Massive Pipi Kill at Pottsville NSW

[URAGANGI]

Could anyone help with information on the current Pipi kill at Pottsville beach/blackrock NSW?
A family member who has visited Pottsville this weekend has let me Know of a huge Pipi Kill on the near by beaches. I've been told that there is umpteen thousands of dead Pipi's laying dead on the beach.
Could this be a natural event due too the excesive water temps flowing from Townsville to Eden, or is it the dreaded oyster farmers QX disease, overly ruff seas, or even pollution. Any news from locals would be fantastic or any info at all would be great

Cheers Gav.

[Captain Seaweed]

saw this at Straddy in exessive heat but not sure. Pot maybe ? it is Pottsville?

[URAGANGI]

Nup for sure it's at Pottsville. From what I,ve been told it look like mass clumps of Pipi's have been washed up dead on the beach front. I asked the question of what does the volume of kill look like. The reply was tonnes of dead Pipi's.

[4x4frog]

SOme green party loser probably poisoned the water to make fishos look bad

[URAGANGI]

4X4 it's alway good to hear from you how ya doin?
You might be on the right track, because I carn't throw the bastrads far enough so there for I carn't trust them either..... Anyway back to the Pipi problem.......hey just a passing thought..... Why carn't polly's suffer the same fate?????... Is there a GOD?

[4x4frog]

Mate, doing well, actually no idea at all.
Didn't look at the Op name to see it was your thread. There were massive amounts of live ones at Fraser back between the 30/07 and 08/08, even had 20 or so swim in and land literally at my feet while fishing one day. I filled the bait bag on my wading bag quick smart and managed to turn most into good dart and a nice bream too.;D
Maybe feed the pipis to the greens. Has there been a lot of rain down there lately? Fertiliser wash off maybe?

[URAGANGI]

Yeah I know the feeling well. It always makes you feel good when you can convert a few Pipi's at your feet into a feed.
But Fertilizer run off that's an option.
I'm hoping that a local can shed some light on this dull insident

[themissus]

Well that's a bit shit!! I'll go and have a look tomorrow.
Cheers for the heads up.
Cheers Kim.

[URAGANGI]

Rapid response from a local top stuff. Let me know what you find. Ah I have just one more question just whose butt is that on your Avatar... Better P.M me on that issue????

[onerabbit]

Gee, there's nothing wrong with your eyes, had never noticed that before

bit of a pity it's a bloke..........

Just called my somewhat delicate missus over to the screen,
asked her to look real close,
and used the pointer to good effect....hehehehe

thanks for that


Muzz

[35kg jew]

Hi i live down around that area and on my dailt drive looking for nice gutters stoped off and went for a walk no dead pips or gutters went to the tackle shop there no reports of dead pips..

Maybe wrong information..

[bondy99]

How about doing this.

Collect a few and send it directly to fisheries and another to councils health department and also another batch to NSW Health Department and another to the local newspaper and report it and also take photos.

Thats the only way you're going to get a result and satisfy the curiosity.

Cheers

[FNQCairns]

Most often in marine environements a few conditions/circumstance are needed to push easily identified environmental expressions. The last piece of a jigsaw puzzle at any time sort of arrangement.

Possibly as I have heard (but have not researched for my self so a shot in the dark) the seasonally higher than typical water temperatures allowed to fleetingly unbalance local effectively pathogenic micro flora either environmentally or within the organism.

Such large to the human eye organisms are first in line for easy identification when these things happen.

Very competitive world the one micro-organisms live in, ready to multiply at the very first moment condition become availabe, if it's direct competior/s in this world are not quite so addapted to suit the new condition, the first from the starting line might get the best hold and disease can break out and lays waste to the host until an equilibrium is met.

Simplistic in explanation i know, but without a longer term and a corresponding increase in dead higher organisms or noticeable to the human eye blooms for example ...one can 999/1000 times consider this would be just another natural local event...with a degree of emphasis on the word natural.

[goat boy]

apparently it's happened a few times this year?
found this anyway
http://www.goldcoast.com.au/article/2010/07/16/238811_gold-coast-news.html
There's a phone number listed in the article for a marine volunteer who would like to know when this occurs.
Might be a good idea if your relly gave him a bell?

[themissus]

Sorry I forgot to report back!! Went down about 10.30am(low tide) sunday checked out 3 or 4 spots along the beach down as far as the 4x4 access just past Black Rocks. As 35kg jew indicated no sign of anything untoward. I was up at Hastings Headland saturday arvo and didn't notice anything then either.

Arrrh the avatar....It's a fellow AF'ers bottom, pic was taken at a M&G at Borumbah last year. He and the camera man(Hubby) were pretty proud of themselves, they kept a straight face the whole time, I had no idea until I got back to camp and showed the other boys the pic of my bass :o The Buggers......Luck I love em both:-*
So the avatar is payback to the bum bandit and a reminder of a great weekend, all in one.
Cheers Kim:)

[Scalem]

I just need to know how often you fish this moon phase, and is it normally any good for you::)

Scalem

[themissus]

I just need to know how often you fish this moon phase, and is it normally any good for you::)

Scalem

Only fished it the once, thank goodness....there's now a pants on clause for the captain if I'm to be deckie;D

[URAGANGI]

Thanks kim
Now that all makes sense It's just that I was a worried for what was going too happen next both for the bare butt and the fish.....PADDED CELL here I come!

Anyway back to bis FNQ Cairns has a pretty hot explanation of why the pipi's beached themselves in mass. If it's a natural event things should sort themselves
out fairly quickly.

If it's induced by man, I'd love too get some sampels and have them tested as sugested earlier.

My father spoted the problem at blackrock and further towards wooyong, also mentioned earlier pic's would've helped too.

[URAGANGI]

FNQ Cairns and Goat Boy
Massive thanks, all good info thanks for your time.

[rando]

I saw the same thing at Easter on main beach at Iluka, right on the high tide mark, thousands of dead and dying pippis. Surprisingly, the sea birds were not interested in them.About 1/2 of them were still alive.
No-one seemed to know what caused it.

Rando

[URAGANGI]

Rando If the birds passed up a free feed such as this, something is up for sure. I'm still hoping for a natural cause. It would be good to have some tested just the same.

[39NESP]

i think you will find they are moon pipi's not the normal pipi they were at ballina too+evans

[Slider]

I'm thinking that probably not the normal pipi found on the beach either. Hadn't heard the name moon pipi, but fits the description of the more rounded pipi that washes on to the beach here in numbers every now and then. Seems to coincide with scallop dredging.

[rabbi]

Hi Guys,
Ive seen this happen on a few occasions and mostly in winter when the water temp is down.
Maybe they are like me and dont go much on cold water.
???????

cheers, steve

[rando]

The ones I saw were just your standard "turn me into a nice dart" !.. pippi.

Rabbi
Not sure about them not liking cold,,, they get plenty of them in Victoria.

[wayno60]

Then again it could be like the whales when a whole pod will beach them selves.
for no know reason they just do it....