Scientists are warning the wildlife impacts of a marine heatwave that has driven a catastrophic algal bloom off South Australia are likely to be equivalent to those from the black summer bushfires, and demand a similar response from governments.

Experts from five Australian universities say “one of the worst marine disasters in living memory” requires rapid investigation by federal and state governments to identify any at-risk species and fund emergency interventions if necessary.

In a report by the Biodiversity Council, an independent expert group founded by 11 universities, the scientists called on governments to commit to seven actions to respond to the “foreseeable and even predicted” event and to prepare for “an increasingly dangerous and unstable future”.

As expected, the federal Senate on Wednesday night established an inquiry into the disaster that has killed thousands of marine animals off SA. The Coalition senator Anne Ruston earlier accused the federal and SA governments of being too slow to act on the “significant environmental issue”, “allowing it to massively escalate into a serious ecological disaster”.