Mr Buckingham, who has been campaigning on the health of river systems his "entire political life," said it was "the most disgusting scene you could possibly imagine". Dead Murray cod pulled from the Menindee Weir Pool amid the mass fish kill. Credit:Rob Gregory via Facebook "The cod that I was holding apparently was somewhere in the order of 50 to 60 years old, to see it dead, and to see hundreds of them if not thousands of them in the area where we were, dead like that, is truly appalling," he said. "They are rotting, they’re large corpses, they're bloated in the water. There’s this scum of putrescent grease across the top of the water and it's truly very, very sad." 'Ecological catastrophe on an international scale'

Algal blooms in the Darling River are believed to be responsible for the death of millions of fish, including golden perch, bony bream and Murray cod. There have been four such mass fish deaths in the region since the Christmas period. Loading Replay Replay video Play video Play video On Wednesday, NSW Fisheries and Regional Water Minister Niall Blair said the latest mass killing would not be the last. "Unfortunately this is the sort of thing we do see during drought," he said. While Mr Buckingham acknowledged climate change and drought in the area contributed to the disaster, agriculture also played a major role.

Loading "The first principle is we have to get more water out of the hands of the irrigators and into the river to restore its health, it's as simple as that," he said. "At a national level, we need a royal commission into the management of the Murray Darling basin, and the administration of the Murray Darling Basin Authority," he said. Mr Buckingham said he planned to stay in the area for a couple of days to highlight the issue so people living in the cities could witness it, "because it is an ecological catastrophe on an international scale". He also criticised Mr Blair for not meeting a group of locals who were waiting at a boat ramp on Wednesday afternoon.

Independent MP Jeremy Buckingham jumps into the Darling River after vomiting off-camera. "The NSW water minister Niall Blair had the gall to come out here, speed past the locals ... and then got out of the boat with a police escort and talked about how they were going to restock the river with fish," he said. "Well, you can’t restock a river that has no water." Mr Blair said on Wednesday he did not meet that group due to security concerns after "threats" were made, but said met with other locals along the river bank and met local councillors. Loading