Pedder galaxias (credit: David Jarvis).

This little Tasmanian freshwater fish, once endemic to the original Lake Pedder area, came very close to extinction. Its decline began in the 1970s when Lake Pedder was flooded as part of a hydroelectric scheme. The flooding, along with the changed river system, permitted the arrival of two larger predatory fish. One of these was an exotic species, the brown trout. The other was a native, the climbing galaxias. Not only did these two invaders compete with the smaller Pedder galaxias for food, but they preyed upon it as well.

Not until 1991 did anyone realize the dire situation of the Pedder galaxias. A recovery plan was drawn up and it was decided that, because it would be virtually impossible to eliminate the two new predators from Lake Pedder, it would be necessary to find a new home for the little fish. Lake Oberon was selected, as it would provide an environment perfectly suited to the needs of Pedder galaxias. Accordingly, a team set off to capture about five thousand of the fish and translocate them to the new lake.

But it had been left almost too late. After two years of intensive searching, only forty-nine individual fish had been found and caught, and they had been found in just two of the several streams feeding into the now impounded Lake Pedder. At the end of 1992, it was estimated that fewer than two hundred fish still remained in the wild. Some of the forty-nine captured individuals were then released in Lake Oberon; the rest were kept in a captive breeding program.

Lake Oberon (credit: David Jarvis).

For the next four years, despite constant monitoring, not a single Pedder galaxias was seen in Lake Oberon. And then, on a red-letter day in 1996, the first one was recorded there. By 2001, it was estimated that more than five hundred adults were living and breeding in Lake Oberon. At the same time, some of the little fish from the captive breeding program were released at the Strathgordon water supply dam in an attempt to establish a second wild population as a backup in case disaster struck Lake Oberon. (The last Pedder galaxias that was ever found in its original home appeared in 1996, and so the commonwealth conservation status of this species, I am told, has been amended from “endangered” to “extinct in the wild.” I know what they mean, but it seems a strange designation since Lake Oberon is as wild as Lake Pedder!)

In 2008, I received an update from Dave Jarvis, senior fisheries management officer in Norfolk, Tasmania. Dave has been involved with Pedder galaxias restoration efforts for the past ten years.

The news from Lake Oberon is excellent: The population of Pedder galaxias is still thriving. Dave wrote that at the last sampling, in March 2007, better than 230 individuals were found “in just two hours night snorkeling.”

But there are problems with the other new site. Dave noted that over the past two years, 162 Pedder galaxias of varying sizes have been moved to the Strathgordon water supply dam, but there is no evidence that these fish have started to breed. Still, he remains optimistic about the future of this little fish. He now plans to create a rock debris pile at the site where water flows into the dam in the hope that this will provide suitable habitat for spawning. This project is about to get under way as I write. “There are still mysteries and unanswered questions. The rocks will provide an alternative habitat that could potentially mimic spawning conditions,” he wrote. But he used the term potentially because there have been no studies on the Pedder galaxias breeding cycle. However, he believes that the rocks might be just what these fish need, something that has been missing from the dam area. He’s keeping his fingers crossed and hoping for a successful spawning in the spring.

Note to reader: This sidebar is a companion to our complete California Condor chapter, which appears in Hope for Animals and Their World.