They cover the surface of the water like a thick carpet: countless dead fish have been floating downstream on the Darling River in a remote region of southeastern Australia for a few days now. The fish’s death near the small town of Menindee, New South Wales, was likely due to a combination of prevailing heat and low oxygen levels, the Department of Primary Industries said.
The lack of oxygen may have been caused by receding waters after recent floods. New South Wales Police set up a crisis center in Menindee on Sunday to organize work to recover fish carcasses. The first priority, however, is to provide clean water to the approximately 500 residents, said Peter Thurtell of the police crisis team. As a second step, the rescue of dead fish should take place during the week. Their number is estimated at “millions”. Broadcaster ABC wrote on Saturday that there had been repeated fish kills in Menindee in previous years, but the current extent, according to authorities, dwarfs anything that has gone before.
In addition to carp, freshwater herring, Murray cod and perch died, media said, quoting a spokesman for the Ministry of Primary Industries. “This (fish die-off) event continues as a heat wave in western New South Wales continues to stress the system, which has been exposed to extreme conditions from widespread flooding,” a spokesperson for the Department of Primary Industries told the newscom. portal. On Sunday, temperatures in parts of the state, whose capital is the metropolis Sydney, reached between 38 and almost 44 degrees Celsius.
“The stench was terrible,” said local wildlife photographer Geoff Looney after spotting a huge accumulation of dead fish in Menindee on Thursday night. “Almost had to put on a mask.” According to the AAP, other residents also complained of the pervasive smell of decaying animals.
After 2018 and 2019, fish kill again
During the severe drought in late 2018 and early 2019, the Darling near Menindee had already seen a large fish kill, according to the AAP. Some residents suspect that poor management of water distribution and the poor health of the river may be the reason for the fish kills, Newscom reported. But the authorities rejected this. In 2019, according to the AAP, an algal bloom caused the death of a million fish in the same section of the Darling. At that time there were also high temperatures and a drought.
Australia is particularly suffering from climate change – heat waves, bushfires and floods are the result. In January, after a severe flood in southern Victoria, there were reports of dozens of dead Murray carp in paddocks, rotting and stinking in the sun.