Dead Marine Life Washes Onto South Oz Beaches After Flooding
Last March, Steve Shearer reported on a fish kill that followed the floods on the NSW North Coast. Now, something similar appears to have happened as flood waters in western NSW make their way down to the mouth of the Murray River.
Dead octopuses, sea cucumbers and other marine life has washed up on South Australia's south coast, not far from the mouth of the River Murray.
Experts are investigating whether the deaths are connected with the high flows from the Murray that have started to cause flooding in the Lower Lakes.
The water off south coast towns near the Murray Mouth has been brown for at least two weeks, but what Port Elliot resident and surfer Nisa Schebella described as "carnage" occurred yesterday.
"It's heartbreaking," Ms Schebella said. Hundreds of sea cucumbers and other creatures could be seen dead at Chicken Run, Fisherman Bay, and Basham Beach, just east of the main town of Port Elliot.
"It's pretty unpleasant, that's for sure," Ms Schebella said. Sea slugs, seahorses, and some fish were also among the casualties.
Two octopuses found on Basham Beach, east of Port Elliot (Supplied)
Department of Primary Industries and Regions fisheries officers have visited the site to collect samples for diagnostic testing to rule out infectious or notifiable diseases.
"Water samples have also been collected and will be tested to rule out harmful algae and also measure salinity," a spokesman for the department said.
SA Health said there was no evidence of increased microbial contamination, including E. coli, in floodwaters entering Goolwa or nearby beaches.
Sea cucumbers dead on the beach at Fisherman Bay, east of Port Elliot (ABC South East SA: Caroline Horn)
Deaths could be linked with fresh water
Sea foam has been seen at the Boomer and Knight beaches, west of Port Elliot. Zoe Doubleday, a marine ecologist with the University of South Australia, said sea foam was often connected with algal blooms.
She said photos of the deaths she had seen looked "macabre". It was an "unusual array of animals" but they appeared to be mostly invertebrates that lived on the bottom of the sea.
A dead blue-ringed octopus at Fisherman Bay (ABC South East SA: Caroline Horn)
"It does seem that if you've got lots of floodwater coming up you might have a big stress event for lots of different reasons," she said. "One might be because the animals are going through something like osmotic shock because they're marine animals exposed to more freshwater conditions for a longer period of time, which can cause death.
"A lot of more intertidal animals can cope with changes in salinity, but if it's prolonged and they can't get away from it, perhaps that might be causing them stress.
"If it was a disease, I might find that hard to jump to that conclusion because there's multiple different types of animals impacted."
// CAROLINE HORN and EUGENE BOISVERT
© Australian Broadcasting Corporation. All rights reserved.
Comments
It just gets worse from the mouth to PE and beyond. Roll on summer and this eternal La Ninia and extended flood event and come on Autumn and I hope clean clear water.
It could be cooties from NSW
More importantly, why do South Australians insist on naming their rivers arse about?
i.e the River Torrens and in this article, the River Murray.
They don't say Ranges Flinders or Peninsula Yorke, so why not call it the Murray River like every other state does?
They do say St Vincent Gulf and Spencer Gulf as a variation as well.
Actually, my understanding is that the more common usage is 'Gulf St Vincent'. Official government websites seem to alternate between both though.
It is actually Gulf St Vincent.
Yep, as mentioned here :)
https://www.swellnet.com/news/swellnet-analysis/2023/01/05/the-tide-give...
Thing is, it's variable - we have the Onkaparinga River and the Inman River. We're also not terribly creative, with Dead Man’s Creek, Dead Man’s Flat, and Dead Man’s Pass. And Dead Horse Creek.
On the drive through western NSW there's some good ones too. Can only imagine what western QLD has.
Rumour wise I also believe there was an unofficial Dead Cow Cove south of Silver Sands. So named by local windsurfers due to number of dead cattle getting washed into the area following a stock crate falling from a vessel transiting from KI during rough weather. Or so the story goes. Talk about how to make a sharky area sharkier.
River gastro
Any sea cocks washed up?
They're all on the mid coast.
Hahahaha so true
Agree 100%. Also ‘non important’ but true is the change in accents and prenunciation from the east over to the west. i.e. in the east the words cool, pool and school have 3 ‘o’s in them. It’s coool in the poool, lol. I rekon the east coast lingo is fairdinkum ozzy and unfortunately south oz is too british ish.
More importantly, how can we move k.i. east about 100kms or so?
please, anyone
Some of those ‘O’s’ got lost in pronunciation, clearly. I reckon. ;-)
Think it’s only Queenslanders that pronounce ‘pool’ poool
for sure, plant is another one
True in SA "Plant" is pronounced "Plaaarnt"
Mal and Mall.
The East Coast lingo is from the prison states . We South Australians were never settled as a convict state . You find a different sound of lingo from Nth. Australia to Southern on the east coast of Australia. I don't like moving nature around but wouldn't the mid coast have some great reef breaks if we moved K.I. May be the council can do a compost heap on the clean up of our south coast and give back to the local gardens
I'm originaly from the east.
After living SA for a few years my Mum told me I had a snobby accent.
You're a damn weird mob you South Australians
South Australians have a bit of a Kiwi way of talking' But ' you know' it's pretty cool.
Doesn't the water always look like turd around Goolwa? Has the 1/2 dozen times I checked over the years so I don't bother anymore.
Super sad news. Creatures we share the same ocean space with that are far more advanced than any of us in that oceanic element, just completely wiped out. Questions should be asked. Heavy heart for all those beautiful creatures of the deep that no longer reside in this deep mysterious wonderland that we infrequently visit. I sincerely hope our own species hasn't been the main catalyst for their demise.
Somehow I doubt if that lit up blue ring occy is dead, as the caption says.
Fish like marlin, tuna and mahi mahi that light up, all turn grey in death.
I agree. I think that’s a big ole blue ringer in the first pic too, but properly dead. Everything and everyone in SA are out to kill ya! Fancy accents and all. Watch out if you’re not from around there…
the water maybe poison to those creatures. eventually the whole ocean will be dead!
the more humans make things convenient for themselves this will get worse!
I believe we are only seeing the start of a localised marine ecological disaster in the Middleton - Port Elliot area and along maybe as far as the Waitpinga cliffs. This sort of freshwater flow into the ocean was happening before white man and the installation of barrages. Sharks and sea fish used to swim up past where Mannum is during droughts. Without sunlight, due to the extreme water turbidity the seagrasses will die off and all other sea creatures which rely on the grasses, kelp etc will suffer and probably die. I can't imagine leafy sea dragons living around the Bluff at Victor Harbor swimming all the way to KI or beyond to find some healthy kelp. The floating pontoon in Horseshoe Bay Port Elliot is something of a window into turbidity and reduced salinity effects on marine growth - there is not much growing underneath that structure at present. The whole ocean won't be dead but localised parts will look very sick for a while.