Conservationists, experts and cabinet ministers urge Anthony Albanese to respond to algal bloom crisis

Conservationists, experts and cabinet ministers are calling for the federal government to respond to the algal bloom crisis, which has invaded parts of the South Australian coastline since May.

The federal government’s inaction on the algal bloom crisis that has taken over parts of South Australia’s coastline is being called out by conservationists, ecologists and other cabinet ministers. Picture: Getty Images

You can now listen to The Australian's articles. Give us your feedback.

You can now listen to The Australian's articles.

Federal Environment Minister Murray Watt has refused to declare South Australia’s algal bloom crisis a natural disaster, amid accusations the federal government has done nothing to stop the ecological calamity from wreaking further havoc on the state’s coastal marine life.

The naturally occurring algal bloom has killed tens of thousands of marine animals, almost 400 species, caused widespread disruption to commercial fisheries and aquaculture, and disrupted tourism and businesses since first being detected in March this year.

The algae has spread across SA’s coastline, including metro beaches such as Waitpinga and Parsons, and from north of Grange jetty to south of Christies Beach surf club; Port River, Kangaroo Island, southern Yorke Peninsula, the Coorong and the Fleurieu Peninsula, where it was first identified.

Despite the severity of the toxic algae, the joint state and federal Disaster Recovery Funding Arrangements do not deem the event eligible to be classified as a natural disaster.

On Friday Mr Watt said the bloom was a state issue while it remained limited to SA waters but the federal government was offering support.

“My view was that it would be helpful to have a senior official from my department on the ground,” he told FIVEAA radio.

Environment Minister Murray Watt said the government was ‘prepared to support South Australia in managing (the algal bloom)’ but it was still a state issue.

“That official was in Adelaide yesterday, is there again today, you know, conducting inspections, meeting with the relevant departments. We’ve been very clear that we’re prepared to support South Australia in managing this, even though it is a matter within state waters.”

Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young said both the federal and SA governments had shirked responsibility for the disaster.

“We have the federal government saying it’s a state issue and we have the SA government dragging its feet in asking for federal help,” she said. “It’s past time that the Prime Minister and the Premier sort this out.”

Federal Health Minister Mark Butler, who represents the Hindmarsh electorate in Adelaide, said: “We’ve never seen a bloom like this, of this scale, of this duration anywhere in Australia. It is incredibly serious. I was walking on the beach on the weekend, I saw a dead shark, dead rays, a number of dead rays, dead fish, dead cuttlefish, things I’ve never seen before in the decades of walking along Adelaide’s beaches.”

Federal Health Minister Mark Butler says he had never seen such devastation to sea life on South Australian beaches. Picture: Getty Images

Senior SA cabinet ministers are believed to be pushing for a federal response to the issue.

Experts convened by the state government found three potential factors that could have contributed to the bloom: a marine heatwave starting in September 2024 that brought sea temperatures 2.5C above average, calm conditions, light winds and small swells; nutrients washed into the sea by the 2022-23 Murray River flood; and the unprecedented cold-water upwelling in summer 2023-24 that brought nutrient-rich water to the surface.

Estuarine ecologist Faith Coleman, an overseer of South Australia’s Coorong Environmental Trust, disputed that the heatwave was the only plausible precipitating factor for the algal bloom.

“Best we can tell, this heatwave caused the release of organic stuff … which this (algal bloom) has since been eating,” she said.

“The River Murray may have had a percentage impact on it … but it is in no way significant, and the same with the upwelling.”

The crisis was a product of national environmental factors and had been unfairly relegated to the state for management, she said.

“The fact that (algal blooms) are occurring around most of our coastline, definitely along the entire Great Southern Reef, is something that needs to be discussed at least at a national level,” Ms Coleman said. “Letting little old South Australia deal with it on their own is a little bit mean.”

Experts convened by the South Australian government identified three potential factors that could have contributed to the bloom: a heatwave, the 2022-23 River Murray flood and the unprecedented 2023-24 cold-water upwelling. Picture: Great Southern Reef Foundation

Not only has the algal bloom killed thousands of sea creatures, it also is posing a danger to threatened species. Picture: Great Southern Reef Foundation

The algal bloom has threatened the internationally significant Coorong wetlands, a shallow saline lagoon stretching roughly 130km that supports a vast number of threatened species, including the orange-bellied parrot, Murray cod, southern bell frog and hooded plover; and six threatened migratory waterbird species, according to the Environment Department. The wetlands have battled numerous environmental pressures for decades because of national water management and reduced freshwater flows from the Murray, leading to concentrated salt and excess nutrients.

The SA Department for Environment and Water said experts believed the toxic algae entered the Coorong’s North Lagoon at the end of May via the mouth of the Murray River, killing thousands of the Coorong’s polychaete worms, crabs and fish.

“The bloom has moved around the coast … it has moved from embayment to embayment, town to town, industry to industry, and impacted on each,” Ms Coleman said.

The aquaculture industry has been hit and SA Health released a statement warning that brevetoxins – neurotoxic shellfish poisons – had been detected in shellfish for the first time at three South Australian locations, a national first.

The Australian Conservation Foundation said ‘tens if not hundreds of thousands of animals are dead’. Picture: Stefan Andrews / Great Southern Reef Foundation

SA Environment Minister Susan Close said on Tuesday that the federal government had told her the algal bloom “doesn’t conform to the checklist of what is a national natural disaster”.

An algae event of this scale was last recorded in the state in Coffin Bay in 2014, although similar blooms have appeared globally and nationwide, lasting a week to several months depending on wind, rain and ocean temperatures. There are no natural ways to dilute or dissipate the bloom.

However, the state government established an algal bloom taskforce and reference group to help SA industries and stakeholders respond to the outbreak.

Australian Conservation Foundation campaigner Darcie Carruthers said the bloom, which was affecting “spectacular and significant but pretty remote places”, had failed to garner an adequate federal government response.

“When tens if not hundreds of thousands of animals are dead and coastal communities and businesses are suffering, I think it’s reasonable for this to be declared a disaster,” Ms Carruthers said.

“The impacts are terrible and ongoing. Declaring the bloom a disaster would force national focus and federal resources on to it, which would be helpful. People are really anxious and really suffering in the face of this disaster … (they) have called it a Chernobyl of the marine environment.”