It's been almost three years since tens of millions of native fish died on the Darling River in outback New South Wales. Now, a project based in the small town of Menindee using artificial intelligence hopes to help prevent further mass deaths.More InformationFeatured: Mika Sohlberg, FishheartTony Townsend, NSW DPIRD FisheriesDave Baker, Menindee residentCreditsBill Ormonde, AuthorImage DetailsMika Sohlberg is confident the technology can be effective by the end of the three-year trial. (ABC News: Bill Ormonde)Program:More from AMTranscriptIsabella Higgins: It's been almost three years since tens of millions of native fish died on the Darling River in outback New South Wales. Now a project based in the small town of Menindee is using artificial intelligence it hopes will prevent further mass deaths. But some locals remain sceptical about the technology. Bill Ormonde has the story.Fishery staff: No haemorrhages, no wounds, lost more than 25 per cent of its scales.Bill Ormonde: Fishery staff along the Darling River at Menindee catch and check fish for injuries and scars. With the help of artificial intelligence native species of fish are being transported over a steep embankment and road and into the Menindee lakes.Mika Sohlberg: We're taking the water from the reservoir through a pipeline into our unit, collect the fish and take them over the dam to the reservoir with a water pressure.Bill Ormonde: That's Mika Sohlberg from Finnish company Fishheart. Its technology is being used in a $6.5 million state government funded project.Mika Sohlberg: Migratory fish need to be able to move over the dams to continue their migratory trip and find spawning areas. We need to move as much biomass as we can to make sure that there will never be fish kills like there was in 2023. Obviously that needs more than one unit but with a lot of units it's totally doable.Bill Ormonde: A combination of hot temperatures, low flows and tens of millions of fish being stuck in a section of the river caused the mass kill. Mika Sohlberg says in the two years the project has been running so far they've improved their initial design of the passage which at first struggled to detect and identify fish in the murky waters of the Darling River.Mika Sohlberg: It's a building process. It's like building a successful Formula One team. It takes years and years of work.Bill Ormonde: Tony Townsend from New South Wales DPIRD Fisheries is encouraged by the results so far.Tony Townsend: We're not moving every fish out of the Menindee Town weir pool. We're trying to move as many fish as we can to reduce the competition for food, for space, for oxygen so that if conditions do become drier, become poor again, then hopefully there's not as many fish in that part of the weir pool.Bill Ormonde: 10,000 fish have passed through but only around 5 percent are larger Murray Cod and Yellowbelly or endangered Silver Perch.Tony Townsend: So far we've seen a lot more Golden Perch using the fishway and Murray Cod as well which is really promising.Bill Ormonde: There remains some scepticism from some locals like Dave Baker. He's not sure the technology can transport enough fish to adequately reduce biomass at choke points in the river.Dave Baker: Waste of taxpayers money. We can fish right next to that fish ladder and catch more fish than the fish that are going over the weir. The ones that count like the perch, bony brim don't really count unless you can put millions across.Bill Ormonde: Fishheart are confident the technology can be refined and units spread across the basin. But locals in Menindee are frustrated issues like the overabundance of invasive carp populating the Darling in their millions have yet to be addressed by state and federal governments, considering their significant contribution to environmental degradation by destroying vegetation, out-competing native species for food and increasing turbidity, contributing to algal blooms and fish kills.Dave Baker: Could be paying people to catch the carp, you know, 6.5 million can go a long way. They should spend the right amount of money. It's going to cost a lot more. Put an open and closed fish ladder in, yeah it might cost $25 million but at least you know it's going to work.Isabella Higgins: And that was Menindee resident Dave Baker ending that report by Bill Ormonde. Appears In Crunch time for hate speech, gun reformDuration: 20 minutes 8 seconds20m 6 itemsIn this episode1 of 6Deal to pass hate speech laws appears within reachDuration: 3 minutes 23 seconds3m 23s2 of 6Bondi MP on government's hate speech lawsDuration: 4 minutes 40 seconds4m 40s3 of 6Gun reforms expected to pass parliament Duration: 4 minutes 1 second4m 1s4 of 6Sydney shark attacks alarm swimmersDuration: 3 minutes 47 seconds3m 47s5 of 6Putin invited to Board of PeaceDuration: 3 minutes 21 seconds3m 21s6 of 6PlayingAI saving fish livesDuration: 3 minutes 31 seconds3m 31s