After fires, Australia faces polluted rivers and massive fish death

With torrential rains following weeks of record bush fires, Australia faces a new climate warming related disaster – polluted rivers and massive fish kills. Rains have washed ash from bushfires into rivers like New South Wales Macleay River leaving millions of fish to rot and turning the river into a what locals described as “runny cake mix” of stank rotting vegetation and dead fish. “I’ve been fishing the river for 50 years and I have seen fish kills before, but nothing of this magnitude. This will be happening in every east coast river that’s been hit by bushfires,” said Larry Newberry, a recreational fisherman. “The stench was overwhelming. It is just like brown sludge.”