Following a series of fish deaths in the lower Darling River in the austral summer of 2018–19, several field trials were undertaken over two summers to determine the efficacy of various aerators to mitigate the effects of hypoxia to prevent fish deaths. The aerators evaluated included: low-powered, solar bubble-plume diffusers; high-flow, single-port Venturi systems; pontoon-mounted multi-port Venturi systems; and an ultra-fine bubble generator. The effectiveness of bubble diffusers appears related to their power, the number of units used and their running time. Pontoon-mounted multi-port Venturi aerators and high-flow, single-port Venturi aerators were much more successful in maintaining oxygen levels and may have prevented fish deaths in the Darling River in early 2019. However, the Venturi aerators were expensive to run, consuming hundreds to thousands of litres of diesel fuel per week. Trial of an ultra-fine oxygen bubble pump showed promise because it supersaturated the water with dissolved oxygen while not elevating total gas pressure to levels that would cause gas-bubble trauma in fish. Although aerators may play a role in emergency responses to hypoxic fish deaths, they have limitations regarding their area of influence (at best thousands of square metres) and their cost to deploy and operate.

在 2018-19 年南方夏季达令河下游发生了一系列鱼类死亡事件后，在两个夏季进行了多次实地试验，以确定各种曝气器减轻缺氧影响以防止鱼类死亡的功效。评估的曝气器包括：低功率、太阳能气泡羽流扩散器；高流量、单端口文丘里系统；浮筒式多端口文丘里系统；和超细气泡发生器。气泡扩散器的有效性似乎与其功率、使用的装置数量和运行时间有关。浮筒式多端口文丘里曝气器和高流量、单端口文丘里曝气器在维持氧气水平方面更为成功，并且可能在 2019 年初防止了达令河的鱼类死亡。 然而，文丘里曝气器的运行成本很高，每周消耗数百至数千升柴油。超细氧气泡泵的试验显示出希望，因为它使水中溶解氧过饱和，同时不会将总气压升高到会导致鱼气泡损伤的水平。尽管曝气器可能在对缺氧鱼类死亡的应急响应中发挥作用，但它们在其影响范围（最多数千平方米）及其部署和运行成本方面存在局限性。