From Monday 3 to Friday 7 March, a final survey was undertaken in Lake Sorell to confirm the functional eradication of carp. Functional eradication means that the few, if any, remaining carp are unable to breed.

The survey aimed to catch any young-of the-year or juvenile carp, which indicates whether any recent spawning had occurred.

Sixty-six fyke nets were set around the lake near weed beds and areas of structure where small carp are likely to hide. Backpack electro-fishing was also undertaken at 20 locations around the lake for 13 to 20 minutes per site.

In total, 6,128 fyke net hours and 335 electro-fishing minutes were undertaken, which resulted in the capture of numerous short fin eels, golden galaxiids, and freshwater shrimps, along with some very well-conditioned adult and juvenile brown trout.

This is now the third year in a row that the juvenile carp surveys have been conducted without the detection of any small carp, since the last adult carp was caught in November 2022. This is despite ideal environmental conditions for carp spawning in spring 2022, 2023, and 2024. The last major spawning event which occurred was during spring in 2009, with a very small spawning event detected in 2013.

The results of this survey confirm that Lake Sorell is still functionally eradicated of carp, and with carp also eradicated from Lake Crescent, the state of Tasmania remains carp free.

With the trout population bouncing back quickly, Lake Sorell is sure to be a standout water during the 2025/26 season and we can expect more trophy fish to be caught out of Lake Crescent over the coming seasons.