At a Glance
- Over the weekend, as many as a million fish died in the Darling River.
- Dying algae robbed the water of oxygen and the fish suffocated.
- Ranchers and other residents say government water policies are the real cause.
A massive fish kill has left hundreds of thousands of bream, Murray cod and perch dead in a 25-mile stretch of the Darling River in southeastern Australia.
The fish kill, described as one of the largest ever recorded, is centered around the outback town of Menindee, about 520 miles northwest of Sydney, Australia, the Sydney Morning Herald reported.
The fish died over the weekend after a cold snap killed blue-green algae in the river, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation reported. As the algae decomposed, they robbed the river of oxygen, and the fish suffocated.
It was the second time in less than a month that there was a fish kill in the river. In mid-December, more than 10,000 fish died in a stretch of the river a little farther upstream, the Guardian reported. That incident was also blamed on algae, which is said to be more prolific this summer because of ongoing drought.
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Farmers, ranchers and other residents of the area, however, say actions by water officials and the state government of New South Wales have left the fish more vulnerable.
In a video that has been viewed nearly 4 million times, Menindee resident Dick Arnold and rancher Rob McBride say the fish kills are “a manmade disaster.”
“This is the result of draining the Menindee Lakes twice in four years, killing the system,” McBride, whose ranch is about 25 miles south of Menindee, says in the video.
Arnold says members of the government “have to be bloody disgusted with yourself, politicians and cotton grower manipulators. It’s bloody atrocious.”
The video shows the men holding critically endangered Murray cod that died in the fish kill. Some of them were up to 100 years old, the men said.
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Federal and state officials rejected the claims of mismanagement and said drought was to blame for the disaster, the Morning Herald writes.
In a statement, the Murray-Darling Basin Authority's chief executive Phillip Glyde said, "The main causes of this distressing event are the lack of water flowing into the northern rivers, and the impact of 100 years of over-allocation of precious water resources throughout the entire basin. Without more water available to flow through the system, it is possible more fish will die during summer."
