The EPA is investigating the reason for a mass fish kill north of Batemans Bay.
Officers from the State Government agency drive down from Sydney on the weekend to Limpid Lake near Murramarang Beach.
James Crook and his daughter Lara from Red Hill in Canberra made the discovery and raised the alarm.
“I was just taking my 10 year old daughter, Lara, for a run around Murramarang Beach. I’d always wanted to see what Limpid Lagoon looked like so I took her in there from the beach side and we just found all of these fish, either struggling to breathe or dead in the in the little mouth that leads out to the beach,” Mr Crook said.
“It’s a solid 150 metres to 200 metres from the beach so there’s no chance they’re going to make it back to the water,” he said.
“There are thousands there. I think we saved probably around 60. I called my wife and she brought down our other children Ella and Ethan and an esky bag. We filled that with water and we were just grabbing them with our hands, putting them in and then running them down to the water’s edge and hoping they were okay.”
As well as running a family rescue operation, the Crook’s also alerted authorities.
We contacted Nature Rescue Australia. They made a few phone calls, and contacted the council and New South Wales National Parks and eventually the EPA got into contact with me,” Mr Crook said.
“They asked to see some photos and video footage and I sent that to them then they came down from the Parramatta office and and took samples for testing,” he said.
“I’m from Canberra. I don’t know anything about fish but I think the view is that they’re just struggling to breathe due to lack of oxygen. I understand there was a quite a large storm event about a week ago and they might have washed in then.
“I think their view was it was unlikely to have been any pollution of any sort but they’ll need to confirm that over the next 24 to 48 hours.”
