Slimy Invasive Fish Explosion Clogs Water Supplies After Huge Floods

Slimy Invasive Fish Explosion Clogs Water Supplies After Huge Floods

Source: newsweek

1/27/2023

Credit: iStock / Getty Images Plus

Swarms of slimy gray fish are clogging up irrigation water filters in Australia thanks to a flood-triggered boom in their population.

"#BreakingNews another unprecedented boom in class 1 noxious pest in #MurrayDarlingBasin," the NSW Irrigators' Council, a group representing Irrigation Farmers in New South Wales, tweeted.

"[Picture of] weatherloach having got past fish screens at Western Murray Irrigation to choke pump filters."

Weather loach are an invasive species in Australia, especially in rivers like the Murray.

"The weather loach are an invasive species that were introduced to rivers as ornamental releases," Lee Baumgartner, an executive director and professor of Fisheries and River Management at the Gulbali Institute of Charles Sturt University in Australia, told Newsweek. "They are sold in aquarium shops as an ornamental species, but owners have introduced them to our rivers. Over time they have established wild populations."