It comes as local residents found dead Red Fin in the lake at the weekend and were concerned that blue-green algae was the cause of death.

City of Greater Bendigo safe and healthy environments inspection co-ordinator Jason Barnes said algae levels in Lake Neangar were raised but not severe

“We do routine monitoring for blue-green algae and have found slightly elevated levels of mostly non toxic blue-green algae out there (at Neangar),”  he said.

“That’s not unusual for this time year and it’s not as high as previous years.

“It is a natural thing happens when weather warms up and there are reduced in flows of water.” 

Blue green algae takes oxygen from water making it a danger for fish that live in areas that attract the plant.

Mr Barnes couldn’t confirm that algae killed the Red Fin in Lake Neangar at the weekend but said it was a possibility.

“Red Fin tend to be quite sensitive to to that type of thing, which is why they can’t cope with (the algae) condition but there are all sorts things could be contributing,” he said.

“We monitor (lakes and water ways) on a monthly basis to keep an eye whats going and can generally see whats going and can anticipate it.

“At the moment with Neangar, we are looking at options to reduce the impact of algae over the summer months.”

One option would be the ultrasonic algae buster that has been trialed with promising results in Kennington Reservoir.

He said the algae buster was environment friendly and did not impact humans, animals, fish or insect that used the reservoir

“It is just focused on damaging the algae. It has been in there for two years as a trial and proven to be quite effective,” Mr Barnes said.

“Effectively it sends ultrasonic pulses through water which cause blue-green algae cells to resonate until they rupture. So they can’t take off in bloom as readily because the cells are depleted and broken up.”

Mr Barnes said council was looking to see if the manufacturer could develop an algae buster for Lake Neangar.

“At the moment we are in discussions with the manufacturer on what it would look like,” he said.

“We anticipate that if they can produce something for us in a way that is going to work at Neangar and designed in way can make an impact.

“Every site is specific, so we want the design to work thoroughly to make sure it is effective.”

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