Great Lakes Fish Kill

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While the new Marine Park Authority has been running around thumping their chests about fining granddads and their grandchildren for wandering unaware into sanctuary zones and turning them into criminals, they have been eerily silent in recent weeks as the fish in the PSGL Marine park continue to die, ecofishers have been vindicated as just as we have been saying all along, millions of dollars spent on a new bureacracy, boats, staff, etc, in a political green vote buying exercise and still nothing is being done about the real threats to the marine biodiversity as evidenced by tonnes of dead diseased fish.
Way to go Max.

Dead fish at Myall Lakes
BY MATTHEW KELLY   THE HERALD   20/08/2008 11:49:00 PM

A VIRULENT fungal illness is suspected of killing thousands of fish in the Myall Lakes and has raised concerns about the health of the Port Stephens-Great Lakes marine park.
 The Department of Primary Industries confirmed last night that it was analysing tissue samples collected from the area to try to identify the cause of the fish kill.
Blackfish, or luderick , silver biddy, bream and Australian bass are among the species that have been found dead or sick in the estuary in the past fortnight.
Some fishermen estimate that several tonnes of fish could have died to date.
"I've lived here for 22 years and I've never seen anything like this before," Tea Gardens recreational fisherman Andrew Sharp said.
"The estuary could take years to recover."
The Herald collected more than 20 dead fish, ranging from juveniles to a large bream, along a 100-metre stretch of shore at Mungo Brush yesterday.
Many of the fish appeared to have brown fungus-like growth around their mouths and gills.
The last major pollution incident in the area was in 2005 when a blue-green algae bloom occurred around the Broadwater and Two Mile Lake system.
Concerns have also been raised about acid sulphate soil run-off entering the lakes system, which has the potential to cause fungus disease in fish.
Bombah Point car ferrymaster Mick Johnson said dead fish began appearing about two weeks ago.
"Every morning you see 10 or a dozen floating around the ferry but it's not what you see that's the worry, it's what you don't see," Mr Johnson, a former professional fisherman, said.
"They look like they are in reasonable condition; it doesn't seem like they have starved to death."
Commercial and recreational fishing activities continue in the marine park despite the fish kill.
A Department of Primary Industries spokeswoman urged anyone with concerns about the estuary to contact the department.

Myall Lakes dead fish toll grows                   
MATTHEW KELLY   THE HERALD              27/08/2008 10:49:00 PM

HUNDREDS of dead fish continue to be found along sections of the Myall Lakes shore.
It comes a week after the mysterious death of thousands of fish in the Port Stephens-Great Lakes marine park.
Commercial fisherman Neville Smith, who was involved in a survey around Mungo Brush and Dees Corner on Tuesday, estimated about half a tonne of dead fish was strewn along a kilometre of the shore.
"There were a lot of little fish, mostly bream, luderick and whiting," he said.
Many of the fish found last week had brown fungus growth around their mouths and gills, possibly the result of a weakened immune system.
Mr Smith said he and other fishermen had stopped fishing in the Myall Lakes due to concerns about the health of fish stocks.
"I've moved down to Port Stephens," he said.
"It just means there are more blokes working in another fishing area."
Recreational fisherman Andrew Sharp, who found hundreds of dead fish along the Myall Lakes shore last week, said he suspected some fish were also infected with red spot fungal disease.
"I was fishing at Corrie Island [on Monday]," he said.
"The bream had nasty lesions which seemed to be different to the fungus that the fish in the lake had on them."
Opinions among fishermen vary about what sparked last week's fish kill, but they include acid sulphate run-off from road works and agricultural sewage run-off.
Department of Primary Industry test results from dead fish collected from the shore last week are expected in coming days.
Great Lakes councillor Len Roberts has called for the creation of a single management authority for the Myall River.
No bans have been placed on fishing in the Myall Lakes.

[sandfly]

Can assure you the Marine Authority and Greens will find some one to blame. They won't even consider the fact it is Government and Marine Parks authority inability to act upon the real killers in coastal fish growth areas, pollution and poor environmental management.

