Tasmania creates trout-free havens for native fish with only 6,000 left

More than 160 years after Tasmania introduced British brown trout to create a major recreational fishery, conservation workers are building artificial barriers and clearing entire waterways to save a tiny native fish from extinction. The Swan galaxias (Galaxias fontanus), a small, scaleless freshwater fish found only in eastern Tasmania, has been reduced to an estimated 6,000 individuals. According to ABC News, the species now survives mainly in small, isolated headwater streams where natural barriers such as waterfalls stop predatory trout from moving upstream. To protect the endangered fish, conservation teams are creating trout-free areas by building physical barriers and moving small groups of Swan galaxias into safe, isolated catchments.An acclimatisation project that backfired on native faunaIn 1864, acclimatisation societies successfully brought European brown trout (Salmo trutta) eggs from England to Tasmania aboard the vessel Norfolk.