24-05-2025
The algal bloom harming marine life is now hitting livelihoods
The shallows that follow the shoreline might not seem the likeliest setting for the contemplation of drought.
But along those stretches of South Australian coast that are currently awash with the remains of sea creatures, lack of rain is very much part of the problem.
It has exacerbated an algal bloom that is choking the ocean.
Downpours, storms and strong winds would help to disperse the algae. Without them, the bloom will fester.
"Initially the experts were talking like a few days and this would be gone, but that was a month ago," said Kangaroo Island tour boat operator Andrew Neighbour.
While the bloom's devastating impact on marine life is, slowly but steadily, being investigated and documented, its impact on human lives and livelihoods has attracted less attention.
But that could be about to change, especially if businesses like Mr Neighbour's start to feel the effects.
"We're getting a lot of people cancelling, and I guess that's going to be right through the whole tourism sector as well, and in the seafood industry," he said.
"I've got some mates who are line fishermen locally here, professional fishermen.
When the ABC spoke to Kangaroo Island fisher Robert Barrett earlier this month, it had been nine days since he had made a commercial catch.
"The last four or five times out, I have not caught a fish," he said.
"Originally when it started, none of us knew what was going on, the water was a little bit discoloured, and we were hearing stories of an algal bloom.
"The trouble is we just don't know the impact of this bloom — how long it's going to last, [and] how the fish will recover when it does eventually clear when the weather systems come through."
Mr Barrett has been a commercial fisherman for 40 years, and mainly chases whiting.
He uses razorfish for berley — and it was while he was inspecting the razorfish beds that he first realised that something was seriously wrong.
"The razorfish were alive one day and then, within two days, we lost those beds. They just died," he said.
Recreational fishers tell similar stories.
"The amount of fish and shellfish I've seen dead, dying and sick is amazing and scary at the same time," RecFish SA's Kangaroo Island director Gavin Mathews said.
Mr Mathews has been "living and working and fishing" on the island for more than two decades, but has never before "seen a fish kill like this".
"I personally believe there will be some long-term consequences of what's happening," he said.
For Mr Barrett, the crystal ball is about as cloudy as the waters.
"If the food source on the spit and the surrounding waters has gone, has died, the fish won't come back in. They need food to survive," he said.
"That's what I'm terrified about.
Just over five years ago, Kangaroo Island was in the grip of a disaster of a very different kind.
As the infernos of the Black Summer bushfire season ravaged the island, and reduced swathes of its vegetation to ash, consolation came in the form of public support.
"The great thing about the island when it was impacted by the bushfires is the support we got from Australia, from worldwide," Mr Barrett recalled.
"It was just amazing, it just made you feel proud to be an Australian, the support this island received."
The current catastrophe is still very much unfolding, but its scale has previously prompted comparisons with the size of the island itself.
Mr Barrett said there had not yet been any indication of financial assistance from the state government or the Department of Primary Industries and Regions (PIRSA).
"PIRSA, I should imagine, are like us — they just don't know where it's headed or the impacts it will have on the industry," he said.
South Australia's oyster industry is in a slightly different boat, and its growers association says that farms in key regions have not been affected.
"The vast majority of oysters are produced in [Spencer] Gulf and around on our West Coast … from Coffins all the way out to Denial Bay," chairman Peter Treloar told the ABC's Country Hour.
"They are not impacted by this algae and are open for business at the moment.
"They are busy harvesting and selling."
In Gulf St Vincent, however, the situation is different.
"The farms on Yorke Peninsula are closed for sales at the moment — it's purely a precautionary measure," Mr Treloar said.
"It's never fun to have a harvest area closed and of course it impacts cash flows for individual growers."
In a recent post on Facebook, Port Vincent Oysters declared: "Mother Nature has caught up with us".
"Sadly our harvesting area has been closed and we are unable to sell to the public until further notice," the post stated.
On Thursday, South Australian Premier Peter Malinauskas was asked about the possibility of financial support from the state government.
"As yet, we're not at that point," he replied.
"As a government, we've got over $70 million that we've invested in drought assistance at the moment and that's rolling out pretty well.
"The developments around the oyster industry are very recent and discrete, but we will monitor it as time goes on."
Mr Malinauskas said the challenges of the bloom were very different from those posed by the Black Summer fires.
"With bushfires, for instance, we have the CFS: 10,000-strong-plus volunteers, hundreds of millions of dollars invested in equipment to go out there and fight the fires," he said.
On Kangaroo Island, the fear remains that conditions will deteriorate before they improve.
"There needs to be more awareness of what's going on," Andrew Neighbour said.
Mr Neighbour made that comment while overlooking waters that usually teem with fish and with fishers.
"At one of the busiest boat ramps on Kangaroo Island, there's not a single boat here, apart from us," he said.
"That's a fair sign of how serious it is."
