A South Australian tradie has recounted how he was hospitalised in excruciating pain after going for a swim at a Victor Harbour beach days after an algal bloom broke out last year.
Dale Madden was in so much pain when he presented to the emergency department that doctors initially suspected appendicitis, however tests later revealed he had an infection.
“Ten out of ten painful,” he told the ABC’s Four Corners, which aired on Monday night. “It was like razor blades in my guts.
“I was rolling around on the floor in the emergency room, coughing and spewing blood.”
He described having “horrific” diarrhoea, the likes of which he had never experienced.
Mr Madden had noticed a bad smell at the beach he’d been swimming at before he fell ill.
“I said to the doctor, ‘It’s the water, I reckon it’s the water’,” he recounted.
It was concluded that Mr Madden had severe gastroenteritis and a bacterial infection, which has not officially been linked to the algal bloom.
An expert from Florida, which has a long history with toxic algal blooms, however, told Four Corners that the algae can cause similar illnesses.
Mr Madden reported his symptoms to the state health department after the ordeal which took place in March last year. He was among the first people to report experiencing symptoms in the Victor Harbour area after the toxic algal bloom broke out.
Others said they experienced skin irritation, headaches, sore eyes and shortness of breath after spending time in the affected water.
A specific algae species, karenia cristata, that produces a biotoxin known as brevetoxin, has since been identified as the dominant species within the bloom.
Brevetoxin is harmful to marine life and dead animals and sea creatures have been washing up on South Australian beaches, including little penguins in the Eyre Peninsula and sea dragons along the Yorke Peninsula.
Investigations into a Great White Shark that was found dead on Adelaide’s Henley Beach found it had brevetoxin in its gills.
In a particularly disturbing incident, over one hundred kangaroos in the Fleurieu Peninsula had to be euthanased after showing “mild to severe neurological signs”, according to a report by the Department of Primary Industries and Regions.
Brevetoxin was later found in the organs of two of the kangaroos but their deaths were not attributed to it.
Health advice from the South Australian government says that while beaches can still be enjoyed, “it’s best to stay away from abnormally foamy or discoloured water, which may cause irritation.”
It lists symptoms from exposure to algal particles and brevetoxin-like substances in humans as skin irritation, eye irritation, cough and shortness of breath.
Staggering cost
The algal bloom crisis is estimated to have cost South Australia a staggering quarter of a billion dollars in the past 12 months, according to new research.
A report commissioned by the Conservation Council of South Australia has claimed the economic impact of the natural phenomenon has cost the state’s economy a whopping $250m.
It says this cost has come as a result of a devastating impact on the state’s fishing and tourism industries as well as costs to the government of more than $100m.
The analysis, which was compiled by think tank Springmount Advisory, said South Australian businesses were bearing the brunt of the crisis.
It estimates fisheries in the state have lost out on an estimated $100m due to huge reductions in monthly catches.
It reports that in some quarters, monthly catches of whiting, garfish, calamari, crab and king prawn all dropped by more than 80 per cent in Gulf St Vincent and Kangaroo Island.
The report also claims tourism businesses in 30 affected towns have lost out on about $52,000 each.
It estimates SA’s tourism industry overall has been dealt a $46.8m blow by the crisis.
