Premier Peter Malinauskas Warns Of Algae Bloom Devastation

The mysterious algal bloom threatening South Australia's coastline - what you need to know.

The beaches of South Australia are being overrun by a strange algal bloom that is killing marine life and could ruin summer tourism. Premier Peter Malinauskas joins us with an exclusive update on the causes, impacts and solutions around this ecological disaster.

[00:20] The algal bloom is covering 27% of SA's coastline and killing marine animals that become suffocated. The Premier describes the harrowing scenes he has witnessed firsthand.

[02:30] Malinauskas explains the three key factors that triggered this unprecedented algal bloom - nutrient runoff from floods, increased sunlight, and warmer ocean temperatures.

[04:20] This phenomena has occurred in New Zealand and Florida before, but the government is investing in research to understand why it is persisting into winter in SA.

[05:30] The bloom poses no health risk to beachgoers except minor skin irritation. But plans are underway to manage tourism over summer if it remains.

[06:40] Financial support is being provided to affected industries like oyster farming, and calls continue for federal assistance.

This fascinating discussion provides deep insight into a disturbing ecological event in South Australia. Tune in to stay informed on this developing story that could impact your summer beach plans.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:10):
I heard podcasts here more mix one or two point
three podcasts, playlists and listen live on the free iHeart app.
We've got the premiere on the phone with us right now.
Peter malanowskis good morning, Malee.

Speaker 2 (00:21):
Come morning, back to some morning Haley.

Speaker 3 (00:23):
Hello friend.

Speaker 1 (00:24):
Yeah, and we do like to take the mix with
the premier. Is very good to our show. But today
we're learning a little about this algall bloom premiere and
we wanted to put you in the wall of truth
with a very tough question because we're a little bit worried.
We want to know from you. Is the algal bloom
something that we the people of South Australia should be
very worried about.

Speaker 2 (00:45):
Well, I certainly am, and I think people are right
to be concerned. I don't need any reason to panic.
It's a natural phenomena, but it's one we've never seen
before on this scale in this country. So to give
to get a bit of context, about twenty seven percent
of our coastlines being affected, so three quarters is unaffected,

(01:05):
but for the twenty seven percent that is, it's having
a real impact. And I reckon the most emotive and
visible of that is the dead marine life we're seeing
coming on our shores. You know, I've gone to send
myself a fair bit and I'm on my way to
the York Finisher now actually, and let miss it. It's
confunding when you see it. This is a part of
our natural world that's been killed off in pretty tragic circumstances.

(01:30):
But what I think people need to understand is exactly
what's caused her. And that's where I think there's a
few myths that are flooding around the place.

Speaker 1 (01:37):
Please please help tell us and life.

Speaker 2 (01:39):
All right, Well, okay, so the alga is always in
the water, always has been, always will be. But it's
normally in a really sort of very small quantities and
it's it's sort of imbalance and in harmony with the
natural water environment around it. But what happens is if
a certain set of conditions come together, then the alga explodes.
And that's what's happened. And those conditions are as follows.

(02:02):
It needs three things. It needs nutrients, it needs a
lot more sunlight than it would usually get. And then
the third, of course is warmer waters. Now the nutrients
it's getting from, remember the massive floods we had a
couple of years ago biggest floods in South Astralia since
nineteen fifty six from the River Murray. Well that when
that all flushed out into the ocean, it dispatched an

(02:23):
unprecedented amount of nutrients into our marine waters. And then
on top of that, the following summer, it is a
bit more technical, there was a there's a phenomena called
the Bonnie upwelling that brings cold waters to the surface,
and that happened for a longer period than ever before,
so the water is nutrient rinch Then secondly this summer
in particular, so this winter in particular, we've had a

(02:43):
more sunlight than we were accustomed to. And then the
third one that really got it going was the marine
heat wave. So even now below the surface of our oceans,
the water is about two degrees warmer that it has
been typically in the past. So those those things come
together and then all of a sudden, bang the algae

(03:03):
takes off and we've seen it explode in a way
that you know, we haven't seen before.

