Port Philip Bay in Melbourne Australia environmental threat

[Rob & Di]

Hi all!

I know it is a long way away - but Port Philip Bay is a wonderful (temperate!) place to dive.

There are plans to start dredging there in a few weeks.

There is still time to do something.

The following website has information on what you can do:

Channel deepening Port Phillip Bay Blue Wedges Home against the dredge

It is not just an issue for divers from Melbourne - it is an issue for everyone who cares about the environment.

Your simple email to the Australian Prime Minister (Kevin Rudd) or the Environment Minister (Peter Garrett) could make a difference.

Thanks
Rob and Di

[TonyDragon]

Hi Rob and Di
Sadly it's not a long way for me, I spend most weekends diving in Port Phillip Bay and it breaks my heart to think about what damage is going to be done by these idiots. I've been lucky enough to dive one of the sites that is right in the path of the dredge, Rip Bank which is a sheer wall starting around 20m and dropping down past 60m. It is absolutely stunning and covered in life, for now.
The worst part is that the ships that need the channel to be deepened before they can enter the bay make up a tiny percentage and before long will be surpassed by even larger ones. Worst still there is another more viable deep water port elsewhere in Victoria that they won't even consider.
My partner and I are getting out as often as we can afford at the moment because in a few months many sites may be ruined for years to come.

[simon varley]

sadly, it's probably all done and dusted. Blue Wedges are in the courts today, but it's unlikely to make any difference.

The joke of it all is that the Chief Executive of the Port of Melbourne was today quoted in The Age.

"Port of Melbourne Corporation chief executive Stephen Bradford has said current trade volumes were too small to warrant larger vessels."

So they're going to dredge 23 million tons of crap out of the bay including 2 million tons of contaminated silt on the offchance that shipping owners might one day decide to sail bigger ships into the port, even though there's a bottle neck in getting the containers out of the port, and even though the next generation of ships won't even make it under the Westgate Bridge, and even though there's another deep water port just around the corner. And they're not even dumping the spoil in the Bass Straight - just in the middle of the bay!

I really thought I'd got away from this sort of mindless bollocks by moving half way around the world. East of England plan anybody?

For what it's worth

Federal Environment Minister Peter Garrett's email is Peter.Garrett.MP@aph.gov.au

Federal Prime Minister Kevin Rudd's email is contactable here http://www.pm.gov.au/contact/index.cfm

Victorian State Premier John Brumby's email is premier@dpc.vic.gov.au

and Victorian Environment Minister Gavin Jennings' email is gavin.jennings@parliament.vic.gov.au

[Richard Mason]

Originally Posted by Rob & Di

Environment Minister (Peter Garrett) could make a difference.

Huh. Garret is MIA as per usual, nothing but a high profile show pony, I doubt he'll amount to very much. How many of his so-called "principles" did he manage to swallow before he took the job?

Answer:

Campaigned against US Bases - now part of a Govt that supports the US-Aus alliance.

Campaigned against Uranium mining - now Env Minister in a govt which supports Uranium mining.

President of the Aus Conservation Foundation but now Env Minister in a Govt that supports the Tamar Pulp Mill.

What a hypocrite. The only thing Rudd has let him do so far is to launch a momentous campaign against plastic bags.

And as if the MUA is going to let Rudd & Co get away with discouraging trade from the Port of Melbourne.

[MarkP]

Originally Posted by Richard Mason

Campaigned against US Bases - now part of a Govt that supports the US-Aus alliance.

Campaigned against Uranium mining - now Env Minister in a govt which supports Uranium mining.

President of the Aus Conservation Foundation but now Env Minister in a Govt that supports the Tamar Pulp Mill.

Ah. He'll be one of them thar politicians, then?

[Richard Mason]

Originally Posted by MarkP

Ah. He'll be one of them thar politicians, then?

He is now but he was formerly lead singer with Midnight Oil, an "activist" band and very outspoken on all issues aboriginal & environmental; he was parachuted into a safe ALP (Aus Labor Party) seat in Sydney at the previous (2004) election by the previous leader - very gimmicky, he thought it would help the "youf" vote I guess.

But now he's having to toe the party line and the CFMEU (Construction, Forestry & Mining Union) carry a lot of influence in the ALP, so the contrast between his former radicalism and current (low) profile is very noticeable and it's obvious that Rudd thinks he's a liability - he has created a new Minister for Climate Change (Penny Wong) who sits in the Senate, (Upper House) but in the Representatives (Lower House, like the Commons), it's the Treasurer (ie Chanc of Exch) who will be dealing with climate change issues.....not the Environment Minister; so that's how much Rudd trusts him but as a bit of window dressing to help win the recent election, I guess he served his purpose.

The big joke is that Victoria has an ALP State Govt, just like here in Tas and they project themselves as having good environmental credentials.

