{"id":132722,"date":"2025-05-26T07:58:24","date_gmt":"2025-05-26T07:58:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/132722\/"},"modified":"2025-05-26T07:58:24","modified_gmt":"2025-05-26T07:58:24","slug":"the-algal-bloom-harming-marine-life-is-now-hitting-livelihoods","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/132722\/","title":{"rendered":"The algal bloom harming marine life is now hitting livelihoods"},"content":{"rendered":"

The shallows that follow the shoreline might not seem the likeliest setting for the contemplation of drought.<\/p>\n

But along <\/strong>those stretches of South Australian coast that are currently awash with the remains of sea creatures, lack of rain is very much part of the problem<\/a>.<\/p>\n

It has exacerbated an algal bloom that is choking the ocean.<\/p>\n

Downpours, storms and strong winds would help to disperse the algae. Without them, the bloom will fester.<\/p>\n

“Initially the experts were talking like a few days and this would be gone, but that was a month ago,” said Kangaroo Island tour boat operator Andrew Neighbour.<\/p>\n

“[It’s] like an ocean COVID. We’re sort of feeling around in the dark, we don’t know what’s going on.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Mr Neighbour says cancelled bookings haven’t been uncommon in recent weeks. (ABC News: Che Chorley)<\/p>\n

While the bloom’s devastating impact on marine life is, slowly but steadily, being investigated and documented, its impact on human lives and livelihoods has attracted less attention.<\/p>\n

But that could be about to change, especially if businesses like Mr Neighbour’s start to feel the effects.<\/p>\n

“We’re getting a lot of people cancelling, and I guess that’s going to be right through the whole tourism sector as well, and in the seafood industry,” he said.<\/p>\n

“I’ve got some mates who are line fishermen locally here, professional fishermen.<\/p>\n

“I spoke to them a few days ago and they’ve gone out and they’ve said, ‘We’ve got absolutely nothing, no bites, no fish’ \u2014 and that’s probably why there’s nobody here today. It’s just deserted.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

Mr Neighbour’s business operates offshore of Kangaroo Island. (ABC News: Che Chorley)<\/p>\n

When the ABC spoke to Kangaroo Island fisher Robert Barrett earlier this month, it had been nine days since he had made a commercial catch.<\/p>\n

“The last four or five times out, I have not caught a fish,” he said.<\/p>\n

“Originally when it started, none of us knew what was going on, the water was a little bit discoloured, and we were hearing stories of an algal bloom.<\/p>\n

“The trouble is we just don’t know the impact of this bloom \u2014 how long it’s going to last, [and] how the fish will recover when it does eventually clear when the weather systems come through.”<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Robert Barrett has worked as a commercial fisher for about four decades. (ABC News: Che Chorley)<\/p>\n

Mr Barrett has been a commercial fisherman for 40 years, and mainly chases whiting.<\/p>\n

He uses razorfish for berley \u2014 and it was while he was inspecting the razorfish beds that he first realised that something was seriously wrong.<\/p>\n

“The razorfish were alive one day and then, within two days, we lost those beds. They just died,” he said.<\/p>\n

Recreational fishers tell similar stories.<\/p>\n

“The amount of fish and shellfish I’ve seen dead, dying and sick is amazing and scary at the same time,” RecFish SA’s Kangaroo Island director Gavin Mathews said.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Like many, RecFish SA’s Gavin Mathews initially thought the problem would not be long-running. (ABC News: Che Chorley)<\/p>\n

Mr Mathews has been “living and working and fishing” on the island for more than two decades, but has never before “seen a fish kill like this”.<\/p>\n

“I personally believe there will be some long-term consequences of what’s happening,” he said.<\/p>\n

“If you’d asked me that question two weeks ago, I probably would have said things will recover fairly quickly \u2014 now I’m unsure.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Mr Mathews is now starting to prepare for long-term consequences. (ABC News: Che Chorley)<\/p>\n

For Mr Barrett, the crystal ball is about as cloudy as the waters.<\/p>\n

“If the food source on the spit and the surrounding waters has gone, has died, the fish won’t come back in. They need food to survive,” he said.<\/p>\n

“That’s what I’m terrified about.<\/p>\n

“It could take one year to recover, it could take five years to recover, 10 years. And that’s it \u2014 that’s your industry gone for this area.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

From crisis to crisis<\/p>\n

Just over five years ago, Kangaroo Island was in the grip of a disaster of a very different kind.<\/p>\n

\"Burnt<\/p>\n

Along the Cape du Couedic Road in the aftermath of the 2020 bushfires. (ABC News: Patrick Martin)<\/p>\n

As the infernos of the Black Summer bushfire season ravaged the island, and reduced swathes of its vegetation to ash, consolation came in the form of public support.<\/p>\n

