Adelaide beachgoers urged to report dead and washed-up sea life

ABC NEWS (Australia)

Beachgoers on South Australia's metropolitan shores are being urged to report dead marine life washing up. As the state government says some of the harmful algal bloom has been pushed to Adelaide's coast.

Transcript

00:00A wake of dead sea life has washed up on Adelaide's beaches, like this Port Jackson shark pup.

00:09Marine biologist Dr Mike Bosley has spent thousands of hours roaming the sand in his lifetime,

00:15but in the past week has sighted species he's never seen on the shore.

00:19Different kinds of rays and sharks, lots of pipefish, things called ling, which is a very unusual thing.

00:26I've never seen them washed up on the beach before, and lots of species of fish that I don't even know the names of.

00:31Since March, a marine heatwave has brought on the harmful algal bloom,

00:36causing discoloured water and foam in the Fleurieu Peninsula, Kangaroo Island, York Peninsula and the Coorong.

00:43Now it's pushing onto metropolitan beaches.

00:46There's been reports of dead marine life washing up closer to the city in the past month,

00:52from Selix Beach to North Haven, made worse by recent storms.

00:56I had no idea that the algal bloom had got here, but it's just heartbreaking.

01:02I was heartbroken at Coorong, I couldn't bear to look at the footage, and it's just, yeah.

01:07And now it's here, and what can we do?

01:10The algal bloom is impacting fish like sharks and rays.

01:14But the more that scientists know about which species are washing up and where,

01:19the better they'll understand this situation and potential events in the future.

01:24If you are walking along beaches, please photograph the dead things that you see

01:28and post them onto iNaturalist or send them into the government.

01:32The experts are monitoring very closely where we're up to in terms of the algal bloom.

01:36Some of the temperatures have reduced closer to the coast,

01:40but we're still seeing higher than average temperatures further out to sea.

01:45A stubborn situation slowly shifting.

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