Millions of dead fish have clogged the Darling River in Australia this week.
Public broadcaster ABC reported on Saturday that state fishery officers had been dispatched to assess the matter.
Environmental authorities in the state of New South Wales blamed the massacre on low oxygen levels in Australia’s second largest river.
“We’re seeing dozens of miles where there’s fish as far as the eye can see, so it’s quite a confronting scene,” New South Wales government spokesman Cameron Lay told the ABC. .
Footage posted to Twitter by public broadcaster SBS showed a boat navigating through thousands of dead fish covering the surface of the river.
What caused the mass death?
The government of Australia’s most populous state said “millions” of fish had died near the small town of Menindee.
The city is located about 1,000 kilometers (about 620 miles) west of the state capital, Sydney.
This is the third mass death in the region since 2018.
Recent flooding has caused bony herring and carp populations to boom in the Darling River, with the fish now dying as a result.
“These fish deaths are linked to low levels of oxygen in the water (hypoxia) as floodwaters recede,” the New South Wales government said.
“There are a large number of fish kills (mainly bony herring) in the Darling River between Lake Wetherell and Menindee Township,” the Waters Division of the Department of Planning and Environment said Friday. NSW.
The agency warned that oxygen levels in rivers could drop over the weekend due to rising temperatures. Cooler temperatures are expected to return next week.
Previous fish deaths in Menindee had been blamed on a prolonged drought and then a toxic algal bloom.
sdi/msh (Reuters, AFP)