Fish Kill

Any thoughts on the Cockburn fish kill guys-I would like to point at the DE-sal plant but even if it was the WA Gov.would make sure it came out squeaky clean-filling the bay up from the bottom with super saturated salt water can`t be good-a good example is shark bay the salt content is so high around Nanga the it supports its own captive population of snapper, they reckon those fish would die in normal salt water and outside fish would die in the nanga water-so is that whats going on here in Perth?-Dragon

I don´t think it is the desal plant. Too many fish killed to fast.
I don´t know what it is, but there are only a few options:
Chemicals,
lack of oxygen in the water,
faulty power line
I hope they find the reason.

When you take into consideration that there is a lot of industry on the Cockburn Sound coastline and that you also have international shipping passing thru, it could be anything.
I wouldn't hold my breath waiting for the Dept of Fisheries to give an answer, they are a pretty secretive lot and don't like giving answers.

Dragon, the salt from the desal is not the problem, it is the potential for it to cause stratification or layering in the water. Oxygen in the bottom layer gets used up by the bugs etc in the sediment and this needs to be replenished by oxygen mixing down from the surface. The stratification acts a bit like a sheet of plastic, effectively stopping oxygen from diffusing down from the surface and if it is prolonged the oxygen levels in the bottom layer slowly go down to the point things die. It happens mainly under calm conditions and mainly affects slow moving critters near or on the bottom.

Personally I don't think it is that - not with snapper that could easily swim up into oxygenated water in a couple of tail kicks.

I would guess it is more likely to be something toxic. But from where - who knows. Could be something dropped off a ship, something tipped down a drain, or out of an outfall, or even something natural like a particular species of phytoplankton that clogs gills. Like Kaethe says - I hope they do find the cause - but I doubt whether there will be anything definitive, a week's gone by and I know they have been following every lead. I am pretty sure there is no coverup and that they simply don't know.