How will the lungfish cross the dam?
That’s the burning question for those trying to save the last wild breeding grounds of our closest living fish relative, the Queensland lungfish, Neoceratodus forsteri. “It is a scientifically crucial animal,” says palaeontologist Zerina Johanson of Macquarie University in New South Wales. This is because it is a living guide to rare fossils of the first four-limbed animals (New Scientist, 5 April, p 14). The survival of the fish is, however, being threatened by two dams: the one on the Mary river in south-east Queensland is not yet a done-deal, but the Burnett river dam is complete, and will threaten the fish when full. The Queensland water ministry needs the go-ahead from the federal government to continue with both projects, and plans to construct fishways to help the lungfish cross the dams. However, scientists say the measures will do little to protect the fish’s breeding grounds and will not safeguard its future.
