‘A dead shark, dead rays, dead fish, dead cuttlefish': The toxic algal bloom is spreading
An outbreak of the microalgae, Karenia mikimotoi, has sucked all the oxygen from the water, killing fish, marine mammals, invertebrates, seaweed and sea grasses.
Great Southern Reef Foundation co-founder Stefan Andrews said great swaths of the ocean are giant dead zones with neon-green water and floating carcasses, with at least 450 marine species affected in the past month, according to citizen science reports.
'What's really disturbing when you're underwater is you see all these fish and everything that have died on the bottom, but there are no decomposers, no crabs and molluscs that usually you would find on dead fish carcasses eating away and recycling those nutrients,' Andrews said.
'There's just this gross, slimy mould, a sort of slime, that's forming over those fish and the algae itself will feed on, engulfing the decomposing fish that have already suffered and died from the algae bloom, so it's further fuelling itself through the dead things, which just really shocking to see.'
In March, Andrews started hearing reports from friends on the Fleurieu Peninsula of rare fish washing up on the beach, and there were credible reports the algal bloom extended as far south as the Victorian border. By early July it stretched into urban areas around Adelaide and into the Spencer Gulf, and Andrews said there were fears it could disrupt the winter cuttlefish aggregation for winter egg laying near Whyalla.
'There was a lot of hope that as water temperature would drop, then that would stop the harmful algal bloom spreading, but that hasn't been the case,' Andrews said. 'They were also saying storms might break it up but hasn't been the case. The water doesn't get any colder now, so the experts are predicting it's not going away this winter and might be around for some time.'
Environment Minister Murray Watt has said the event was occurring only in state waters, but the federal government would consider a request for assistance from the state government. He is in Adelaide but an announcement is yet to be made.
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