Murray cod rescue: distressed fish trucked 590km to hatchery

Operation necessary to stop fish dying after flows are cut off to maintain water supplies to stock and domestic users

New South Wales fisheries workers are attempting to rescue distressed Murray cod near Menindee in the state's west by catching them in nets and trucking them to a fish hatchery hundreds of kilometres away.

The NSW primary industries department (DPI) confirmed the operation was under way on Thursday morning and was necessary because authorities would be cutting off water flows from Menindee's weir 32 "in the near future to maintain town water supply".