Local fishermen were on high alert for a possible outbreak last week as water conditions in the Myall River continued to deteriorate.

Moderate rainfalls and humid temperatures last month have increased the likelihood of an outbreak occurring.

In an interview with the Nota last year, Dr Peter Scanes from the Department of Environment and Climate Change (DECC), said algeal blooms in the Myall Lakes will develop under specific conditions.

“These are when heavy rain has lead to inputs of nutrients from the catchments and low salinity – at a time that coincides with warm weather, longer daylight hours and calm water.”

Member of the Myall River Action Group, Gordon Grainger, said the water opacity is nowhere near the levels it has been in previous years and the problem has persisted over the last 12 months.

“We’re still very disturbed about the quality of the water following heavy rain from the past few weeks. The water is very discoloured and is very low in salinity,” he said.

“What we are more disturbed about is the subsequent destruction of Corrie Island and we are awaiting more political input about the Ramsar agreement.”

While fishermen are yet to see any spotting on fish they are concerned the river conditions may prompt a repeat of last year’s algae outbreak which saw a wide spread fish kill spurred on by low salinity levels. However Laurence Orel from the National Parks and Wildlife said recent tests of the lakes show no outbreaks of blue-green algae.

Councillor Len Roberts says if a blue-green algae outbreak does occur people should be notified immediately.

“Since the initial outbreak, a couple of years ago, National Parks and Wildlife has established a regime to regularly monitor algae outbreaks,” he said.

“The recent spate of weather is likely to trigger another outbreak however the amount of rain we’ve had recently may flush out problems. We don’t want something to happen at this crucial stage, coming into school holidays.”

The next National Parks and Wildlife tests are expected to be conducted later this month.