[Spiney]

The Advocate (Forster) 10/9/2008


Fish mystery solved
TIM CONNELL
10/09/2008 9:48:00 AM
THOUSANDS of dead fish floating in the Myall Lakes were killed by a disease thriving in the estuary?s cold water and low salinity, tests show.
Bream and silver biddy carcasses from Bombah Broadwater were tested last week by Department of Primary Industry scientists, who found them riddled with the fungal infection Saprolegniosis, or winter disease.

?In winter disease, fungus can sometimes be seen around the mouth and gills, and appears as a brown deposit a bit like a five o?clock shadow,? a department spokesperson said.

The fish were widely thought to have red spot disease, which was found near Tea Gardens earlier this year, but the department said the Myall outbreak is different.

Fish veterinarian Matt Landof said it was unusual for estuarine fish to contract winter disease. The fungus choking the fish can be found even in healthy waterways, but it can be devastating.

?It?s a common water fungus, but if the water gets cold very quickly it affects fishes? immunity. Their skin and gills become vulnerable to it,? Dr Landof said.

?Water with low salinity also allows the fungus to thrive.?

Fishing has not been banned in the lakes, but the department warned that fish with tell-tale brown residue around the mouth and gills should not be eaten. Dr Landof agreed.

?If an adult fish with the disease was cooked and eaten there would be no impact [on the human], but I wouldn?t recommend eating a fish that shows signs of illness.?

A Department of Environment and Climate Change (DECC) spokesperson said experts were satisfied enough water passes through the Myall River mouth to keep it clean, but two Great Lakes councillors said the current outbreak is a symptom of mismanagement.

?Comments by the DECC that there?s sufficient flow to allow flushing are contrary to current reports and council?s own submission to dredge the opening,? Cr Len Roberts said.

Some fishermen shrugged off the outbreak, which they say is fairly common.

?It?s been going on for years,? lakes-based commercial fisherman Graeme Hockings told the Myall Coast Nota.

?It happens about three or four years apart, sometimes more, usually when the water gets cold.?

Cr Carol McCaskie, standing for re-election on the same ticket as Cr Roberts, said any infection is ?a problem?.

?Irrespective of the frequency of diseased fish and whether it is cyclical or not, the point that there are diseased fish. The fact it may have happened before is a warning something is wrong, not that we must live with it,? she said.

?It?s like having a toothache from time to time and not doing anything about it. Eventually the tooth dies. We don?t want a dead Myall River, so let?s fix the problem now.?

Dr Landof said winter disease usually kills in conjunction with another pollutant.

?I?d be cautious of assuming the fungus is the primary cause [of the deaths]. There are often other toxins at work.?

Oyster harvesting at Tea Gardens has been suspended because of the river?s low salinity, measured at eight parts per thousand last week. It needs to reach 18 per thousand for harvesting to resume.

[CEO]

.....and the community was conned by shonky science and rubbery data into thinking marine parks were to protrect the biodiversity. What a joke!

[CEO]

  MARINE PARK FISH KILL: Cape Byron Political Park: Tallow Crk, a "Special Purpose Zone," right in the middle of the Cape Byron Political Park, sufferred a severe fish kill, last month. Previously Byron Shire had managed the water quality and levels in the creek, but now it is part of the government's political park. That means no management by these terrestrial ecologists who couldn't organize a Xmas party in a brewery. Thousands of fish and crustaceans died needlessly because they failed to open the creek when water levels reached a critical level - so everything died.
      What was it they told the community was the aim of their marine parks......something about protecting the biodiversity??? Con men and fraudsters! No wonder they have no credibility with the local community.

[CEO]

        WILL THE NAVIGATION CHANNELS IN THE LAKES GET A DREDGING TO OPEN THEM UP? It has absolutely nothing to do with the Marine Park Authority. They have only just found that out. They should have asked the fishermen - they could have told them months ago! But no, in their arrogance they treat locals like second class citizens and it is their marine park. They are welcome to it!