Horror Scene, Millions of Dead Fish Clogging Australian Rivers
loading…
Millions of dead fish clog the Darling River in Australia. Photo/Graeme McCrabb via news.com.au
NEW SOUTH WALES – A horror scene has occurred in a large river area in New South Wales, Australia, where millions of dead and decaying fish have clogged the expanses of water.
Video released by local media showed boats trying to traverse a “blanket” of dead fish covering the water, with the surface barely visible below.
The New South Wales government said on Friday (17/3/2023) that millions of fish had died in the Darling River near the small town of Menindee. It was the third mass fish kill to hit the region since 2018.
“It’s absolutely terrible, there are dead fish as far as you can see,” Graeme McCrabb, a resident of Menindee told AFP on Saturday (18/3/2023).
“It’s really absurd to understand,” he said, adding that this year’s mass fish kills appear to be worse than ever.
“The environmental impact was unexpected,” he added.
According to the local state government, populations of fish such as bone herring and carp have been thriving in the river following the recent flooding. But now dead in large numbers because the flood waters recede.
“These fish deaths are related to low oxygen levels in the water (hypoxia) during low tide,” the government said in a statement.
“The current hot weather in the region also exacerbates hypoxia, because warmer water contains less oxygen than cooler water, and fish have a higher oxygen demand at warmer temperatures.”
