Farmers post disturbing video of dead 100-year-old fish
Two farmers have made an emotional plea to the government to take action after thousands of dead fish washed up on NSW’s Darling River in an escalating ecological disaster.
Taking to Facebook, farmers Rob McBride and Dick Arnold shared damning video of themselves standing in the river, cradling a pair of giant dead fish they claimed were 100 years old.
“This is bloody disgraceful, this is the most disgusting thing I’ve seen in my life,” farmer Rob McBride says in the video.
“It’s Australia, we’re not bloody fourth-world, fifth-world country for Christ sake,” Mr Arnold added.
“It makes me feel like crying.”
The Federal Department of Environment and Energy has said the deaths are down to drought conditions, sparking a rise in algae which eradicates the oxygen from the river and leaving none for the fish.
Yet Mr McBride strongly disputes the government’s claims and believes the current situation could have been avoided.
‘Darling River is going into cardiac arrest’
“This has nothing to do with drought, this is a man-made disaster brought to you by the New South Wales Government and the Federal Government,” Mr McBride continues in the clip.
And The Australia Institute agrees, with the think tank declaring the problem as “a preventable environmental catastrophe,” the ABC reported.
The institute’s senior water researcher Maryanne Slattery noted fish over the age of 80 had survived previous droughts and algae spikes before.
NSW Minister for Primary Industries and Regional Water Niall Blair insisted the only way out of the growing problem was a prolonged period of rain.
“We can’t make it rain… I can’t fill the rivers up if the rain isn’t falling,” Mr Blair said.
However South Australian Centre Alliance senator Rex Patrick has urged for more action to be taken to meet “basic needs” of humans and livestock, The ABC reported.
He called for the government to access water held in nearby dams to be used to flood out the river.
“The Darling River is going into cardiac arrest and both the governments are asleep at the wheel of the ambulance,” Senator Patrick said.
