Thousands of rotting dead fish are still being removed from Kangaroo Lake in Victoria's north west where business operators are taking stock of the financial impact of the fish kill.
The mass fish deaths were reported to authorities on March 19 when residents spotted the decaying carcasses floating in the water.
Goulburn Murray Water (GMW) officers arrived at Kangaroo Lake two days later and began using excavators to remove the fish.
They were still at the site on Friday, more than a week later, shovelling the dried-up remains of dead bream, redfin, and Murray cod into a trailer for disposal.
In a statement, customer services manager Paul Gilchrist said the clean-up was ongoing.
"The majority of the dead fish have now been removed [and] GMW anticipates the clean-up will be complete by the Easter long weekend," Mr Gilchrist said.
"Most of the initial clean-up took place on public land.
"Staff have since been able to help private landholders in removing dead fish from the vicinity of their properties."
Tourism operators affected
Clive Patullock, who owns the Kangaroo Lake Caravan Park, located between Swan Hill and Kerang, spent six days helping to remove fish with other volunteers and environmental authorities.
He said the fish kill had a major impact on his business, which used water from the lake for guests' showers and laundry.
"We lost 50 per cent of our bookings, which financially hurt," Mr Patullock said.
"We have now spent $5,000 on [fresh] water and getting trucks to cart water in so we can keep the business open."
Mr Patullock said the caravan park had been effectively running at a loss in the days after the fish kill.
"We should have just closed because of what we spent on water, and people just kept calling us once it hit the media and nobody came in," he said.
Mr Patullock said while there had also been some cancellations for the Easter weekend, which is one of the region's busiest times of the year, his 300-bed facility was now fully booked.
Calls for better planning
Mr Patullock said he was concerned about the time it took authorities to start the clean-up and that better planning was needed so fish were not left decaying after mass fish deaths.
"I rang Fisheries on the Sunday night and the very next day they were here and called the EPA in but nothing happened on that Monday. They had a meeting on Tuesday morning and from then on GMW came in and started cleaning up," he said.
"It was quite delayed and in that time the fish had started to decompose and go off.
"They need to have a strategy in place so that if something like this happens again we can fix it really fast.
"We need to clean it up straightaway with excavators, trucks, and somewhere for it to go, but it was all too delayed."
Authorities believe the likely cause of the fish kill was deoxygenated water, which can occur naturally, often due to changes in temperature.
