Millions of dead fish clog Darling River in Australia

Sydney: Millions Dead and rotten fish A wide stretch of river near a remote town in Australia’s outback has been closed as an extreme heat wave sweeps through the region.

Videos posted on social media show boats plowing through a blanket of dead fish, with the bottom barely visible.

The New South Wales government said on Friday that “millions” of fish had died in the Darling River near the small town of Menindi, the third mass kill to hit the area since 2018.

“It’s really scary, there’s dead fish as far as you can see,” said Graeme McCraib, a resident of Menindi. AFP.

“It’s unreal to fathom,” he said, adding that this year’s fish kills appear to be worse than previous ones.

“The environmental impact is incalculable.”

According to the state government, after the recent floods, the population of fish like bony herring and carp in the river had increased, but now they were dying in large numbers after the flood waters receded.

“These fish deaths are associated with low oxygen levels (hypoxia) in the water as flood waters recede,” the government said in a statement.

“The current warm weather in the region is also exacerbating hypoxia, because warmer water contains less oxygen than cooler water, and fish need more oxygen at warmer temperatures.”

Last year’s fish die-off at Menindi, about 12 hours west of Sydney, has been blamed on long drought-induced river shortages and toxic algal blooms stretching up to 40 kilometers (24 miles).

“Unfortunately this will not be the last,” the NSW Government warned in 2019.

State Government fisheries spokesman Cameron Lee said it was “confronting” to see the river shrinking from dead fish.

“We’re looking tens of kilometers away from where the fish are actually visible, so it’s quite a collision scene,” he said. ABC.

Menindi has a population of about 500 people and has been ravaged by both drought and floods in recent years.