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  • 9 hours ago
Over a month ago, the coastal town of Port Hughes on South Australia's Yorke Peninsula saw the impacts of the harmful algal bloom for the first time. But even as the state government declares most of the coastline is clear from the bloom and has been for many months, the impacts are continuing to unfold.

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00:02Casting a line off the Port Hughes jetty is a beloved pastime for many.
00:07But since the algae hit, there's been less on the bite.
00:10I've been here on the York Peninsula for about six weeks.
00:13Not seen any squid, not seen anybody catch one.
00:16I'm here chasing some crabs and squid.
00:17I've managed to pick up five crabs, haven't seen a squid.
00:20Tried me into bay jetty yesterday, there was nothing down there.
00:23The crabs are starting to recover already.
00:25People are still catching them here, but very few.
00:30Under the surface, the algal bloom's taken a toll.
00:33It's just looking quite tired and sad and a shell of what this place used to look like.
00:40Marine biologist Stefan Andrews has been closely documenting the change
00:44since the bloom reached the region in late March.
00:47Even at small levels of those harmful algal species being present,
00:53how much damage actually still has been able to occur.
00:57It's been more than a year since the algal bloom was first reported in South Australia.
01:02The state government says the vast majority of the coastline
01:06is now recording low or zero levels of Karenia in the latest water sampling,
01:11including on the York Peninsula.
01:13For local businesses, the concerns over the bloom were felt
01:17long before the algae ever reached their shores.
01:20We had no sign of it here and people would ring up, cancel their bookings
01:24or say they're not coming up due to the fact the algae bloom's here
01:27and it looked, yeah it was beautiful out there.
01:29But for many, the road ahead is uncharted territory.
01:33It's impossible to put a timeframe on recovery at this stage
01:37and to say that, you know, the bloom is over is a naive way of putting it.
01:45All right.
01:46Here we go.
01:46Let's talk to GF it.
01:47I'm here.
01:47So over here, we have Suga and Suga are there.
01:48Like
01:48you. You
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