South Coast Algal Bloom

The Hon. R.A. SIMMS (14:57): I seek leave to make a brief explanation before addressing a question without notice to the Minister for Primary Industries and Regional Development on the topic of biosecurity.

Leave granted.

The Hon. R.A. SIMMS: In February this year, the Biosecurity Act 2025 was assented to but has not yet commenced. The act defines biosecurity impact as biological matter that has an adverse effect on the environment, the community, or the economy. There have been reports that the current harmful algal bloom in South Australia is having adverse effects on the environment, the community and our local economy, with small businesses losing income, dead fish washing up on our beaches and the health impacts being felt by humans who are in contact with the microalgae. Just today, there are media reports of the algae being detected in the Coorong.

PIRSA's website states that the marine heatwave has been affecting South Australia since September 2024. However, the algal bloom was not publicly reported until March 2025. My questions to the Minister for Primary Industries and Regional Development therefore are:

1. Does the minister consider the harmful algal bloom currently in South Australia to be a biosecurity event under the Biosecurity Act 2025?

2. When did PIRSA begin monitoring the harmful algal bloom, and why was it not detected earlier?

The Hon. C.M. SCRIVEN (Minister for Primary Industries and Regional Development, Minister for Forest Industries) (14:58): I thank the honourable member for his question. It does provide an opportunity to give an update about the algal bloom, which is widespread. Of course, my particular interest is in its impact on the aquaculture and commercial fisheries, as well as recreational fishing, which is a particular area of my focus. We are working with commercial fisheries, the aquaculture sector and the recreational sector as we continue to monitor the impacts of the algal bloom.

First and foremost, it is worth reiterating that South Australian commercially-caught seafood remains high quality and safe to eat. There are some closures in place on oyster growers as a result of detected brevetoxin levels, but those farms are confined to Stansbury, Port Vincent and American River. Importantly, about 95 per cent of oyster growers are not impacted: their product is safe to eat and it is at the usual incredible quality that we expect from our fresh South Australian oysters. There is also a 10-kilometre precautionary closure, south from the Murray Mouth, of the harvesting of pippies.

There are no other restrictions on fishing as a result of the algal bloom, and recreationally caught species are safe to eat so long as the animal was alive at the time that it is caught. That is, of course, always good practice—to not eat anything that has already perished prior to catch.

In terms of the current situation, we were hoping that early last week when we had the wild weather that would be a sufficient event to be able to break up the algal bloom. We are still waiting to see what the impact has been. There are a few reasons for that. In terms of the satellite images that are taken that inform us about how the algal bloom is developing or indeed whether it is breaking up or dissipating, when there is cloud cover it makes it more difficult to be able to assess how it is going.

There was, of course, lots of wild weather—there were some winds, and there were some wild seas—but the current advice is in regard to whether we will need to have several of those events before it will be sufficient to break up the algal bloom. The vessels, both the SARDI vessel as well as the EPA vessel, have also been instrumental in terms of taking water samples for analysis around the algal bloom. Essentially, that work is continuing. In terms of the specifics about dates and so on, I am happy to take that on notice and if I can I shall bring back a response.