There is a pretty shocking photograph on the Internet today of millions of small dead fish blanketing the Darling River in western New South Wales which has clearly become uninhabitable. The fish species are herring, perch and carp for example. One local person, Graeme McCrabb said that there is 100 km of river with dead fish as you see in the photograph.
He calls it a unique vision. A vision of hell by the sound of it. And the reports are that it is due to climate change combined with mismanagement by Australia prospect authorities of the continent’s fragile environment.
The Darling River is one arm of the Murray-Darling basin and it is very important to Australia because it is a system which supports 40% of the state’s agricultural production and it breathes life into the arid outback. But as you can see it in a desperately bad state.
Another report says that the fish are being washed up on the shores of Lake Darling-Baaka, in the town of Menindee. This report on the Urban Life website states that the phenomenon was caused by flooding in the area and also a heat wave.
The fish deaths was caused by low oxygen levels in the water as the flood receded. Warmer water retains less oxygen which prevents the fish from breathing. The argument appears to be that global warming is the underlying reason for the warmer water. Another cause id organic matter building up in a drought and the floods dumping it in the river causing depleted oxygen.
85% of the dead fish were native species such as bream and golden perch. The rest were non-native such as carp. The Australians are very sensitive about their native species and therefore this must be a devastating blow to their conservation efforts.
However, their conservation efforts which are often in my opinion misdirected and cruel such as the mass daughter of feral cats, are being constantly undermined by human behaviour because as you probably know Australia mines coal and exports it to for example China. Coal burning puts carbon dioxide into the atmosphere which causes global warming.
So, the Australian authorities are on the one hand trying to protect precious native species and on the other negligently killing them. It is mismanagement and it’s a mess. They are now trying to remove the dead fish. It’s going to be no mean feat to remove a hundred kilometres of dead fish from a river.
“We cannot control the weather,” said the premier, Gladys Berejiklian. Wrong. You can help to prevent the extremes of weather from which Australia has suffered of late such as devastating floods and droughts. Australia is not doing enough to tackle climate change and it is country which is particularly vulnerable to this world phenomenon.
They’ve decided that it will be impossible to remove them all and this poses a question mark over the water quality for residents.
Temperatures in the affected area reached 40°C (hundred and 4°F) over the weekend. Volunteers are also trying to rescue native fish which have survived.
My thanks to The Economist and Urban Life for this report.
