Australia, millions of dead fish in the Darling-Baaka river:«Asphyxiated by the exceptional heat wave» – The video

The school of now lifeless animals extends for kilometers.The Department of Primary Industries:«Too little oxygen in the water».In Menindee the temperature hit 41°C

The heat wave killed millions.So does the river Darling Baaka in the Australian state of New South Wales a few hours ago appeared as a huge cemetery of fish:entire schools died after the high temperatures that hit the region in recent days."THE'heat wave it added further stress on a river system it had already experienced extreme shocks due to recent major floods", he explained above Facebook the State Department of Primary Industries.«These fish deaths are linked to low oxygen levels in the water (hypoxia).The current hot climate in the region is also exacerbating thehypoxia, as warmer water holds less oxygen than cold water, and fish need more oxygen at warmer temperatures."Images from the Darling-Baaka River show a long school of dead fish several kilometers, which is now starting to rot.The number is so large that the authorities believe it is impossible to remove them.

Around 500 people live in the town of Menindee and are currently distressed by what they found in the river, part of the Murray Darling basin, the largest river system of Australia.In the Facebook post, the DPI also explained how the people of the city rely on the river for water supplies:«They use river water to wash and shower, now they will not be able to access that water for domestic use, and this is simply shameful».A few hours ago the temperature in Menindee reached 41°C.That same area of ​​the river is no stranger to ecological disasters like what happened a few hours ago:in the summer of 2018 a very similar event occurred.The group of researchers who were given the task of understanding the causes at the time now reiterate the strong role of climate change in New South Wales:"There transition from floods to drought and then again the floods happen more quickly than ever."

For years, governments in the area have been working on a program that should help improve the health of the river:Among the solutions is also a limit on the amount of water that companies and local administrations in the region can withdraw.But from 2008 to today, the application of the plan has proven to be much more complex than expected, given the difficulty of the interested parties in finding a compromise.Meanwhile the river has just become a fish graveyard again:«Imagine the smell of a dead fish left to rot for a few days in a sink and multiply that stench by millions of fish", explained a resident at the Guardian.“This is the largest fish kill since 2018,” commented the local reporter Sarah McConnell spreading the sad images on Twitter.