop:

• The fishing this year focused effort on good weather and conditions to target spawning related carp movement.
• Ideal weather and water levels saw four carp caught this season.
• All four carp were female, with only one being healthy enough to breed..
• 41 503 carp have been removed from Lake Sorell since 1995.
• Carp are contained to Lake Sorell.
• No spawning or small carp were found in Lake Sorell.
• There are very few carp remaining in Lake Sorell.
• The last male carp caught that could breed was in 2019
• Numerous juvenile brown trout were caught which shows the trout fishery is naturally rebuilding. 
• No carp were found in Lake Crescent.

Future strategies:

• Lake Sorell will be open for the coming trout season.
• Continue to block the carp spawning areas with barrier nets.
• Actively target carp spawning weather in November and December to see if any carp remain.
• Maintain the containment screens at the outflow from Lake Sorell.
• In order to rebuild the Lake Sorell trout fishery we will monitor and maintain access to the trout spawning grounds at Mountain and Silver Plains creeks.
• Intensive gill netting for carp is not planned for the coming year so the trout fishery will continue to recover.