Environment Australians and puffing and sweating, and they do, in the meantime, almost two months. In december killed some hitterecords, but January is particularly hot, with temperatures up to 50 degrees. And that takes its toll, not only for the inhabitants but also for the whole Australian ecosystem.

That turned out again after Rob McBride and Dick Arnold a video on social media sharing. Here it is clearly seen how the men on the banks of a river. They keep two giant dead fish. “These are just two of the many fish”, they tell still. Then the camera zooms out and they show hundreds of floating fish, tragically meet their end in the Australian Darling river. the

The death of the fish is not the result of a fishing rod, nor would, according to the Australian males as a direct consequence of the drought. “This man has done”, as they say, disappointed. “Politicians and cotton farmers need to be ashamed”, they decide.

Read also the Extreme weather in Australia: heavy rainfall in Sydney, fierce forest fires in Queensland Irrigation

While scientists agree that the massive dying off of fish in Australia is not the direct result of the drought, the heat wave is an important catalyst. “Farmers do the precious water upstream move to their fields to irrigate. Therefore, there is less water for the fish,” said Quentin Grafton, a professor at the Australian National University (ANU), specialising in water issues in Australia. His research group closes further to the reproaches of Rob McBride and Dick Arnold: the alarming fish dying is a result of “political mismanagement”.

Limited amount of oxygen and algae

Matthew Collof, an ecologist at the ANU, explains how it is so far, could come: “The excessive use of water ensures that the river layer”. A smaller surface means a limited amount of oxygen that is included. “In addition, there was a large algal bloom.” the

Bloom is a typical summer phenomenon because it occurs when little oxygen is present in slow flowing or stagnant water. Actually, it is a way to the ecological balance back to restore it, but that sucks the first time, the remaining oxygen out of the water. “That led to the suffocation of 100,000 or even 1 million fish,” said Matthew Collof. “It will take a long time before the vissenpopulatie restored.”

(continue Reading below the picture)