The area of the Darling Baaka River that runs through the town of Menindee, about 1,200 km from Sydney, the capital of the Australian state of New South Wales, is severely polluted due to the millions of dead fish that have been floating on the surface of the water for the past few days. Not only are the fish floating on the surface of the water very dense, but the smell of rotting fish is making the residents of this city extremely uncomfortable.
This is not the first time this area has witnessed a mass fish kill in the river. Before this, in February this year and in 2019, there were similar incidents with an estimated number of fish dying in the river for the first time. This time it is much more serious.
The mass fish kill in the Darling Baakda River took place in the state of New South Wales as the state was suffering from a heat wave with an estimated temperature of 41 degrees Celsius today (March 18).
According to experts, the cause of this situation is due to an unexpected change in temperature.
Previously, there was a lot of flood water in the Darling Baakda River, but when the water receded and the temperature rose, the concentration of oxygen in the water dropped, depriving the fish of oxygen. This situation could worsen in the coming days as the decomposition of fish in the river makes the water less oxygenated.
Faced with this reality, the Australian authorities said that they could not intervene yet, as this would risk spreading the amount of contaminated water, and that the best thing to do now was to wait for the right moment to intervene.
In Australia : A river filled with countless dead and decaying fish