‘Never seen before’: Mark Butler speaks about devastating algal bloom

Federal Health Minister Mark Butler has spoken about the devastating toxic algal bloom in his home state of South Australia as new pictures reveal the scale of the disaster.

It follows accusations that “virtually nothing” has been done by the federal government about the bloom.

The algal bloom, called Karenia mikimotoi, is a naturally occurring but deadly phenomenon that has killed marine life in the southern state for months.

Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young has been pressuring the government to declare the toxic algae a “national disaster”.

“If this was happening in Bondi, or on the North Shore in Sydney, the Prime Minister would have already been on the beach, talking to concerned locals and the affected industries,” Senator Hanson-Young said on Wednesday.

“But today, we’ve had virtually nothing from the federal government.”

Mr Butler, who represents the Hindmarsh electorate in Adelaide’s west, spoke out about the devastation on Sunrise.

“We’ve never seen a bloom like this, of this scale, of this duration anywhere in Australia,” he said.

“It is incredibly serious.

“I was walking on the beach on the weekend, I saw a dead shark, dead rays – a number of dead rays – dead fish, dead cuttlefish, things I’ve never seen before in the decades of walking along Adelaide’s beaches.”

He said the federal government was working closely with the South Australian government to monitor the bloom but insisted that it was a “huge ecological event” that couldn’t be controlled any more “than we can make it rain during a drought”.

“We have to understand the impact it is having on communities, and it’s a huge impact on the Adelaide community, I can tell you, but also on businesses, on commercial enterprises, particularly in the fishing industry,” Mr Butler said.

Great Southern Reef Foundation (GRSF) video captures the scale of the disaster, showing dead fish, discoloured water and decaying coral along South Australia’s Yorke Peninsula.

GRSF co-founder Stefan Andrews said: “With neon green water, the seabed was littered with dead and dying animals.”

Environment Minister Murray Watt previously said the government was “deeply concerned by the widespread marine species mortalities caused by this extreme event” and he was getting updates from the Malinauskas government.

“We will give careful consideration to any request for assistance we receive from the state government,” he said.