Race to save fish as NSW rivers run dry
Australia
Australia will launch a rescue mission to try to save countless numbers of fish as a crippling drought dries up its largest river system.
‘‘I’m not going to mince words; the situation we are facing this summer is nothing short of a potential fish Armageddon,’’ said Adam Marshall, the water minister for New South Wales, Australia’s most populous state. ‘‘We’re in the midst of the worst drought on record, with record low rainfall, record low inflows into our river systems and high temperatures predicted over the coming months.’’
The Murray-darling river system drains about a seventh of Australia’s land mass. The river system runs for almost 4000km through the agricultural heartlands of the country.
Last December and January fish in the river system began dying in their hundreds of thousands after a prolonged period of temperatures of more than 40C. A study found that a lack of flowing water was the main cause as fish clustered in the river’s remaining pools and died from lack of oxygen.
The drought, exacerbated by a dry winter, has prompted fears of a repeat die-off in the summer, which officially begins on December 1.
Marshall warned that unless the drought broke in the next month, the river system could suffer ‘‘a horror’’. The A$10 million (NZ$10.6M) rescue attempt aims to move as many fish as possible, including Murray cod – some of which are at least 25 years old – and golden perch from the most threatened parts of the river system over two weeks, before releasing them into healthy waters elsewhere.
A flotilla of boats equipped with specialist electrical equipment will be used to stun the fish, which will then be caught and loaded into climate-controlled transporters and released farther south, where river waters are still flowing.
The drought is being blamed for an unusually early spring outbreak of wildfires across eastern Australia which have destroyed scores of homes since they began on Friday. Experts say that the number of blazes, so far ahead of the traditional midsummer fire season, is unprecedented.
‘‘It is a historic event. We’ve never seen this before in recorded history,’’ Andrew Sturgess, head of Queensland’s fire prediction unit, said. ‘‘Fire weather has never been as severe, this early in spring. This is an omen, if you will, a warning of the fire season that we’re likely to see ahead.’’
As many as 60 fires have broken out in Queensland and New South Wales, one of which tore through world heritage-listed rainforests and destroyed one of Australia’s most historic nature lodges, Binna Burra, built in the 1930s in Lamington National Park, about 60 miles southeast of Brisbane.
Some of the fires have threatened areas on the outskirts of Sydney. – The Times