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‘Hundreds of Thousands’ of fish dead in Australia’s Darling River

Thousands Of Fish Have Died In The Drought-stricken Australia In The Last Few Days Near The Southeastern Outback Town Of Menindee

News Nation Bureau | Edited By : Assem Sharma | Updated on: 29 Jan 2019, 08:42:54 PM
‘Hundreds of Thousands’ of fish dead in Australia’s Darling River (Representational Image)

New Delhi:

Thousands of fish have died in the drought-stricken Australia in the last few days near the southeastern Outback town of Menindee. The authorities has warned of more deaths in the coming days. Few locals have confronted the area as the sea of white because hundreds and thousands of dead fish have been carpeted in the area.

Recently, nearly a million fish were killed and the reason for their death was cited to be low water and oxygen levels as well as toxic algae. This is yet another incident of mass death of fish which is located in the key food growing area.

Inspectors from the New South Wales Department of Primary Industries have visited the site and said that they found that ‘’hundreds of thousands of fish have died’’.

"Further fish deaths in the Darling River are anticipated as a significant number of fish have been observed under stress’’. With further increase in temperature and no rain forecast, the officials feel that more fish could die in the coming days and weeks.

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However, the federal government is blaming the death cause of these fish is severe drought.

Around 700 kilograms of dead fish were removed from the river on Monday and the same amount of dead fish are expected to be collected on Tuesday.

The Darling River is a part of the Murray-Darling River system that stretches thousands of kilometres across several states.

New South Wales Regional Water Minister Niall Blair, who visited Menindee on Tuesday, told national broadcaster ABC that his government was out of options, with installing aerators in rivers only a "band-aid solution".

"It's not a case of not being able to spend money on something, there just isn't any other alternative that anyone has offered up. The only thing that will really change these conditions at the moment is fresh water coming through the system and there is just no possibility of that at the moment’’, he added.

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In recent weeks, Australia’s eastern region have been hit by a prolonged drought causing extreme heatwaves. The late arrival of the monsoon season in northern Australia has also contributed to heatwaves in some regions.

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First Published : 29 Jan 2019, 08:42:46 PM

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