“The great thing about the island when it was impacted by the bushfires is the support we got from Australia, from worldwide,” Mr Barrett recalled.<\/p>\n

“It was just amazing, it just made you feel proud to be an Australian, the support this island received.”<\/p>\n

The current catastrophe is still very much unfolding, but its scale has previously prompted comparisons with the size of the island itself<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

A 2020 satellite image from the NASA Earth Observatory shows smoke plumes from fires on the island. (Lauren Dauphin\/NASA)<\/p>\n

Mr Barrett said there had not yet been any indication of financial assistance from the state government or the Department of Primary Industries and Regions (PIRSA).<\/p>\n

“PIRSA, I should imagine, are like us \u2014 they just don’t know where it’s headed or the impacts it will have on the industry,” he said.<\/p>\n

“Once we do know that, hopefully there will be assistance and support \u2014 we’re not seeing a lot at the moment, but in their defence, none of us know.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

From above, the coast can look as serene as ever, despite the disaster along the shore. (ABC News: Che Chorley)<\/p>\n

South Australia’s oyster industry is in a slightly different boat, and its growers association says that farms in key regions have not been affected.<\/p>\n

“The vast majority of oysters are produced in [Spencer] Gulf and around on our West Coast \u2026 from Coffins all the way out to Denial Bay,” chairman Peter Treloar told the ABC’s Country Hour.<\/p>\n

“They are not impacted by this algae and are open for business at the moment.<\/p>\n

“They are busy harvesting and selling.”<\/p>\n

In Gulf St Vincent, however, the situation is different.<\/p>\n

“The farms on Yorke Peninsula are closed for sales at the moment \u2014 it’s purely a precautionary measure,” Mr Treloar said.<\/p>\n

“It’s never fun to have a harvest area closed and of course it impacts cash flows for individual growers.”<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

The algal bloom has cast a gloom over recreational and commercial fishing. (ABC News: Che Chorley)<\/p>\n

In a recent post on Facebook, Port Vincent Oysters declared: “Mother Nature has caught up with us”.<\/p>\n

“Sadly our harvesting area has been closed and we are unable to sell to the public until further notice,” the post stated.<\/p>\n

On Thursday, South Australian Premier Peter Malinauskas was asked about the possibility of financial support from the state government.<\/p>\n

“As yet, we’re not at that point,” he replied.<\/p>\n

“As a government, we’ve got over $70 million that we’ve invested in drought assistance at the moment and that’s rolling out pretty well.<\/p>\n

“The developments around the oyster industry are very recent and discrete, but we will monitor it as time goes on.”<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Countless creatures have washed up on SA beaches in recent weeks. (ABC News: Che Chorley)<\/p>\n

Mr Malinauskas said the challenges of the bloom were very different from those posed by the Black Summer fires.<\/p>\n

“With bushfires, for instance, we have the CFS: 10,000-strong-plus volunteers, hundreds of millions of dollars invested in equipment to go out there and fight the fires,” he said.<\/p>\n

“There is not a volunteer algal bloom fighting force we can just call up and say, ‘Fix this problem’. They’re just not options that are available to us in terms of technology or science.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

On Kangaroo Island, the fear remains that conditions will deteriorate before they improve.<\/p>\n

“There needs to be more awareness of what’s going on,” Andrew Neighbour said.<\/p>\n

\"Two<\/p>\n

For Andrew Neighbour and Robert Barrett, a solution can’t come soon enough. (ABC News: Che Chorley)<\/p>\n

Mr Neighbour made that comment while overlooking waters that usually teem with fish and with fishers.<\/p>\n

“At one of the busiest boat ramps on Kangaroo Island, there’s not a single boat here, apart from us,” he said.<\/p>\n

“That’s a fair sign of how serious it is.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The shallows that follow the shoreline might not seem the likeliest setting for the contemplation of drought. But…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":132723,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3843],"tags":[24233,58469,58474,58470,18183,728,58475,44225,58472,6481,58477,58478,58471,2178,16007,58476,70,15003,58473,5006,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-132722","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-environment","8":"tag-algae","9":"tag-algal","10":"tag-andrew-neighbour","11":"tag-bloom","12":"tag-deaths","13":"tag-environment","14":"tag-fish-kill","15":"tag-fisher","16":"tag-fishers","17":"tag-fishing","18":"tag-gavin-mathews","19":"tag-kangaroo-island","20":"tag-karenia-mikimotoi","21":"tag-marine-life","22":"tag-ocean","23":"tag-robert-barrett","24":"tag-science","25":"tag-sea","26":"tag-tour-boat","27":"tag-tourism","28":"tag-uk","29":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114573077155146244","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/132722","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=132722"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/132722\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/132723"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=132722"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=132722"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=132722"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}