Big fish kill in the Swan

I just heard that there is a big fish kill happening in the Swan from Redcliffe bridge down to East Perth, waters & rivers are saying it's the biggest one they have seen.......

I'm off to check it out.

[Mim]

Do you mean someone is killing the fish, or is it water contamination?

[jimi]

Mim, I'd assume he means contaminated water. I'm not surprised in this part of the river. After all the rain we've had, there would be heaps of junk being washed in from the industry around bayswater.

[Richo]

Walked around Claisebrook Inlet at lunch today - and I didn`t see any evidence. But the same happened after the last downpour didn`t it???... So whats the deal, contaminated runoff ?? probably why I didn`t see any fish there either, which is strange for a lunch time.

[Simon]

any acid sulphate soils in that area, that usually happens with rain/runoff?


Simon.

[TheJigJedi]

Now that sounds a bit sus.

Somethings gotta be running off the land that isnt healthy. Its happened twice now after two big rains this year. It can't be the usual nutrient run off from the farms causing algal bloom and oxygen depletion cos that takes a lot longer than a week to have any sort of impact on the fish. Should be interesting to see what they find.

[getchoo]

while we wait for ira's findings...

Does anyone else share a concern about the ascot waters area and possible contamination of the soils around it?

Am I correct in claiming the island there was originally a rubbish tip of some sort? And there is a distinct lack of follage there...
anyone want to give me the lowdown?

cheerio
al

[Craig H]

Yeh, the Ascot Waters development is indeed situated on top of an old rubbish tip.

In regards to the fish kill ... I missed the news, but my Dad said that they suggested not even touching the fish. Not sure of the 'boundaries' that were given as far as affected fish and the suggested non-handling was for though

[wandtheswan]

The main place i think about is the race course. When you think about all the horses they wash down, and all the crap that goes into the ground over the years to keep the race track in mint condition all year round such as fertilizers and lawn chemicals, when the heavy rains come it's eventually going to get the build up down in the soil and drain into the Swan river.
Does anyone think this could be an answer?

i did hear the reports on the news and they think low oxygen levels but what about the location??

cheers

[Herds]

The news reported from the Causway up to Bassendeen ...

There comes a time when enough is enough...it can't just be blamed on the "irregular rainfall"...there must be something that can be done.

Looked like Frank from recfish was petty pissed too!!!

Andrew

[Bear]

It's more the chemicals they use on the course that worry me.

I'd blame rainfall normally, BUT....
This seems to sus to me. If it is from Causeway, which is still quite tidal, the algea cant be blamed! These algal blooms are not normally found in heavy tidal areas. Upriver i can understand, but not downriver!
Around Ascot i'd be looking at the local developments, but more at the Racecourse for sure!!!
Pretty sad really!

Dave

[tim osgerby]

I think Bream Master should do away with the pro net banning forum and have a forum for all envionment issues. I think issues such as pollution, public access,bag limmits ect can all go into one basket. Do you think Stateline might have a follow up from last weeks show.

Along with civillisation comes barbarianism !

[saltydog]

How much of perth's drainage system runs straight into the swan?
i live in morley and all the drains on the main drag have that little black swan painted next to them, which I assume means it feeds into the swan.
If it's the same in the industrial area then I'm surprised it doesn't happen more often.
Might try and get a few questions answered about the subterrainian layout, unless someone allready knows?

[Mattj]

I'm with Bear, any place that uses some sort of turf as a playing field (lawn Bowls, Tennis clubs, race courses etc) generally like to keep them in mint cond. One main bug that causes problems with turf is African Black Beetle (fairly common lawn beetle also). These fellas kill off sections of grass which simply looks bad-oh golly gosh. To kill these fellas they can use a number of different chemicals, most of which are anticholinesterase type chems which attack the nervous system. These chems are also very mobile and very harmful to all marine life. Also commonly used selective herbicides (such as triazine group) can be very mobile and as harmful to marine life as insecticides. Not trying to accuse anyone or anybody cause, as mentioned many factors could be compounding with each other such as industry, general drainage of rain through the suburbs etc. I guess we have to rely on testing to find out and hope proper preventitive actions follow.

Matt