AFTER seven years of the Berrima Carpathon, the organisational reel for the annual event has been handed over to a new crew.
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A sub-committee of Berrima Public School's P&C has been hard at work for the 2015 incarnation of the carpathon.
Previous organiser Andrew Hearn passed over his organisational duties to Peter Goulder, Ross Durney, Megan Moore and Chris Cusack.
Mr Goulder said their inaugural year of organising the event had been an eye-opener.
"We were lucky enough to get a lot of contacts from Andrew Hearn," he said.
Each year Highlands locals as well as fishers from outside the region travel to the banks of the Wingecarribee River to eradicate as many carp as possible.
European Carp is an introduced species and a pest that has negative impacts on water quality and other organisms.
Natural resource projects co-ordinator at Wingecarribee Council Ian Perkins said carp was introduced in the late 1800s to early 1900s and became a problem in the 1970s.
He said a commercial variety escaped from a fish farm on the Murray River and the aggressive species colonised quickly.
European Carp can live for more than 30 years, with females maturing at three to five years.
An adult female carp can produce up to 1.5 million eggs per year.
"Carps are bottom feeders, sucking up mud and filtering through it for food, churning over sediment," Mr Perkins said.
Water quality is often one of the first visible effects of carp on a river.
"The sunlight cannot penetrate effectively and plants that rely on the sunlight are reduced and it has a cascade effect - the food supply is lost for other organisms."
Mr Perkins said carp was a widespread problem across Australia and no one single treatment could eradicate the fish from our rivers.
The annual Berrima Carpathon is one measure that has a great deal of efficiency in reducing the number of carp in local waters.
There will be daily weigh-ins at Marketplace Park at 4pm Friday and Saturday, and 12pm Sunday.
More than 1.7 tonne of carp was pulled from the Wingecarribee River last year, and Mr Goulder said if numbers got close to that this year, it would be a success.
The registration tent will be open in Marketplace Park, Berrima from 7am to 5pm on Friday, 8am to 4pm on Saturday and 8am to 12pm Sunday.
For more information email berrimacarpathon@gmail.com or call 0473 148 192.