#video #Four Corners - Season 66 - Episode 05: Toxic Tide
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00:22South Australia's coastline isn't meant to look like this.
00:28Once pristine waters are murky and streaked with foam.
00:33It moves, it changes, it is dynamic and it is impossible to predict.
00:38In the worst hit areas, vast populations of marine life have been lost in this algal bloom.
00:46There is nothing under the surface of the water and that should be a huge wake up call for everybody.
00:54It's an environmental disaster and a warning for the nation.
00:59So what have you seen here in the last couple of weeks?
01:02Complete carnage, we've just seen a whole ecosystem wash up on the beach.
01:07Desperate coastal communities can see their future.
01:10If there's no fish, if there's no crabs, there's no customers for us.
01:16Let's not scare 1.7 million South Australians from visiting the beach this summer.
01:21With a state election this weekend, the South Australian government has been accused of playing down the health effects.
01:28It's not toxic.
01:30Do you still believe that?
01:31Well, it's all about the context in which those remarks have been made.
01:34There was a real desire to downplay the impact.
01:37We pieced together what the SA government knew and what they told the public.
01:43The information that I provided at the time was consistent.
01:47But incorrect.
01:49Well, in retrospect, we live in South Australia. We know this. I know you come from Sydney.
01:53It was like razor blades in my guts. I was rolling around on the floor in the emergency room.
01:58Poor bugger.
02:00It's all right. It's okay.
02:01We as the public deserve to know these things.
02:04The South Australian government insists this isn't toxic.
02:08But I've been here for just 10 minutes and already my eyes are watering.
02:12I can feel it in the back of my throat and my skin is itchy.
02:16This was meant to be over in a couple of weeks.
02:19But a year on locals are still dealing with the algal bloom.
02:40In March last year, a South Australian surfer noticed something odd at his local break.
02:50I got out in the car and I just had a bit of a taste in my mouth.
02:53Like, you know, the day before you're getting a flu, you taste just a bit off.
03:01Water was beautiful coloured.
03:03I started just randomly doing a little dry cough here and there.
03:08Anthony Rowland soon realised he wasn't the only one coughing.
03:14I said, are you guys sick? Have you got a cough?
03:16And they're like, no, I've just started coughing out here today.
03:19And I'm like, that's really weird, me too.
03:22So that's when the alarm bells started sounding and I knew something wasn't right here.
03:30He started posting about the symptoms surfers were experiencing.
03:36We'd had almost a hundred responses from the public of people that had been here or been to the car
03:41park.
03:42And what were they saying? What were the responses?
03:43They were all saying the same thing. They just rocked up and they felt a dry cough.
03:48Definitely algae.
03:49This is quite upsetting.
03:52I was in panic mode. I knew it was sick and I was freaking out.
04:01I got out of the car and I instantly noticed something on the air.
04:06Within days, local tradie Dale Madden says he ended up in hospital after swimming at a Victor Harbour beach.
04:15By the time I got to the cliffs, it was quite a horrific smell and nothing I could really relate
04:20to.
04:23I then deteriorated quite quickly to the point of excruciating stomach pain where I was rushed to the emergency at
04:30Victor Harbour.
04:31They thought I had appendicitis. We then ran some tests and found out that I had an infection.
04:37How painful was that?
04:38Like 10 out of 10 painful. It was like razor blades in my guts. I was rolling around on the
04:44floor in the emergency room, coughing and spewing blood.
04:49So this was rough.
04:51And diarrhoea as well?
04:52Oh yeah, horrific diarrhoea. That was definitely the worst I've ever had to the point of really scaring me.
04:58I said to the doctor, it's the water. I reckon it's the water.
05:02While Dale's infection can't be definitively linked to the algae, an international expert told us the bloom could bring on
05:10an illness like this.
05:12Dale says when he called the State Health Department to report his experience, they showed little interest.
05:19When I further asked questions, I was basically treated as if I was just some crazy person whinging about something.
05:27All I can do is document and send the images through.
05:37In the days that followed, Anthony Rowland was stunned by what he was seeing on the beach.
