Thousands of large dead fish wash up in a lake in NSW, Australia #Fish #Australia

Thousands of dead fish have washed up on the shore of a NSW lake, with some measuring just under a metre in length.

A mysterious fish kill event was reported by locals at Lake Wyangan northwest of Griffith in the New South Wales Riverina over the weekend.

Local member Murray MP Helen Dalton described the waterway as ‘absolutely putrid, dark in colour, full of foam and sludge with dead native fish floating up on the shore’.

Footage taken by a local fisherman on Saturday showed the carcasses of dead Murray cod, yellow belly perch, bony bream and carp lining the banks.

Fisherman Andres Baren told ABC News the scale of devastation was difficult to see.

‘There were dead fish everywhere,’ Mr Baren said.

‘I counted 34 cod, all just under a metre big, and then there were thousands of bony bream, yellow belly and smaller cod — it was impossible to count them all.’

When evidence of the contamination emerged it caused outrage among the local community, with the event being described as a ‘disaster’ and ‘absolutely heartbreaking’.

Some raised concerns for other wildlife like birds, foxes or other animals which rely on the fish as a food source.

New South Wales Murray MP Helen Dalton is calling for urgent action over what she has deemed a health risk to the local community.

‘Over this past year, I’ve written urgent letters to NSW government departments urging action on Lake Wyangan and they’ve done nothing,’ she said.

Courtesy of dailymail.co.uk

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