Australia: Carp are being swept out to sea by waters from last year’s floods in Australia’s southeast, but the salinity of the water is killing the invasive species, and now dead fish are showing up on South Australian beaches.

Pictures from Middleton, Port Elliot, and Goolwa depict groups of young carp strewn across the coastlines of these well-known summer vacation destinations. It is typical for carp to spawn at this time of year, according to the state’s Department of Primary Industries and Regions’ lead biosecurity officer for weeds and pests, but the strong flows are flushing them out of the freshwater of the River Murray and into the marine environment.

Tourists and locals described “hopeless” scenes as they headed down to the water’s edge and discovered the carp piled up. Over the past two months, flooding from the River Murray inundated more than 3,000 dwellings in South Australia.

Thousands of young carp have washed up at Middleton, Goolwa and Port Elliot over the past few days. ⁦@abcadelaide⁩ pic.twitter.com/sNcoAYgO6N

— Caroline Horn (@bludgingwriter) January 22, 2023

Mr. John Cork-Gorringe posted on Facebook that Middleton also had mulloway and bream. “The shallows are alive with carp struggling in the salty water, I will never see this again in my lifetime,” Mr. Cork-Gorringe wrote.

Mr. Barnaby Joyce, who was the water minister at the time, announced a plan in 2016 in order to reduce the number of carp. However, when the National Carp Control Plan (NCCP) was released at the year’s end, it suggested conducting more research.

The fish should be washed back out to sea within a few days, but experts caution that, depending on the weather, they might wash up again.

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