05:44Not a leafy, but I haven't seen one of these guys for a while.
05:47And that just washed up in front of my eyes. You can see the bubbles are still like fucking...
05:51It was pretty shocking. The scenes that I was seeing was something I hadn't seen in 40 years.
05:59I haven't seen one of these guys.
06:02I haven't seen one of these guys before.
06:02An algal bloom causing marine life to die and allergic reactions in swimmers.
06:08Health authorities insist their allergic reactions won't trigger lasting health issues.
06:13Hey buddy. Hello.
06:1512 days after he began documenting the bloom, Anthony Rowland made a grim discovery.
06:23Four bodies.
06:26What's going on?
06:32From 10 years old as a kid, from going down there to surf, there's always hundreds of roosts, like always.
06:37And whenever you get to the bottom, they all see you and pick up and they just divide and get
06:41away.
06:42Yeah, so they're definitely not well, are they?
06:46That there was some kind of poisoning or something was going on.
06:50They looked half paralysed.
06:51Okay mate.
06:53Oh, you've been there for a while, judging by your droppings.
06:57He was so distressed by what he saw, he called the South Australian Department of Primary Industries.
07:04Poor little fingers on these glass legs, aren't you mate?
07:07It's okay.
07:09In fact, a government biosecurity team had already euthanized 45 kangaroos from this mob a few days
07:16earlier. They later reported the animals had shown mild to severe neurological signs.
07:23All up, 112 kangaroos would be put down.
07:27And that night I just remember sitting in bed and looking through my footage and I actually
07:32started feeling a bit sick and then I couldn't sleep. I woke up the next morning and all I wanted
07:35to do was get back out there to see if they'd put them all down. But it was one of
07:39the most
07:40distressing scenes I've ever seen, for sure. Just so many of them suffering.
07:44Yeah, this whole freaking population here is in jeopardy I'd say.
07:47So Anthony Rowland sent me the footage and we're looking at tens, potentially a couple of hundred
07:54kangaroos that are showing really major neurological issues and all at once.
08:00Faith Coleman is an ecologist who's been training volunteers to collect water samples,
08:05and document the algae's impact. Last month she announced she's running as an independent
08:12at the state election. The kangaroos, the footage was so distressing that a large number of both
08:20public and politicians were keen to get answers. The public would never get a definitive answer on what
08:28made the kangaroos so sick. But there was one significant finding. Further testing three months
08:35later found a rare compound in the organs of two of the animals. It's called brevatoxin.
08:43While the results didn't attribute the deaths to brevatoxin, experts say the discovery deserved further
08:50investigation. The presence of brevatoxin in those kangaroos, how significant was that?
08:58So we've never had brevatoxins. It's also extremely rare anywhere in the world. So just our detection of
09:07brevatoxin is a trigger for a full investigation for what the producing organism was, where it's distributed,
09:16how much of it is there. We need to know everything, yeah. And should the public be informed about that,
09:22do you think? Brevatoxins are certainly a problem for public health, and as a member of the public,
09:27I'd like to know if brevatoxins are present. The first algal species to be identified in South
09:34Australia was Karenia mikimotoi. But it was the discovery several months later of another species,
09:41Karenia cristata, that alarmed some scientists. It produces brevatoxins that are released into the
09:48air and water. Fish absorbed them, and we breathed them in.
09:55So we have some incubators down here. Professor Shauna Murray is a globally renowned expert on harmful
10:02algal blooms. So we'll take some of these to have a look. Should we have a look at them under
10:08the
10:08microscope? Let's do that. Her team was the first to show the algae in South Australia produced a brevatoxin.
10:18So it can cause a number of different human impacts. It can cause respiratory difficulties,
10:27including asthma, pneumonia, breathing difficulties potentially. So a potentially serious human health
10:36impact. Despite regular press conferences, the South Australian government didn't immediately tell the
10:43public that brevatoxins had been found in the kangaroos. It took two months for details of the
10:50pathology report to appear on a government website. They didn't want to scare the public because they knew
10:56that tourism and local small towns were going to suffer. I understand their motivation, but we as the
11:03public deserve to know the risk we are putting ourselves in. The SA government told us trace
11:09amounts of brevatoxin were found in the kangaroos, and their presence was incidental.
