Aussie scientist in charge of European carp control dismisses research predicting Carpageddon

THE “Carpinator”, entrusted with ridding the River Murray of the invasive European carp, has hit back at claims his strategy will lead to greater problems.

• European carp haul taken from McLaren Flat wetlands
• European carp to be exposed to herpes virus to cull numbers
• River Murray solution lies is massive carp orgies and native fish sex

THE “Carpinator” has hit back at claims the carp herpes virus could mutate, escape, attack other species, cause “catastro­phic ecosystem crashes” and interrupt global food supply.

Matt Barwick, head of the national Carp Control Plan, has faced a grilling in a Senate estimates hearing over a plan to eradicate carp from Murray with the herpes virus.

He dismissed the shocking claims from international researchers, saying he welcomed any scientific contributions but that there were “no examples” of such a process occurring.

The Federal Government has committed $15 million to research how to kill the invasive European carp species infesting the river system and how to remove the rotting carcasses once they’re dead.

Liberal National Senator Barry O’Sullivan was chairing a Senate estimates hearing into the Murray-Darling Basin Plan.

He mentioned research from United Kingdom academics that warned:

THE virus could evolve and infect native species.

A LARGE-scale release posed a risk to global food security.

EXPECTED millions of tonnes of rotting fish could “lead to ecosystem crashes”.

CARP could become resistant and “bounce back”.

Former deputy prime minister and water minister Barnaby Joyce with ‘Carpinator’ Matt Barwick, and a European carp.

Senator O’Sullivan said a number of other established scientists had raised issues and asked Mr Barwick if he was “in a position to discredit” the theories, in case the scientists “just got out of the nuthouse”.

Mr Barwick said those questions were the reason they were going through with an evidence-based plan. However, questions about the “motivations” of the overseas researchers were raised.

Mr Barwick said “all livings things mutate”.

“It is the basis of evolution and natural selection,” he said.

“The real question we need to ask is what mutation could occur in evolution in such a way that it would produce an increased risk to Australian native species.”

The Carpinator said any “species jump” of viruses was always to closely related species and there were “no examples” of any other species ever developing a disease caused by this virus.

In estimates hearings yesterday Greens Senator Sarah Hanson-Young asked questions about a leaked document that showed former top water bureaucrat David Papps was “increasingly anxious” about how states would deliver water for the Murray-Darling Basin. He had written to the Murray-Darling Basin Authority seeking reassurance.

“A crisis of confidence is clearly evident across the basin requiring those responsible for regulation to demonstrate their statutory function in practice,” the letter stated.

The missive came as state and federal governments, academics and conservationists were pitted against each other over the future of the $13 billion Murray-Darling Basin Plan. Critics are sceptical that projects designed to save the system will deliver what they promise and the Greens developed legislation to block proposed changes.

Bureaucrats argued that the document was not a letter, rather a draft of potential correspondence that had been sent between executive assistants.

“Talk about semantics,” Senator Hanson-Young said.