The council’s general manager Peter Thompson said “turtles are a protected species and council is understandably concerned about the death of a protected species as part of the event”.

“We are in discussion with the event organisers about what measures can be put in place to ensure the safety of turtles if the event is held next year at Wollundry Lagoon,” he said.

A council spokesperson said the species is the Eastern long-necked turtle, which is protected under the Biodiversity Conservation Act 2016.

The event has been running for more than 20 years and draws in hundreds of anglers of all ages every year.

Rod Cockburn, owner of Compleat Angler Wagga who is involved in the event, said it should not be cancelled and that there was a “simple solution”.

“It’s a matter of hooks,” Mr Cockburn said.

“While barb-less hooks may be expensive, you can easily use pliers to remove barbs on regular hooks.”

He also said that turtles “hardly feel the hook” because their diet consists of species with shells, such as yabbies.

Mr Cockburn defended both the event and fishermen, saying the latter were “very caring in most cases”.

“Fishing around this area is fantastic – it’s a leisure and they wouldn’t deliberately hurt anything.”

He said the ecological benefits from the event needs to be considered before cancellation.

“One issue we’ve got is the cleanup of carp on a regular basis – there’s virtually nothing in the lagoon that is a predator to the carp,” Mr Cockburn said.

“Year-round fishing and Fisherama helps the control of carp.”

Wagga City Councillor Paul Funnell said all issues needed to be reviewed.

“I’m happy for us to look at any problems with turtles, but the first response shouldn’t be to cancel an event or say it’s under threat because of a complaint,” Cr Funnell said.

“There’s always a balance solution somewhere – we need to do that first before going down the path of potentially cancelling an event.”

Cr Funnell also said that managing the number of carp in the Lagoon needed solutions.

“The carp are a massive issue and we need to discuss about how to best control them,” he said.

“We all get lost in this whole environmental concept – it doesn’t mean it’s not important but the money that Apex raises and what it does for the less fortunate is also important.” The Apex Club did not respond to queries about the issue.