11:27How are we doing this? One, two, three. Cheers, cheers.
11:32While the government was slow to reveal the brevatoxins in kangaroos,
11:37they were eager to identify what caused the algal bloom.
11:43Hi, I'm Professor Mike Steer. They released this explainer on TikTok.
11:49The algal bloom occurring in South Australia is without precedent and has resulted from the
11:53convergence of three extraordinary factors. The scientists leading the response blamed three
12:00events. A Murray River flood two years earlier, a marine heat wave and an upwelling of cold water
12:08from the depths of the ocean. These are the three elements that are fundamental to the growth and
12:13production of algae. Professor Shauna Murray, who sits on the South Australian scientific advisory panel,
12:26questions the government's explanation. What about the idea there was a flood in the River Murray?
12:32It happened at least a year before. So you wouldn't expect that something that happened a year prior
12:39would have a very strong impact. So you discount that theory? I think it's probably unlikely.
12:47Yeah. We know so little about it that it's all just theories and it all needs to be investigated.
12:56On what caused the bloom, would you caution people who are definitive saying it's these three factors?
13:04Absolutely. There's no way of knowing at this very early stage of the investigation as to what's
13:10caused it. It usually takes quite some research to be able to establish those kinds of things.
13:17As the government sought to reassure the public, the bloom was spreading along the coast.
13:24After the first wave hit the beaches of Victor Harbour, the bloom spread to Kangaroo Island,
13:30up Gulf St Vincent and along the west side of Spencer Gulf.
13:35By July, almost a third of the state's coastline had been affected.
13:40Of course it is devastating, but it's important to remember that over two-thirds of our coastline
13:48remains completely unaffected by the aqua blue.
13:52One place undoubtedly affected was Adelaide. For months, dead fish and other marine life littered its
14:00beaches. A shark measuring almost three meters long has washed up at Henley Beach.
14:06A crowd quickly gathering to see the apex predator close up. Authorities attended and removed the dead
14:12shark, taking it away for testing. An investigation was promised into the shark's death. Some experts
14:20concerned it could be connected to the algae bloom along parts of SA's coast. But it took almost four
14:26months for the findings to be released after a Freedom of Information request. The pathology report revealed
14:35the same toxic compound found in the kangaroos. Brevatoxin was detected on the shark's gills.
14:43At 6pm on a Friday, the pathologist delivered a clear warning. This is an uncommon and significant
14:52finding, the pathologist wrote in an email later released by the Department of Primary Industries.
14:59It suggested brevatoxins in the algae may have contributed to the shark's death.
15:04What would have been the best scientific response on the discovery of brevatoxins?
15:09I would have liked to have seen more testing and I would have liked that
15:13testing to be public immediately. Did that happen? No.
15:21The SA government says it tests deceased wildlife when necessary. But the discovery of brevatoxins
15:30raises questions that go beyond the impact on marine life. The toxin is known to affect human health,
15:38yet the state's health advice remained unchanged.
15:43I was slow about changing the advice about whether it was a toxic bloom or not. I think most people,
15:50if they had been told that there was a nerve toxin in there, would have looked at that advice
15:55and made a judgement call themselves.
16:00After discovering brevatoxins in the shark, it would take the state government almost four months to
16:06change its official health advice. Were you slow to change the health advice?
16:11No, actually, I think I was very quick. Going out and frightening people and saying,
16:16look, we found a little bit of this in a shark, when actually there is other reasons why that shark
16:22may have died.
16:23Professor Nicholas Spurrier is South Australia's Chief Public Health Officer.
16:28This has been awful for South Australia. This is one of the largest harmful algal blooms
16:34internationally. But in the vast majority, these symptoms are very mild, minor, nonspecific,
16:41and they disappear fairly quickly once the exposure goes away.
16:55When a winter storm whipped up a powerful swell in August, the algal bloom crashed into Adelaide's
17:02beaches. Oh, it's getting in the car.
