{"id":437426,"date":"2026-01-25T23:18:39","date_gmt":"2026-01-25T23:18:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/437426\/"},"modified":"2026-01-25T23:18:39","modified_gmt":"2026-01-25T23:18:39","slug":"promising-results-for-ai-fish-passage-aiming-to-help-stop-another-menindee-mass-fish-kill","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/437426\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Promising’ results for AI fish passage aiming to help stop another Menindee mass fish kill"},"content":{"rendered":"

The operators behind an innovative solution to prevent mass fish deaths are feeling confident as the $6.52 million trial draws closer to its three-year mark.<\/p>\n

Using AI to identify and transport native species from the Darling River in far west New South Wales into the Menindee Lakes, results have so far proved “promising”.<\/p>\n

However, the Finnish company behind the temporary fish passage faces an uphill battle to prove to locals the taxpayer-funded project will pay off.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Fish pass from the Darling River through a pipe over this road and into the Menindee Lakes to find spawning areas further north. (ABC News: Bill Ormonde)<\/p>\n

Fishheart’s Mika Sohlberg said the technology allowed fish to pass obstacles like roads, weirs and dams and complete their migratory life cycle and find spawning areas further north.<\/p>\n

“We’re taking the water from the reservoir, through a pipeline into our unit, [where we] collect the fish and take them over the dam to a reservoir with water pressure,” he said.<\/p>\n

Now in year two of three, around 10,000 fish have so far passed through the pipeline.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Mika Sohlberg is confident the technology can be effective by the end of the three-year trial.\u00a0 (ABC News: Bill Ormonde)<\/p>\n

Funded by NSW’s Department of Primary Industries (DPI), the project relocates fish to reduce competition for food, space and oxygen, according to the DPI’s Tony Townsend.<\/p>\n

“We’ve seen a lot more golden perch using the fishway and Murray cod as well, which is really promising,” he said.<\/p>\n

Changes have also been made to the design from year one, after it initially struggled to detect and identify fish in the murky water of the Darling River.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

A dead Murray cod only a few hundred metres from the trial site. (ABC News: Bill Ormonde)<\/p>\n

“It’s a building process. It’s like building a successful Formula 1 team; it takes years and years of work,” Mr Sohlberg said.<\/p>\n

He added that the technology had the potential to be refined further and be employed throughout the Murray-Darling Basin to help transport fish.<\/p>\n

“We need to move as much biomass as we can per one unit, per one summer \u2026 to make sure that there will never be fish kills like … in 2023,” he said.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

One of about 7,000 bony herring that have passed through the fish passage since late September.\u00a0 (ABC News: Bill Ormonde)<\/p>\n

“Obviously, that needs more than one unit, but with a lot of units it’s totally doable.”<\/p>\n

‘Waste of taxpayers’ money’<\/p>\n

But some locals like Dave Baker remain sceptical about whether the technology can transport enough fish to adequately reduce biomass at choke points in the river.<\/p>\n

He said the 10,000 fish that had passed through so far was a fraction of what was required to be removed, when compared to the 20 to 30 million that died in 2023.<\/p>\n

\"Man<\/p>\n

Dave Baker is sceptical, despite the optimism of Fishheart and DPIRD Fisheries. (ABC News: Bill Ormonde)<\/p>\n

“I think the fishway project is a waste of taxpayers’ money,” he said.<\/p>\n

“We can fish right next to that fish ladder and catch more fish than what the fish that are going over the weir, the ones that count like the perch.<\/p>\n

“Bony bream don’t really count unless you can put millions across.”<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

WaterNSW’s 2024 oxygenation trial showed limited potential in preventing future fish kills. (ABC News: Bill Ormonde)<\/p>\n

While Fishheart is confident its technology can be refined, and the units can be manufactured in Australia and distributed across the basin, Mr Baker remained dubious, pointing to WaterNSW’s oxygenation trial<\/a> showing limited potential.<\/p>\n

