Dr. Rick Officer:

There are two dimensions to the answer to the question. Yes, we have limited staff in this area and they were deployed on the day on other activities. There is a second dimension to the answer given by Dr. Downes, which concerns the perceived risk around this being a disease event. Dr. Downes is an expert in this area so he can explain more deeply. The characteristics that were explained to the institute at the time did not suggest that this was a disease event. They suggested that it was an environmental irritant or pollutant in the water, which is down to the number of fish that were dead at the same time. If it were a disease event then we would expect fish to die over a longer period. I ask Dr. Downes to elaborate.