Hundreds of residents attend forum on how to live with algal bloom

ABC NEWS (Australia)

As the algal bloom crisis continues along South Australia’s coastline a team of scientists is preparing to head out to sea to find out what impact the disaster is having in deeper waters. While there's been some monitoring of dead sea life washing up on the state's beaches researchers say there's much that's still unknown about the bloom.

Transcript

00:00A new research vessel to help scientists take a deeper dive to investigate SA's devastating

00:09algal bloom.

00:10With the algal bloom at the moment there's a lot of concerns because of what we're seeing

00:13on the beaches but there's also a lot of unknown in what's happening deeper and further away.

00:19The Flinders University boat will allow researchers to dive up to 30 nautical miles off the coast

00:25surveying marine mammals and creatures impacted by the bloom.

00:30That sea life continues to wash up on the state's beaches in the tens of thousands, a continuous

00:36confronting scene for beach goers.

00:39We go to the beach a lot and it's really devastating that it's been like we can't go anymore.

00:45A whole range of emotions from fear, dread, grief, anger, disbelief and I think all of those

00:53emotions people are facing.

00:55Hearing from experts about the bloom, the Port Nolunga community is arming itself with

01:00information, learning how to combat the current crisis and what the future looks like if more

01:07events continue to occur.

01:08Wanting to get the right information but also just know that this is likely our future and

01:14we need to do something about it.

01:16I think we can build resilience, I think we can look at blooms like this and we can work

01:20out ways to make them less intense in the future.

01:23We can work out ways we can improve the biology of the gulfs while also addressing climate change.

01:28As the warmer months approach and the blooms still yet to clear, many are bracing for an

01:34uncertain summer ahead.

01:35As we're seeing, it's not over yet and we don't know how long it's going to keep on going.

01:40So in terms of what's going to be in the future, that's the big question.

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