Speaker 3 (03:09):
Well, this is a scary thing. You haven't seen it
before in the whole of the country. Has this happened
around the world, Like, what do we do to fix this.

Speaker 2 (03:18):
Okay, so yeah, it has happened in other places around
the world. The closest to home is in Wellington Bay
in Wellington, New Zealand, and in the Northern Hemisphere. The
worst one we've seen is in Florida. In Wellington it
eventually corrected itself, and certainly back in sort of April,
the scientists were telling the government that this will all

(03:40):
go away in winter when the water's cooled down. It
just hasn't happened in the way that they expected. But
in Wellington it sort of eventually. It was very bad
and eventually it just went away. In Florida, that's true too,
but then it's been coming back periodically every so often
or pretty frequently since. Actually, so what we're going to
do is invest in the science and the research, and

(04:00):
that's where we're spending a lot of money now at
the moment, just doing more monitoring, more testing, more research
and development, or more research, i should say, just to
understand how this bloom operates and what's happening. The reason
why the marine life is dying isn't because of anything toxic.
It's because they're being suffocated through the autcoo bloom. That's

(04:20):
why the marine life is dying. It's also important to
know that it's perfectly safe for people to walk along
the beach. If you went for a swim, it's safe too.
Where you see the app you know it is where
you see the According to the advice we're getting from
SA Health, I should say, like so where you see
the algae through discolored water, if you had to swim,
you might feel irritated skin, but it's not going to

(04:43):
have any long term health effects. You just want to
wash it off. But like I said, it's important for
pople to remember that three quarters of our coastline hasn't
been affected, but for the parts that has been, it's
not good.

Speaker 1 (04:54):
Mari in trouble for summer. Like some of the Yeah,
I mean we're in the cold to stretch at the moment,
we're not too far away from people wanting to go
to the beach mall and take their dogs and go
for it.

Speaker 2 (05:02):
Well, this is what we're now planning for. So when
this first started to emerge intot of March April, the
advice was it will disappear at winter. It's now winter,
and that hasn't happened. There is still obviously you know,
we're a bit over halfway through a winter, so there's
still a bit of time, but certainly the government is
now planning for what what does a what does it

(05:24):
look like if this is still around it summer? Yeah,
because because we still do want people to enjoy the
coastal communities where it is safe, but I think public
information will need to improve in terms of how it's
been put out there.

Speaker 3 (05:35):
And this is a whole other issue. As you know,
we're big advocates for tourism in South Australia and all
these beaches, York's e Ki, they're all holiday destinations, Like
we need to protect those tourism operators. We need to
be alp to talk them out.

Speaker 2 (05:48):
Yeah. Absolutely so. Matter of fact, I'm the reason one
one of the I'm going to your potential data to
the meet with Oyster farmers. But we're also I don't
mind saying your show, we're going to be announcing today
another round of support package for businesses that have been
affected and so but we've got to keep a clean up,
clear eye on the tourism function. That particularly will be

(06:08):
an issue as we approach summer. And we were a
few options that we're open minded to there, but today
we're sort of focusing on those industries that are immediately
being hit right as it stands today.

Speaker 3 (06:18):
You're a good man, Peter Malanowskis.

Speaker 1 (06:19):
Thank you. Hopefully getting getting the ear of your big
boss albow and so a little bit more help would
be nice.

Speaker 2 (06:25):
Yeah, yeah, we we look. We have now got some
money out of the federal government, which is good. But
we've certainly made it clear that within the federal government
should be declared as a natural disaster, and then we
should be talking about what ongoing support looks like if
this doesn't go away, and we've we've got to hope
for the best and prepare for the worst.

Speaker 3 (06:43):
I can guarantee if this was happening interstate in on
the Eastern Seaboard, they would be saying it's a natural
disaster for sure.

Speaker 2 (06:50):
Well that's only a few that I've put.

Speaker 1 (06:52):
Yeah, yeah, I think we agree with you. Thank you,
Premier Peter Malanowskis for joining us in the Wall of truth.
Very important one for our state.

Speaker 2 (06:58):
Appreciated time in no worries. Thanks guys, cheers.

Speaker 1 (07:01):
Ma