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Unfortunately, there was w fish kill there last week Golden Perch and Redfin were cleaned up. Carp and Murray cod also reported.

Hi Matt, can I ask what you mean by "a fish kill"? Does this mean a deliberate killing of all fish, and by whom and how? There have been a lot of Pelicans, Cormorants and Grebe there in recent days, all feeding on the fish, so how would this affect them?

A fish kill is where a large number of fish to die at once. This can be for a variety of reasons, usually water quality issue or disease outbreak causes. Given this was multiple species and sizes its most likely due to water quality from recent rainfall runoff. After prolonged dry periods the runoff, particuarly from urban and rural areas, can contain both high organic load and sometime other contaminants. When the organics enter the ponds, particularly if it is followed by a period of high temperature bacterial breakdown can result in very low dissolved oxygen levels. I note in the wider photo a scunge on the surface that would further reduce oxygen level. Generally, there isnt a knock on negative effect to scavenging birds. However, the same conditions, or if there are high loads of dead fish, can result in a botulisum outbreak that will effect waterbirds. In this case TCCS has clean up the fish last week but if there are any more observer please report them promptly to access canberra.