{"id":370625,"date":"2026-04-09T04:37:10","date_gmt":"2026-04-09T04:37:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/370625\/"},"modified":"2026-04-09T04:37:10","modified_gmt":"2026-04-09T04:37:10","slug":"more-than-1000-fish-killed-in-darwin-port-after-iron-ore-pollution","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/370625\/","title":{"rendered":"More than 1,000 fish killed in Darwin Port after iron ore pollution"},"content":{"rendered":"

More than 1,000 fish have died at Darwin Port after exposure to acidic iron ore contamination, triggering an investigation by the Northern Territory’s environmental regulator.<\/p>\n

The incident was reported on March 30 by the port’s operator, which found more than a thousand dead oxeye herring in a stormwater containment pond at East Arm Wharf.<\/p>\n

Darwin Port said water testing revealed the incident was caused by the discharge of acidic water from an iron ore stockpile area during a period of heavy rainfall.<\/p>\n

The report stated there were no obvious impacts to other fish, and noted the dead specimens were about 50 millimetres in length.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Oxeye Herring, Megalops cyprinoides is also known as the Indo-Pacific tarpon. (Supplied: Phanara Thach)<\/p>\n

Acting chief executive Rhys Jones said immediate action had been taken in response to the “unfortunate loss of some aquatic life in the pond”.<\/p>\n

The contamination was traced to an iron ore stockpile area operated by South Australian mining company AG River Energy.<\/p>\n

The company is owned by Yonggang Shan, and is involved in an iron ore project at the former Peko mine site, 10 kilometres east of Tennant Creek.<\/p>\n

Mr Shan also has business interests in several iron ore operations in South Australia.<\/p>\n

In a statement, AG River Energy said it was aware of an incident at Darwin Port and would cooperate with the investigation.<\/p>\n

“The investigation outcomes will determine any additional controls that need to be implemented,” the company said.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the NT Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) said it would work with Darwin Port to ensure its environmental control measures were effective.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

The red dots pictured represent the containment ponds used to manage excess stormwater at East Arm Wharf. (Supplied: Darwin Port)<\/p>\n

Pollution was diluted<\/p>\n

The ponds store excess stormwater, which eventually migrated to the adjacent Darwin Harbour, according to a separate environmental planning document published by the port operator.\u00a0<\/p>\n

However, the EPA insisted the risk to the environment was “extremely low”, and told the ABC acidity levels in the pond returned to normal due to dilution after the fish died.<\/p>\n

Keep Top End Coasts Healthy, a local environment group, said Darwin Harbour was one of the NT’s “greatest assets”.<\/p>\n

\"Adele<\/p>\n

Adele Pedder says the incident could have been worse. (ABC News: Jane Bardon)<\/p>\n

Manager Adele Pedder said it was fortunate the effects of the pollution did not spread into the harbour.<\/p>\n

“We’re not always so lucky, and the history of Darwin Harbour shows that,” she said.<\/p>\n

“Industrial operations carry inherent risk, and the harbour has already had more than its share.”<\/p>\n

Oxeye herring are sometimes referred to as tarpon and can tolerate a wide pH range, according to Commonwealth-backed database Fishes of Australia.<\/p>\n

Darwin Port is operated by Landbridge, which runs both the commercial wharf facilities at East Arm and the cruise ship terminal at Fort Hill Wharf closer to the city centre.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"More than 1,000 fish have died at Darwin Port after exposure to acidic iron ore contamination, triggering an…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":370626,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[62393,273,8321,12915,14910,193850,2752,111,139,69,29268,147],"class_list":{"0":"post-370625","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-environment","8":"tag-darwin","9":"tag-environment","10":"tag-fish","11":"tag-iron-ore","12":"tag-kill","13":"tag-landbridge","14":"tag-mining","15":"tag-new-zealand","16":"tag-newzealand","17":"tag-nz","18":"tag-port","19":"tag-science"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/370625","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=370625"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/370625\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/370626"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=370625"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=370625"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=370625"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}