Mass fish death in Australia: Government blames weather change

Hundreds of thousands of fish died in outback Australia, with the government blaming the mass death on a toxic algae bloom due to changing weather conditions.

It is the second incident of mass fish death along the Darling River at Menindee — around 1000 kilometres west of Sydney — since December, when 10,000 fish died.

The New South Wales Department of Primary Industries said that a sudden cooling of the temperature over the weekend killed pre-existing algae blooms in the area, resulting in the decomposing algae draining oxygen from the river and killing the fish.

The Australian Broadcasting Corporation reported that native species including bony bream, perch and Murray cod were among those found floating on the surface and washed ashore on the river banks at Menindee.