Toxic bloom focus shifts to Kangaroo Island as more dead sea creatures wash ashore
By Viki Ntafillis and Caroline Horn
ABC North and West SA
Topic:Environmental Health
20m ago20 minutes agoTue 1 Apr 2025 at 3:29am
Dead fish by a boot, for size reference. The boot is a quarter of the fish's length.
Creatures large and small are washing up dead on Kangaroo Island. (Supplied: Nikki Redman)
In short:
Kangaroo Islanders are concerned about the amount of marine life washing up dead on local beaches.
It comes less than a fortnight after a large-scale fish kill on Fleurieu Peninsula beaches, where the EPA identified a toxic microalgae bloom.
What's next?
The state government is investigating if the Kangaroo Island fish kills are linked to those on the Fleurieu Peninsula.
Kangaroo Islanders are reporting dead fish and other marine creatures washing onto local beaches less than a fortnight after a similar event on the Fleurieu Peninsula.
Readers are advised this story includes images some may find distressing.
Islanders say skate, leather jackets, pufferfish, cuttlefish and worms have washed up dead on beaches including D'Estrees Bay and Island Beach..
Baby cuttlefish and huge cuttlefish-looking creature have washed up on a beach.
A dead juvenile cuttlefish at D'Estrees Bay. (Supplied: Nikki Redman)
Senior naturalist and local tour guide Nikki Redman said she regularly visited D'Estrees Bay to collect rubbish on the beach and has seen dead creatures most days since March 22.
One day, she said, "100-plus" dead animals were on the shore.
KI dead fish
One of "100 plus" dead fish that washed upon D'Estrees Bay. (Supplied: Nikki Redman)
"It's just got increasingly worse," Ms Redman said, adding a foamy "brown scum" was also on the water.
"I was a bit blown away and it's a bit upsetting," she said.
Brown sea foam spotted at a beach on the sand.
Locals are concerned about foam at D'Estrees Bay. (Supplied: Nikki Redman)
Many locals have posted on social media about the number of dead animals they are seeing on beaches.
Peter Heaslip said he was walking on Island Beach on Monday when he saw "hundreds" of dead worm-like creatures.
"It seemed quite unusual and then as we went along, we saw various other marine animals, including some fish and skates and things like that, and in the wash there was even more,"
he said.
"It was quite alarming."
KI dead creature
Mr Heaslip said it was "alarming" to see creatures, including this skate, dead on the beach. (Supplied: Peter Heaslip)
Investigating link to microalgae
Last week, South Australia's EPA identified microalgae Karenia mikimotoi, which is toxic to fish, as the cause of the bloom on the Fleurieu Peninsula, where hundreds of dead sea creatures washed up at Encounter Bay and Basham Beach.
Some people also reported sore eyes, blurry vision and coughing after visiting Waitpinga and Parsons beaches before the department closed them.
Dozens of dead kangaroos were also recently found near Tunkalilla Beach, which was also affected by the marine algae bloom.
A dead kangaroo on the sand.
A dead kangaroo at Tunkalilla Beach on the Fleurieu Peninsula. (Supplied: Anthony Rowlands)
A Department of Primary Industries and Regions spokesperson said it had "received a number of reports of dead fish washing up on Kangaroo Island and is investigating whether it is linked to the large-scale fish kill that occurred on the Fleurieu Peninsula".
"Fisheries officers are monitoring environmental conditions and water samples have been collected for analysis," the spokesperson said.
SA Health earlier told the ABC that Karenia mikimotoi was "toxic to fish but not humans".
Posted20m ago20 minutes agoTue 1 Apr 2025 at 3:29am
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