17:10Oh, it came in the window. Yuck.
17:16As yellow foam blanketed the city's coastline, the government's health advice came under scrutiny
17:21at a seven-network forum. My eldest, who isn't on asthmatic but never been in hospital,
17:27ended up in hospital for three days with respiratory issues, and I know she's not alone.
17:32It is a question we've been hearing a lot. Professor Spurrier, what is your advice on this one?
17:36You attended a community forum with the Premier. It was televised on Channel 7.
17:41It's not toxic, but when you get it in your eyes, it's irritating, and that can cause those symptoms.
17:47That's healthy people. What about people with underlying health concerns like asthma or
17:50pre-existing respiratory issues? We don't believe that those people are at any higher risk.
17:54In Florida, where there's a brevi toxin, they think that the toxin is more of a trigger for
18:00people with asthma, but we don't have that as a problem here in South Australia.
18:04You said, we don't have that problem in South Australia. That was incorrect, wasn't it?
18:09So at the time, and of course, it's lovely to think back in time, but at the time,
18:16we had a problem with Karenia mikimotoi. That was the cause of our algal bloom. At the beginning,
18:23we had no brevi toxin. That's not what a key advisor to Nicholas Spurrier was told in June.
18:32Two months before the televised forum, he and two dozen other government officials were told that
18:38while the dominant species was thought to be Karenia mikimotoi, brevi toxins had been identified
18:45for the first time in Australian waters. A summary of that briefing noted, the impacts from the harmful
18:53algal bloom have potentially devastating implications for industries and human health. SA Health didn't say
19:01whether Nicholas Spurrier was briefed about this, but the department insists it wasn't known at that
19:08point that a brevi toxin-producing species was dominating the bloom, or that those toxins were
19:15in the air. You basically said, we don't have that problem in South Australia. You said,
19:21there are no brevi toxins here. Yeah. So I said exactly that, because that was the case at the
19:28time. That was the understanding, the knowledge from the information that we had. Of course,
19:32now we can look back because we've collected all of that information. We've been able to check this
19:37information. As a doctor, how can you make such a broad statement to totally dismiss that the
19:44brevi toxins caused that asthma? So I'd suggest, Angus, that wasn't totally dismissed because we
19:49continue to follow up. Our team were in constant communication with them, and we followed up with
19:54them and have had subsequent conversations with them. So the information that I provided at the time
20:00was consistent. But incorrect. Well, in retrospect, of course, we've now
20:05known, you know, it's great now that we know, and I'm so pleased Sean has been able to quantify it,
20:11and we know it's from the Karenia Crestata. And as soon as I had that information from that foaming
20:17event at Henley Beach, I used the precautionary principle and told the South Australian public about
20:22that. Great. Okay. We're more than happy to answer any questions if you've got questions of Chris or...
20:33We have early unvalidated results from the foam to indicate that there was a brevitoxin-like substance
20:42present. The catalyst for changing the health advice was the discovery of brevitoxins in foam
20:50at Adelaide's Henley Beach. But the health advice that we're receiving at the moment is that those
20:58people who are asthmatic, who suffer from asthma, would be suggested to responsibly take their
21:05ventolin with them if they go down to the beach. This was a significant change in the public health
21:13advice that went unnoticed for four days. Look, you have a role to play here. Of course. In communicating
21:20to the public. Exactly. And South Australian Premier Peter Malinowskis insists he's not
21:26responsible for the health advice. Why was the health advice changed in September? Because our public
21:31health officials determined that it would be appropriate to change it. What was the reason it
21:35was changed? You would have to ask the doctors who crafted the health advice. I find it a little
21:40extraordinary that the Premier of South Australia can't tell me why the health advice, a significant
21:45change in the health advice, was made in September. Because public health officials made it an informed
21:51judgment about the need to update health advice and as soon as they make that judgment, I trust them
21:57in making that judgment. I share with the public as soon as I can. Sounds as though you're not really
22:01across the detail here. Well, because I have never suggested or would seek to suggest that I'm
22:10a public health expert.
22:20In this fishing town on York Peninsula, it's peak tourism season. But at the Stansbury boat ramp,
22:27we're the only ones heading out.
