Environment Minister Susan Close sounds alrm over Port River, West Lakes as toxic algae tipped to last a year
The toxic algae bloom is not going away in a hurry, SA’s environment minister has warned, as she reveals a possible timeframe and two future at-risk areas.
The Environment Minister has warned that although the toxic algae plaguing South Australia’s coastline has seen some decline, the state could be dealing with the bloom for the next 12 months.
And its recent incursion into the Gulf St Vincent has opened up the potential for the algae to end up in metropolitan river systems, she said.
On Monday, Environment Minister Susan Close warned that a “significant marine heatwave” was persisting off SA’s south coast, which contributed to the algae’s continuing presence in the state’s waters.
“The dinoflagellate Karenia mikimotoi has an interesting life cycle,” Dr Close said.
“When the conditions are no longer suitable for the organism many of the little individuals will fall to the bottom of the ocean in an inert form and simply wait on the seabed for the conditions to return and to start a bloom again.”
“That means that once we have it in significant numbers, we have increased likelihood of a return of a bloom.”
Dr Close also said the government had forecast that the bloom would continue over the next 12 months, and that it could eventually get into river systems around metropolitan Adelaide.
“We have to be prepared for this.”
“It may well be discovered at some point in the Port River.”
“It may even make its way into West Lakes.”
On Semaphore beach on Monday, beachgoers reported scores of dead animals, including garfish, rays, sharks and lugworms.
Port Broughton was paid a visit last week by a female Great White Shark, a victim of the toxic Karenia mikimotoi algae that has killed scores of fish along South Australia’s coast.
The shark was found washed up near the town on the Yorke Peninsula’s east coast, and was taken away by fisheries officers on Friday.
Dr Mike Bossley told The Advertiser that the bloom was “almost certainly a consequence of climate change”.
“That means it’s going to keep happening and going to get worse,” he said.
Dr Close also spoke to the role of climate change in the ongoing algal bloom, while urging South Australians to continue to report marine life deaths to FISHWATCH.
“What we’re experiencing at the moment is the effects of climate change.”
“It is what happens when you have an ongoing marine heatwave off our coast, and while the surface waters of the Gulf are cooling to normal levels, off the continental shelf, there is still a significant marine heatwave occurring.”
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