Kangaroo Lake hit by mass fish kill

RESIDENTS and visitors of Kangaroo Lake, between Kerang and Swan Hill, are in shock after more than 200,000 dead fish blanketed the shoreline over the weekend.

Among a mass of bony bream are large yellowbelly, Murray cod and redfin, many reportedly measuring over a metre.

Kangaroo Lake resident Rick Sarre said he had never seen anything like it before.

“Every year around, about winter time, we will get a kill of bony bream, which is just a natural thing, but this is just something else,” he told the Gannawarra Times.

“Some of these cods are probably around 60 or 70 years old.”

The news comes days after hundreds of thousands of dead fish were discovered in the Darling-Baaka River at Menindee in far west NSW. The cause of the Menindee deaths is under investigation.

Mr Sarre said it was hard to describe the extent of dead fish in Kangaroo Lake.

“I do know that there was somebody that went for a boat cruise out on the lake yesterday, and they counted 30 cod, and probably for every one that is floating there is probably another five to 10 than has sunk,” he said. “So there is a lot of dead fish out there.”

Kangaroo Lake Caravan Park owner Clive Patullock described the scenes as “horrific” and “absolutely terrible”.

“At the moment it’s not a blame game, it’s about correcting the problem as fast as we can,” Mr Patullock said.

“It’s a matter of the community getting together and cleaning the mess up now, I guess.”

It is unclear what caused the mass deaths.

“It’s just a shame it has happened, and hopefully we can rectify the problem so it doesn’t happen again,” Mr Patullock said.

Goulburn Murray Water has been contacted for comment.