Invasive fish spawning has rivers ‘boiling’ and ‘bubbling’ in Australia, videos show
Waterways in Australia are teeming with invasive fish during a mass spawning event, raising concerns about an impending environmental disaster, videos show.
Seemingly endless numbers of carp have filled the Murray-Darling basin in New South Wales thanks to a mass spawning event, The Guardian reported on Thursday, Jan. 12. Local irrigator and farmer Jeremy Morton shared a video on Facebook showing the masses of flailing fish.
“It’s all European carp,” Morton said in the video. “It’s just one little tiny spot, imagine how many countless billions have actually invaded over the last few months… unbelievable.”
“It looks like boiling, bubbling up and boiling, all on top of one another,” Morton said, according to the Sydney Morning Herald.
The video shows a countless number of carp swimming on top of each other, nearly overflowing from the river. “The carp-ocolypse has begun,” someone commented on Morton’s video on Twitter.
Widespread flooding in the region has contributed to this “explosion of carp,” the Sydney Morning Herald reported.
An invasive species, European carp were introduced to Australia over a century ago, according to the National Carp Control Plan from Australia’s Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry. In the Murray-Darling Basin, carp account for 80% to 90% of all fish. Their presence has “decimated native fish populations in many areas,” the department said.
One risk with this invasive fish spawning event is carp may spread parasites, one professor told The Guardian. Receding flood waters will leave many of the carp to die, raising concerns about water contamination for livestock as well as fish carcasses blocking irrigation systems, The Leader reported.
New South Wales Agricultural Minister Dugold Saunders told the Sydney Morning Herald “the government remained committed to exploring all avenues to reduce carp numbers.”
The Murray-Darling Basin is a region in New South Wales about 500 miles west of Sydney.
This story was originally published January 13, 2023 at 5:15 PM with the headline "Invasive fish spawning has rivers ‘boiling’ and ‘bubbling’ in Australia, videos show."