22:32We've suspended our tours. We used to do the decky for a day tour.
22:37Steve Bowley is a local oyster grower with a side hustle in tourism.
22:43We used to bring visitors out, stand around and eat oysters. I just can't bring myself to do it
22:50because there's nothing here to show them. There's nothing to look at.
22:53Stansbury was one of three oyster growing regions forced to close in May last year.
23:00The decision was made after brevitoxins were detected in the oysters.
23:05It would have been super devastating if we found out about this brevitoxin because we were making
23:12people sick. There is no upside to selling a product in the market that makes people sick.
23:18And that the cost to industry of having done that would be enormous.
23:25So these are diploids that are...
23:27This oyster growing region reopened in January after brevitoxin levels fell.
23:34Eat it. Come on. It's not going to kill you.
23:37Yeah.
23:40They're not getting a very...
23:42Most oyster farms have reopened, but the environment is yet to recover.
23:47It is extremely depressing. I don't like coming out here.
23:52When you look around here, what do you notice that's different from before the bloom?
23:58There's no wildlife. There's no birds. There's no fish. At this time of the year,
24:03we would be dancing around avoiding the crabs. There's not a crab to be seen. There is nothing
24:11under the surface of the water. And that should be a huge wake-up call for everybody,
24:17that the environment here is broken.
24:25As the bloom flares on the other side of this peninsula,
24:30Steve Boley fears the algae will return to these waters.
24:35We're just hanging on with the thread. And yeah, don't ask me what's going to happen if we close
24:41again.
24:42What does that mean for your business?
24:44Well, it means I really don't have a business.
24:50The multiplier effect of something like this is just astronomical on the town.
24:57What about if the bloom came here again? What would that mean?
25:00It would be pretty, pretty bleak because we could see then that there's no end to this
25:06and no one's got any answers. Local publican Rob Rankin worries about the town's future if the bloom
25:13drags on. People are feeling affected by this. Stansbury's a beautiful regional fishing town. Families
25:21come here for holidays and most of the holiday making is based around fishing. If there's no fish,
25:28if there's no crabs, there's no customers for us.
25:37What's your bloom? Look at that. That's what happens. That's what happens.
25:45Animals are dying. Commercial fishing in this Gulf was shut down in November.
25:53It's a crippling blow for fourth generation fisherman Andrew Pisani.
26:00A year ago, he was one of the biggest operators in this region.
26:05So if we threw a line over now, what would we catch?
26:09Today here, we catch nothing. No fish here at all. Yeah, the fish, it's over. There's just no
26:17commercial effort here at all anymore. What do you think the future looks like for fishing in South
26:23Australia? The ecosystem has fully collapsed and to rebuild that ecosystem, it's unknown. It could
26:31take 10 to 15 years. So I don't think for me and some of my fellow fishermen that in the
26:37next 10 to
26:3815 years, we just won't be here. Look, I might find a couple of fish. It's not enough to make
26:43a living
26:43from. Ashley Perkins not only lost his livelihood, he became so sick fishing in Spencer Gulf, he now
26:52plans to leave the state. It started out feeling like I had a weak cold or a weak flu. It
26:58deteriorated
26:59beyond that. Ultimately, you ended up with gastro and bad gastro. And when it got really bad, it was
27:04very nasty cramps. You couldn't get too far away from the toilet. How long did this persist for?
27:10It continued through September and October. And by the time we got to November, I'd started to work
27:17out what was going on. I'd started stepping away from the fishing. I was trying to limit my exposure
27:23by reducing my hours on the water. What happened when you left the area?
27:26I headed over to Western Australia. Within 10 days, I felt normal, which I hadn't felt for three or four
27:32months. Breathing's good. Chest was good. Gastro issues had gone away completely.
27:43In September, Ashley Perkins contacted a senior official in the SA Health Department.
27:50Ashley told the official he was suffering some health issues that come on within hours of fishing.
27:58Two days later, he got a response. While he understood Ashley's concerns, the official said the only way
28:06he'd get those symptoms would be from ingesting toxins in shellfish.
