THE pod of dolphins that has been passing under Tea Gardens’ Singing Bridge every morning for the past few weeks can only be searching for one thing – a feed of fish up the river.
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It’s just one of the indicators of improved water quality that has occurred since work began to unclog the mouth of the Myall River about six weeks ago.
‘‘The water clarity is definitely improving,’’ Paul Bendy, a mooring operator who spends most days on the water, said.
‘‘I can see at least a metre into the water now.
‘‘Before you would be lucky to see to more than 100 to 200 millimetres down.’’
For locals the improvement in water quality is something they have dreamed about since they began campaigning to have the river mouth dredged in 2008.
Excavators have removed about 34,000 tonnes of sand from the short cut entrance to date.
A dredge, which is en route from Cairns, is due to take over shortly and will remove a further 90,000 tonnes of accumulated sand in coming months.
When the $2million project is complete it is expected the lower Myall will once again become part of the Port Stephens blue water wonderland.
Tea Gardens real estate agent and resident of 38 years Rick Wraight said the recent improvement was a sight for sore eyes.
‘‘I spend about half an hour a day looking at the water and there has been a significant improvement,’’ he said.
‘‘You only see dolphins moving up the river when there are fish up there.’’
While there is a long way to go before the water quality returns to what it was 30 years ago, Mr Wraight said the early signs are promising.
‘‘For the first time in about three years I’m seeing small schools of bait fish being chased by larger fish,’’ he said.
In addition to the clearing of the river mouth, the Lower Myall rehabilitation program will also restore parts of Corrie Island and replenish sand at Jimmy’s Beach.
This project will involve the establishment of an innovative sand transfer solution for the ongoing renourishment of Jimmys Beach that will protect the erosion hot spot for the next 20 years.
