Emergency operation to cope with thousands and thousands of lifeless fish

By Kathryn Magann in Coffs Harbor

NSW Police have established an emergency operations centre at Menindee to co-ordinate a multi-agency effort to wash up thousands and thousands of lifeless fish. 

The fish deaths have been attributed to hypoxic blackwater, a naturally occurring phenomenon that causes extraordinarily low dissolved oxygen ranges, police stated in a press release on Sunday.

State Emergency Operations Controller, Deputy Commissioner Emergency Administration Peter Thurtell, stated the rapid focus was to supply a clear water provide to residents.

“There isn’t a want for neighborhood concern because the preliminary evaluation has decided a number of viable options to take care of water provide to the Menindee township and surrounds,” he stated.

“Importantly, there’s ongoing testing of the water high quality which is able to guarantee rapid motion if a switchover for provide is required.”

Mr Thurtell stated the second tier of the operation was to take away the lifeless fish, numbered within the thousands and thousands.

Residents can be briefed on the operation at a neighborhood city corridor occasion on Tuesday.

NSW Police Pressure Regional Emergency Operations Controller, Assistant Commissioner Brett Greentree, stated the clear up of lifeless fish round individuals’s properties would begin this week.

“Vital planning, together with threat assessments, is already underway for clean-up efforts, which is able to embody the removing of as lots of the lifeless fish as potential, prioritising the rapid areas round Menindee, in addition to different areas deemed high-risk when it comes to water provide,” he stated

“Whereas it will require specialised expertise and gear, specialists within the EOC have already recognized appropriate contractors and it’s anticipated work will start this week.”

NSW authorities companies are persevering with focused releases of higher-quality water the place potential to spice up dissolved oxygen ranges within the space.

The NSW Division of Planning and Atmosphere stated in a press release the die-off of the fish, largely bony herring, was attributable to extraordinarily low dissolved oxygen ranges recorded within the river earlier this week after latest floods and scorching climate.

Politicians together with federal opposition spokeswoman for water Perin Davey have known as for the pressing removing of the lifeless fish.

Senator Davey advised points of the Nationwide Carp Management Program, created after six years of analysis into carp biocontrol methods, might be tailored for the clean-up.

“We all know one of many greatest considerations for carp biocontrol was what to do with the lifeless fish,” she stated.

“The present pure occasion that we’re seeing, with a whole lot of 1000’s of lifeless fish floating alongside the Darling, gives a chance to check the clean-up choices that scientists have thought of below the carp management program.

“The present occasion is just too pressing to return to the drafting board. We want pressing motion,” she stated.

The NSW Greens’ water spokeswoman Cate Faehrmann stated the fish wanted to be eliminated earlier than they decomposed and brought on an ecological catastrophe.

“That is categorically a disaster, no matter whether or not this can be a consequence of receding floods or water mismanagement,” she stated.

“The NSW and federal governments ought to be performing now to wash up the thousands and thousands of rotting fish that are spanning kilometres of the river.”

A 40km algal bloom in the identical a part of the river was blamed for the demise of one million fish in 2019.

The 2019 occasion coincided with a interval of excessive temperatures within the state’s far south and drought alongside the river system.

This newest fish die-off is anticipated to exceed the 2019 occasion.