COUNTLESS numbers of dead fish now line the shores of the Broadwater, Two Mile Lake, Boolambayte Lake and Myall Lake, in what is widely considered the worst such event in living memory.
“This is the most distressing and surprising sight I’ve seen since [in the 14 years] I’ve been working around the lakes,” Kerry McIntosh told News Of The Area.
Kerry runs the MV Independence, which plies the lakes ensuring human pollution is not emptied into the waters.
“I had no idea that there could have been that many fish in the lake, and now I believe that all may be dead.”
While fish kill events are not new to the area, the scope of this current one has proven genuinely baffling.
The leading suspected cause is the sheer volume of rainwater that has entered the lakes system in recent months.
“It comes from the recent heavy rains, leaving freshwater over the top of the salt, affecting the oxygen levels and apparently allowing the development of an algae which affects fish life,” Gordon Grainger from the Myall River Action Group (MRAG) said.
MRAG advocates are in agreement that the ongoing blockages at the dual entrances, where the Myall River meets Port Stephens Bay, have contributed long-term to the current situation.
“The blockage of the natural eastern channel limits the amount of oceanic waters coming into our system, and outflow must go through the artificial Corrie Channel, which is a false channel and provides a low salinity into the system,” Gordon said.
Kerry said the problem has been exacerbated by the river mouth not “flushing freely”.
“In the weeks after Easter the banks broke and to this day the water levels have not come down; riverside swamps have naturally become part of the lake,” Kerry explained the hydrography of the Lakes system.
“Having such high water levels over the banks for so long is totally unprecedented.
“I really think the fish kill is a natural phenomenon, requiring closer study, and I have taken several samples from around the Lakes myself.
“There is a chance of a disease, as much chance as anything else, but I do not think it is an algal bloom, because you cannot smell that – the strongest smell out there is the smell of dying fish.”
The breached banks and high waters have caused the Myall Lakes National Park to be closed, including the Bombah Point ferry being out of service, for months.
The Independence is an environmental barge, unique in NSW, which offers a free service to cleanly pump-out sewage holds, making sure that everyone has the opportunity to do the right thing.
By Thomas O’KEEFE
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