As parts of the eastern states experience extreme wet weather, it's a different picture in the southern oceans. A marine heat wave with sea temperatures two to three degrees hotter than normal has been hitting South Australia's coastline since September last year. It's believed to be a major factor in a toxic algal bloom that's had a devastating impact on local sea life and coastal communities.
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00:00This is potentially the start of the decay of the oceans, which is going to be the start
00:13of the decay of mankind. It needs to be taken seriously. There has to be a way of letting
00:21the world realise that this could be the beginning of the end. It's just giving us warning signs.
00:26Anthony Rowland grew up surfing on South Australia's Fleurieu Peninsula. In March,
00:33what started as a normal day out with a couple of mates ended up with them walking back to the
00:38car park coughing. I was taking my wetsuit off and I started looking around and, you know,
00:43there was quite a busy car park and I noticed like these guys were coughing, they were coughing,
00:46everyone was coughing here and there and I was like, all right, something's really not right here.
00:51What those surfers were experiencing was the start of an unfolding environmental disaster
00:58along South Australia's coast. They were breathing in algae particles that would soon create foaming
01:04tides and then wave after wave of dead fish species washing up on the shore.
01:13On this fresh tide line here, you can see these abalone that have just washed up.
01:18Anthony took to social media to document what he was seeing and started asking government agencies
01:24questions. I saw on social media that Anthony was looking fairly stressed and he wasn't getting a
01:31result. And so I sent her a message on Facebook as you do saying, hey, how are you going and are you
01:38all right? Faith Coleman is an estuarine ecologist who took up the algal bloom cause. Sent samples by Anthony
01:45and other concerned observers, she identified a microalgae, Karenia mikumotoi, an identification
01:51authorities later confirmed.
01:56Blooms are natural, but blooms this big are not. And blooms that are this dominated by one species
02:04are not. Scientists use chlorophyll as an indicator of the bloom and these satellite images show it
02:11affecting a massive expanse of the state's coast, 70 times the size of Sydney Harbour.
02:19On Kangaroo Island, locals have raised the alarm about multiple fish kills on local beaches.
02:25Just on this stretch of beach at Nepean Bay, there are dozens of rays washed up and rotting.
02:31Locals say that scenes like these are replicated across the island.
02:35It's not just the environment. The algal bloom is having an impact on business. Andrew
02:43Neighbour runs dolphin tours on Kangaroo Island and this year his season is ending early. While
02:49dolphins have so far survived the bloom, swimming with them has become less appealing.
02:54It's just the last few tours that we've run have been the water's so manky. You know, we can still
03:01run tours, but we're actually, we're a swim tour. So it's starting to look pretty serious now,
03:06especially when you look here today at this one of the busiest boat ramps on Kangaroo Island. There's
03:10not a single boat here. Anthony Rowland is still keeping watch on the beaches, while he waits for the
03:17wind and storms that will hopefully break up the bloom. After that, it's just a question of how
03:23much damage has been done and how long it will take to recover.