“That was just absolute rubbish,” he said.<\/p>\n

‘A good start for new technology’<\/p>\n

Professor of Fisheries and River Management at Charles Sturt University, Lee Baumgartner, has been on multiple independent panels looking into fish deaths in the Darling River near Menindee, including the NSW Chief Scientist’s investigation, which handed down its report in late 2023.<\/a><\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Lee Baumgartner says temporary and permanent fish passages are needed in Menindee. (Supplied: Charles Sturt University)<\/p>\n

Professor Baumgartner said a common recommendation that emerged was to create a permanent fish ladder at the Menindee main weir to ease the concentration of huge numbers of fish at the site when they travelled upstream, but a temporary solution was also needed.<\/p>\n

“[A permanent fish ladder] would be quite expensive and a bit time-consuming, you’re looking at a five to six-year time frame at a minimum,” he said.<\/p>\n

“So you had to do something in the meantime to get the fish through, whilst a permanent site was scoped.<\/p>\n

“If you don’t come up with a temporary solution, there’s a real risk that fish deaths will happen again.”\"A<\/p>\n

Fish are transported up this pipe over a steep embankment after being identified by AI. (ABC News: Bill Ormonde)<\/p>\n

Professor Baumgartner and the rest of the panel looked at the Fishheart technology as one of several global technologies that could deliver a short-term fish passage, but had no part in the tender selection process conducted by the NSW government.<\/p>\n

He said given it was experimental and automated, the trial was likely to experience obstacles, but the number of fish recorded so far was “pretty good”.<\/p>\n

“There’s been a lot of trials of other technology that don’t have any fish, so it’s a good start for a new technology,” he said.<\/p>\n

\"Menindee<\/p>\n

The Menindee Lakes main weir is one of the locations suggested by Dave Baker for a permanent fish ladder. (ABC News: Bill Ormonde)<\/p>\n

Overrun by carp<\/p>\n

Mr Baker and other locals remain frustrated that the Darling River’s overabundance of carp, which populate the river in their millions, is yet to be addressed by the state or federal governments.<\/p>\n

\"Several<\/p>\n

Carp piling on top of each other at Menindee Lakes several weeks before the 2023 mass fish kill. (Landline: Bill Ormonde)<\/p>\n

The invasive species causes significant environmental degradation by destroying vegetation, outcompeting native species for food and increasing turbidity, contributing to algae blooms and fish kills.<\/p>\n

“We could be paying people to catch the carp \u2014\u00a0$6.5 million can go a long way,” Mr Baker said.<\/p>\n

“They should spend the right amount of money, it’s going to cost a lot more, put an open and closed fish ladder in, either at the main weir or the blocked dam, it might cost $25 million, but at least you know it’s going to work.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Fisheries staff caught, measured and checked the health of some fish that have passed through the passage. (ABC News: Bill Ormonde)<\/p>\n

“It’s just a complete waste of time … put a permanent fish ladder in and be done with it.”<\/p>\n

Professor Baumgartner said any fish ecologist who had worked in the Murray-Darling Basin had considered this a priority for decades, and, while it was still likely years away, a permanent solution was still urgently needed.<\/p>\n

“It’s always difficult to build a fish ladder at a site that already exists because you have to make sure you work in with your existing infrastructure,” he said.<\/p>\n

“So that’s one of the challenges at Menindee.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The operators behind an innovative solution to prevent mass fish deaths are feeling confident as the $6.52 million…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":437427,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[256,254,255,64,63,81828,81827,228029,228031,228028,228030,228026,228027,228032,105],"class_list":["post-437426","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-artificial-intelligence","tag-ai","tag-artificial-intelligence","tag-artificialintelligence","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-fish-deaths","tag-fish-kill","tag-fish-passage","tag-fishheart","tag-fishway","tag-menindee-fish-kill","tag-menindee-fish-passage","tag-menindee-fishway","tag-nsw-fisheries","tag-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/437426","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=437426"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/437426\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/437427"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=437426"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=437426"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=437426"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}