00:00Tens of thousands of small bony brim are lining the shores of Lake Menindee here in outback New South Wales following a fish kill.
00:09It's believed the extreme heat last week and the cool change that followed contributed significantly to the fish kill.
00:15Bony brim are known to be quite a temperamental species, booming in the good times and dying off in the bad.
00:21And with Menindee reaching temperatures above 46 degrees for seven consecutive days last week,
00:26it's believed the heat which culminated in a large dust storm some viewers may have seen over the weekend brought in a cool change.
00:33The cool change meant maximum temperatures dropped below the previous week's minimum and it's thought this was a contributing factor to the death of these tens of thousands of bony brim.
00:43Another potential factor is blue-green algae.
00:46Currently here at Lake Menindee there's a red alert which means absolutely no drinking or recreational activities.
00:53Clean-up work is now underway with New South Wales fisheries, the EPA, local council and Indigenous river ranges removing carcasses from the shores of the lake
01:01which runs adjacent but separate to the Darling River.
01:05Locals say the discovery of these fish comes as a shock.
01:08Oh, it's heartbreaking for everything.
01:11Give it another day or two and the smell ain't going to be very favourable for anyone to want to be here.
01:17But yeah, we've just got to do what we can at the moment.
01:20While it's not completely unusual to see bony brim die off during fluctuating heat and other weather conditions,
01:26the scale is certainly uncommon with tens of thousands perishing.
01:30Last week south of here hundreds of carp were spotted dead by locals along the Darling River.
01:36They're hoping authorities can find the cause.
01:38It's coming up to the three year anniversary of when tens of millions of native fish died along the Darling River here at Menindee.
01:46And locals alongside authorities are hoping the deaths of these bony brim aren't a sign of things to come.
01:52When officers say the этого people take.
01:54After 15 months before the
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