Last week and on the weekend visitors and residents at Callala Bay, Hare Bay and Red Rock reported thousands of dead and dying fish on the sands and in the shallows.

One holidaymaker from Sydney said earlier in the week she had noticed the dead fish.

“Hundreds of fish are just lying in the water. On Monday birds were eating them but now [Saturday] they’re not.

“You can’t count them there’s too many.

“I don’t think I will let my kids swim in here,” she said.

Callala Bay resident Frank Taylor estimated between 3000 and 4000 fish and about 20 different species were dead between Callala Bay and just past Red Rock.

“I’ve been here 20 years and never seen anything like it. The water is thick with them. It took me about 10 minutes to pick up about 25 fish that were just lying in the water. And these are not insignificant fish they’re healthy looking, large fish that you would be happy to catch on a line. But there’s no way I would eat these.

“I’ve seen significant numbers of flathead of breeding stock size just lying limp in the water.

“The problem is significant and marine parks appear to be ignoring it like they did with the sea weed.

“Marine Parks told me they tested the water for oxygen levels and said they were fine.

“On Friday I saw a shark and it looked like it was trying to get out of the water and swim up onto the beach.

“Why is this happening? Is the water of Jervis Bay safe? We’ve got fish the weight of a small child, if it can kill a fish that big you’ve got to be concerned about what it would do to people,” Mr Taylor said.