28:12They were not prepared to even entertain the concept that this could be making you sick
28:19by breathing in what we now understand is aerosolised toxins.
28:24One study from Florida, where scientists have been researching toxic algal blooms for decades,
28:30found hospitalisations for gastro increased 40% during one particular bloom. SA Health dismissed that
28:40study as flawed and said further evidence was required to draw meaningful conclusions.
28:47They really didn't believe what I was telling them and they ultimately said to me, look,
28:52the only way you can be getting sick like you are is you are eating infected shellfish.
28:57Had you been eating that? Not at all. I'm not a shellfish eater.
29:00Never have been. We talk to the people in Florida actually and we know what their research is.
29:05We've been extremely curious, been looking at all of the literature. I've been reading it,
29:10we've been collating it. Do you acknowledge that for a small number of people the symptoms are very
29:15serious? These are non-specific symptoms so there could be in certain circumstances another reason
29:22for that, okay? We have not had large numbers or even individual cases that I've been told about of
29:29people that have definitively only had the algae bloom bringing them into hospital with these symptoms.
29:36A month after the health advice changed, the Premier had this to say on ABC Radio.
29:45A lot of people don't refer to the algal bloom as the toxic algal bloom. It's not toxic. If you
29:51went
29:51into the water and you encountered the algal bloom, you're not going to have any sort of severe lasting
29:56health impacts. At worst, you'll have an irritation.
30:03You said the algal bloom is not toxic. Do you still believe that?
30:08Well, it's all about the context in which those remarks have been made and context matters when
30:12you're communicating to the people of South Australia.
30:15So is it toxic? Well, the harmful algal bloom produced in this place with the
30:23Cerenia cristata in particular, it does produce a brevi toxin and of course, by its nature,
30:27a brevi toxin has toxicity and therefore is toxic. But it's also true that the algae itself or elements
30:34of the algae aren't toxic. You want to make sure you get the balance right by informing people without
30:41unnecessarily frightening them. I would say to the South Australian Premier that this algal bloom
30:50is toxic and it's been well documented that it's toxic. Dr. Barbara Kirkpatrick has studied Florida's
30:58so-called red tides for almost three decades. Like the algae in South Australia, the Florida bloom
31:06produces brevi toxins. These harmful algal blooms cause massive fish kills. They cause dolphin and
31:15manatees, mammals like ourselves, to either get ill or die from the bloom. So I think it's not a stretch
31:25that this is harmful to us as well. SA health officials like to cite the experience of Florida,
31:33but it took them almost a year to contact Dr. Kirkpatrick. We were able to document that emergency room
31:42visits go up during a red tide for respiratory illnesses, but also for gastrointestinal illnesses
31:50and for neurological illnesses such as migraines. We've had people who work on the water have reported
31:57over the years, whether it's fishermen, surfers, which I understand the South Australia is a big surfing area,
32:06having significant health impacts after repeated exposures. Dr. Kirkpatrick's main area of research
32:16has been the algae's impact on asthmatics. We studied about a hundred people with asthma
32:23from the Sarasota area for 10 years. Just after a one hour walk on the beach, we could measure changes
32:31in their pulmonary function, their breathing, and they reported more symptoms, especially lower airway
32:42symptoms such as coughing, wheezing, shortness of breath. And again, that was just after a one hour exposure.
32:53The South Australian Government Health Advice says if you experience symptoms while at the beach,
32:58move away from the area and these will resolve within a few hours. But what about those who can't
33:05leave the area and have underlying health conditions? We're going to see one woman who struggles to breathe
33:11every time she leaves the house. Every sunset, no two are the same. So it's like
33:23a picture postcard every night. Kerry Sutton has lived above the beach in Adelaide South for 25 years.
33:31Now would you want to move away from this? She has a chronic lung condition and says she was
33:37successfully managing it before the algal bloom. Living by the ocean was actually good for my lungs
33:45and good for everything that goes on with me. And you used to be able to smell that beautiful sea
33:55salt
33:56that has always previously had a, like a cleansing effect. That smell's gone.
