One of our members keeps us updated about his local coastal conditions, especially details regarding the algal bloom and its effect on health and marine life: –
I am now pretty right health wise but I am still fairly cautious, with only occasional very minor respiratory stuff and, in my last couple of times in the water, I have not had any side effects. Before this, it was about 50% of the time over the recent weeks, so I am thinking here that, at least, the bloom effect is very slight, if having an effect at all. I haven’t seen any fish kill (other than some questionable cases due to other reasons, e.g. fishing) in the last few times that I have looked. I am a bit unsure about how long I am in the water for as I am fairly out of condition, but I hope to check out Second Valley to find some seadragons at some point this season.
Locally, am not seeing many of the species anywhere that I would normally expect (no rays/sharks, dusky morwongs, goat fish, weedy whiting, wrasses, smooth or common toadfish, bullseyes) but I am seeing, or have seen rather, in very low numbers, cowfish, king george whiting, sand whiting, weeping toadfish, very small sea sweep, zebras, female only scaly fin and, surprisingly, a small school of bream.
It’s a bit rough but this is a time scale of the mortality observations of some of the main fish species for the Adelaide metro beaches (between Marino and Glenelg) during the last months from when the SA Algal Bloom became locally obvious at around the end of June 2025: –
It is only based on my own photo record, so it is far from perfect. Before late June 2025 I was not monitoring and only really took notice once the rays started washing up locally (as a fan of the locals), and at the start was only recording the very obvious recent mortalities and ignoring any older mortalities.
At the time, or very early on, there were pipefish numbering in the thousands mixed up amongst the beach wrack at multiple locations, which many beach goers were not even aware of, but because these already appeared old, I did not mostly record these.
There was a second wave which I did record. What many people did notice is how different species succumbed to the algal bloom at different times. For instance, bluefin and rough leatherjackets featured throughout from start to finish(?), whereas the whiting species appeared sometime later and finished earlier. The most obvious were the ray and shark species, none of which I have seen alive since. The above scale groups all leatherjackets together, as with whiting species also.
Below is an earlier message describing metropolitan water off local beaches on 16th Jan: –
Yes, it seems the HAB preferred the previous cooler months. I have been cautiously snorkelling locally but not much with experiencing slighter respiratory side-effects about 50% of visits. My last snorkel had no side-effects, and my last beach scan on Thursday 15th January had no side effects either, so hopefully this trend continues. I personally am fairly confident it is now reasonably safe but also wonder if next winter will see a return of the algal bloom.
I took some before/after pics which help show the situation.
Although not in the water that much locally, I have been amazed at the condition of what has changed. General weed growth appears not to have been impacted, showing some stress in areas, but not sure why, or if I am imaging this, but the animal organisms appear to have been decimated to a large extent. To me, when compared to species I normally see, there is only between 0 – 5% of what should be there (e.g. only 5% cowfish, 0% of dusky morwong and bullseyes, 2% scaly fin and leatherjackets).
What also stands out with the fish is, when seen, they more often initially appear sluggish or sleepy, but will also take off quickly when startled. The other thing I am seeing is, when finding a rare fish, they are also spooked really easily and react as totally panic stricken when taking off. There is very little available food other than weed, with many areas showing more shell material and crustacean remnants.
The most dramatic experience was at Somerton where I spent an hour covering a large area between the SLSC and the yacht club without seeing a single fish (I think there were some very small fingerlings at the shoreline, something I see at most locations now).
Glenelg Jetty was just ‘dead’ but I was struggling with the conditions and did not stay in long.
Brighton Jetty was slightly better, but I still only saw a tiny fraction of what would normally be there. There were some very small (<5cm sea sweep) but less than normal. There were a few cowfish and two weeping toadfish. At Brighton Jetty, the water is littered with burley and food by fishers to attract fish and crabs. This large amount of food in the water means there is always a larger amount of life in this immediate area.
More recently I was at Seacliff and I was surprised by the presence of both sand (or yellowfin) and King George whiting, which to me stood out not only because they are the first whiting species I have seen locally, but because other species I more often see (schools of weedy whiting and small pencil whiting) are totally absent, making me query if the whiting present are not a result of restocking efforts by PIRSA (I have heard some PIRSA advice of this on the television but it does not indicate what species). I did see a few individual leatherjackets here, but no schools. They were also very guarded. Also, a couple of very small sea sweep were seen here or there occasionally.
Marino was similarly disappointing, but since spearfishing came in, I have avoided the area as this wiped a lot of stuff out. No bullseyes here either (not anywhere so far) but saw two old wives, and about 4 zebra fish, and about two scaly fins.
Wrasses and weedfish are seemingly absent in all areas locally (pre-HAB these were everywhere), along with numerous other species.
I have also seen small schools of bream elsewhere.
Totally missing are the razor fish (razor clams on iNaturalist) despite purposely checking various locations for those that I know were there before.
Noarlunga Jetty was comparatively much better though, but still only a small percentage of the previous high fish numbers – wrasse, drummer, etc… Unfortunately, the mandatory recreational fishers still mass at the “no fishing past this point sign” and cast out at a sharp angle into the Marine Reserve. I see this almost every time it is quiet here.
I really get the impression that the local area in Metro Adelaide has suffered more than the less stressed outer regions.”
(I took the header photograph at Port Lincoln in 2010.)