Greens Senator for South Australia Sarah Hanson-Young is among those openly criticising the federal government, accusing them of underplaying the situation.
“If this toxic algal bloom was wreaking havoc on Bondi Beach or on the North Shore in Sydney, the prime minister would have already been on the beach with a response,” she said.
However, federal Environment Minister Murray Watt on Monday said while the bloom and its impacts were “incredibly disturbing”, the catastrophe did not meet the definition of a natural disaster under the country’s laws.
The bloom – which now stretches from Coorong to the Yorke Peninsula, an area about double the size of the Australian Capital Territory – is decimating the local environment and lining the coastline with dead wildlife.
“It is like a horror movie for fish,” Brad Martin – from OzFish, a non-profit organisation that protects fishing habitats – told the BBC in May.
But the event is also wreaking havoc on the local economy. Representatives of the fishing industry say some of their members have had no income for at least three months.
“I’ve got fishermen in tears on the phone,” Ian Mitchell – who works as a middleman between fishers and retailers – told the ABC.