34:04Yeah, tell us what it's like to live here now. Now, if I go outside and there's any,
34:11doesn't even have to be much of a breeze, the eyes start, the lungs are really tight,
34:17and it's sort of like a massive headache and sort of going, okay, what's going on?
34:25I need to get my puffers, use the drugs for my eyes, but they're not helping.
34:32Even on a day like this, when there's no visible algae, she's still affected.
34:38Because I walked outside before, the eyes are stinging and burning and
34:43that's not going to settle down for the rest of the day. It's in the air. You cannot get away
34:47from
34:48the air. When the wind's blowing, you'll see the foam up in the air blowing around. So it's
34:55not something that you can get away.
34:59What's the advice you've got from your doctor?
35:02He has suggested to me is that we get the disinfectant and we actually hose down the
35:11whole house with the disinfectant. And has he directly said that the algal
35:16balloon is making your condition worse? He has, yes. And he's a professor. So,
35:23I would tend to think he knows what he's talking about.
35:29Research from Florida shows brevatoxins can travel more than four kilometres through the air.
35:37In Adelaide, that would place around 200,000 people within range of the bloom,
35:43unable to simply follow the advice to leave the area if they have symptoms.
35:48Kerry Sutton now has a difficult choice.
35:53Do you think you're at a point where maybe you do need to sell here and move away?
35:59I'm stubborn. It would break my heart. It would absolutely break my heart if we did something
36:06like that. This is my forever home. And I would like to enjoy my forever home.
36:16What about people that live on the beach who are constantly exposed to, as you say,
36:21the aerosolised toxins? It has been terribly problematic. You're absolutely right.
36:28I feel very, very sorry for people because you can't get away from it. You know, you're living there.
36:38After spending a week in Queensland recently, Kerry Sutton says her symptoms improved.
36:45We told Nicola Spurrier about her experience.
36:49Every time she steps outside, her eyes water, she's tight in the chest, she gets a headache.
36:55That wouldn't be consistent with the published literature. One of the problems with this is
36:59if people just put their symptoms down to the algae bloom, there may be something else that's not
37:05looked at. We can't really shift the whole of Adelaide up to the hills. It's not practical. You've got to
37:09be pragmatic with these things. We can give people information. We can't get rid of the algae any quicker. Believe
37:15me.
37:17I don't think it was good public health communication. Telling people to move 300
37:23metres away from the coast doesn't make much sense in Adelaide where so many people live on the coast and
37:29the bloom was spreading up and down our metropolitan coast. I was getting really bad respiratory symptoms.
37:35Fran Bohm is a professor at Adelaide University. She lives on Henley Beach.
37:42I couldn't breathe at night. I felt really, really breathless. I've never had that before.
37:47Had to get some Ventolin. So eventually we started wearing masks at home and that was the experience of
37:52a lot of neighbours and friends at Henley Beach. As an expert in public health she's uniquely placed
38:00to assess the government's response to this crisis. The initial advice was too optimistic. I think
38:10overall there was a real desire to downplay the impact and I think that's because they were concerned
38:15about the impact on tourism would stop people coming to South Australia, the impact on the fishing
38:20industry and so on. It really was to the detriment of the mental health of residents who were actually
38:26very concerned about their health.
38:30You are not going to suffer long-term health consequences. There will be an irritation that
38:35will largely disappear once you've had a shower. And what was the scene on the beach like?
38:41Professor Bohm questions how the state government can say there are no long-term health effects
38:46when the evidence isn't there. The conclusion that scientists come to is we simply don't know the
38:54long-term effects. So you know for a government official to say well it's not going to have a
38:59long-term health impact on anybody is a pretty brave thing to say. They grow relatively quickly
39:06and they might double every day. In the early days of the South Australian algal bloom,
39:12Professor Shauna Murray was sent water samples to examine. So you're looking at some cells of
39:19Karenia cristata that are swimming around, growing. She assembled the team that formally identified
39:26Brevatoxin producer Karenia cristata in November. They found it is the dominant species in the South
39:34Australian bloom. We had a group of about 25 scientists from about 10 different institutions.
39:41Everyone could see that this was a major event and were prepared to volunteer their time to research
39:49it and understand that fundamental information. The South Australian government didn't fund the
39:55research team's work. But officials did ask the scientists to change the wording of their academic
40:02paper and remove a reference to severe human health effects. Professor Murray says the original wording
40:10was similar to other public health advice internationally. Did you feel that was uncontroversial language?
40:17Yes. I haven't had that before in a scientific paper.
40:22Nicola Spurrier was one of the officials who weighed in. She requested changes to how human
40:29health impacts were described. Symptoms generally have been mild, resolving quickly, she wrote.
40:39Severe human health effects was replaced with acute and self-limiting human health effects.
40:47That's medical speak for saying any symptoms would be short-lived and don't require treatment.
40:56So we were given a draft of it and I provided some feedback about the level of symptoms that we
41:03were
41:04having in South Australia. Why did you have such a problem describing the health impacts of the algae
41:09as severe? Because in the majority of people, Angus, and this is the evidence, this is what we've got
41:16from our GPs, from our hospitals. We live in South Australia, we know this. I know you come from Sydney.
41:21I said to Shona, in actual fact, if you were in South Australia, you would see the same as I
41:27see.
41:28It was about the potential impact of an algal bloom. So why did you edit that?
41:33Because I've read all the literature and looked at the research evidence from Florida,
41:37and it is not severe in terms of the impacts on us as individual humans. As a community,
41:44of course it is because, you know, so many people of us are impacted.
41:54This government is going to put the accelerator to the floor. A week out from the election,
42:01polls suggest Peter Malinowskis is a near certainty to remain in power. Let's get out there and take it.
42:13He kicked off his unofficial campaign in October with a plan to get South Australians back to the
42:20beach. Today, the South Australian government starts to roll out our summer plan.
42:26That summer plan was released without consulting the government's own scientific advisory panel.
42:33Four Corners spoke to eight independent members of the panel, who confirmed they never saw details
42:40of the plan before it was announced. Did you consult any members of the South Australian
42:46Scientific Advisory Panel before putting out that summer plan? Well, my expectation is the
42:52the professor, Mike Steer, who was a part of that panel, would be engaging with him in terms of
42:58how we invest in additional research going forward, which of course, a very significant
43:03proportion of the summer plan was allocated towards. So a number of those scientists say
43:07they weren't asked about that. Who were they? The scientists on your panel. Which ones?
43:12Well, I'm not going to, that's their prerogative to say that. So are you concerned by that though?
43:17Would you be concerned by that? Well, I'd be concerned if the sky fell in, but I'm not going to
43:21comment on
43:22hypotheticals. They're understanding where the brevitoxin comes from. The SA government told us panel members took
43:27part in workshops and provided advice. A full briefing only happened five days after the summer plan was
43:35publicly announced. The reality of the algal bloom sometimes isn't nearly as bad as people's perception of it.
43:44This was the reality three weeks ago on York Peninsula, west of Adelaide. And the bloom is flaring
43:51again on Kangaroo Island.
44:00There was a sense of doom. There was a sense of we've got this ecological crisis right on our doorstep.
44:06Instead of trying to reassure the public that it had all the answers, Professor Bohm believes the SA
44:14government should have been upfront about what it didn't know.
44:20We're still not entirely sure why we've had such a devastating, harmful algal bloom in South Australia,
44:27but it's likely to be a mix of climate change, of other ecological factors. We're going to have all
44:33sorts of system effects that lead to ecological disasters. And in South Australia, that's what we've
44:40been living. We weren't prepared. We hadn't done the thinking of what it would mean if an algal bloom of
44:45this type hit. Experts warn that harmful algal blooms are likely to become more frequent and more
44:54intense. They say what's happening in South Australia is a warning for the rest of the country.
45:02We've got an ecosystem collapsing here. Yes, it's sad, but it's much more than sad because it's actually
45:08the kind of life system that we all depend on. It absolutely is a wake-up call for us.
45:38Let's see.
45:39Let's see.
45:44Let's see.
45:51Let's see.
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