[Richard Mason]

Originally Posted by TonyDragon

Hi Rob and Di
Sadly it's not a long way for me, I spend most weekends diving in Port Phillip Bay and it breaks my heart to think about what damage is going to be done by these idiots. I've been lucky enough to dive one of the sites that is right in the path of the dredge, Rip Bank which is a sheer wall starting around 20m and dropping down past 60m. It is absolutely stunning and covered in life, for now.
The worst part is that the ships that need the channel to be deepened before they can enter the bay make up a tiny percentage and before long will be surpassed by even larger ones. Worst still there is another more viable deep water port elsewhere in Victoria that they won't even consider.
My partner and I are getting out as often as we can afford at the moment because in a few months many sites may be ruined for years to come.

$50 each way will get you a flight to Hobart, so all is not lost.

Being serious, for once, it's really is a crying shame - there's a group from my club who are looking at taking a trip over there to dive it before it's all screwed up for good.

[TonyDragon]

Richard - I'd highly recommend it, water temp is around 18 degrees at the moment and the viz last weekend was spectacular. Inside the bay there is everything from shallow temperate reefs, wrecks and wall dives that drop down 60m+ in places. Just outside of the heads is the ship's graveyard - enough wrecks to satisfy any hardcore wreckie, from about 26m - 40m+ (including 4 WW1 submarines).
Just makes what they're going to do an even bigger tragedy and Simon, I'm afraid I think you're right, the descision has been made. No matter that it makes no sense what so ever. I just can't wait until I get citizenship so that I can not vote for them.

[Richard Mason]

Simple reason is that it's under the sea and the average punter has no concept of what is going to be lost. Out of sight is out of mind.

We are witnessing an unfolding tragedy here on Tasmania's East Coast with an invasion by Centrostephanus, long spined sea urchins which have turned massive areas of productive reef, down to 35-40m into wasteland.

I previously dived these areas 10 yrs ago and returned in June to find them devastated beyond all recognition. The urchins are heading South from NSW with elevated water temps, first appeared in big numbers about 15-20 yrs ago and the only thing that predates them are crayfish - but they have to be big crayfish and with the way the cray fishery is managed here, there are plenty of crayfish but very few big enough to turn over & break into a mature urchin.

We are screaming about it and had been hopeful that a new system of extensive marine reserves down here would protect some of the best bits but our redneck bogan Minister for Primary Industries has preempted the enquiry results and said we won't be extending or creating any new Marine Protected Areas and given that, it's extremely unlikely that they'll be in the mood to ban crayfishing anywhere any time soon.

So if you want to dive a Tasmanian Kelp Forest, get down here in the next 10 yrs or likewise, it may be too late.

If this was a patch of pristine rainforest in the Dandenongs or the South west of Tasmania that they were wanting to tear down, there would be all hell let loose. Likewise if it was a reef off FN Queensland - I was in Cairns a few years back when a container ship ran aground miles offshore, dented a couple of hundred square metres of coral (which grows back anyway) out of hundreds of thousands of square kms, and they certainly didn't do it on purpose, yet you'd think the world had ended.

[TonyDragon]

Originally Posted by Richard Mason

Simple reason is that it's under the sea and the average punter has no concept of what is going to be lost. Out of sight is out of mind.

We are witnessing an unfolding tragedy here on Tasmania's East Coast with an invasion by Centrostephanus, long spined sea urchins which have turned massive areas of productive reef, down to 35-40m into wasteland.

I previously dived these areas 10 yrs ago and returned in June to find them devastated beyond all recognition. The urchins are heading South from NSW with elevated water temps, first appeared in big numbers about 15-20 yrs ago and the only thing that predates them are crayfish - but they have to be big crayfish and with the way the cray fishery is managed here, there are plenty of crayfish but very few big enough to turn over & break into a mature urchin.

We are screaming about it and had been hopeful that a new system of extensive marine reserves down here would protect some of the best bits but our redneck bogan Minister for Primary Industries has preempted the enquiry results and said we won't be extending or creating any new Marine Protected Areas and given that, it's extremely unlikely that they'll be in the mood to ban crayfishing anywhere any time soon.

So if you want to dive a Tasmanian Kelp Forest, get down here in the next 10 yrs or likewise, it may be too late.

If this was a patch of pristine rainforest in the Dandenongs or the South west of Tasmania that they were wanting to tear down, there would be all hell let loose. Likewise if it was a reef off FN Queensland - I was in Cairns a few years back when a container ship ran aground miles offshore, dented a couple of hundred square metres of coral (which grows back anyway) out of hundreds of thousands of square kms, and they certainly didn't do it on purpose, yet you'd think the world had ended.

Absolutely, that's exactly what I keep thinking. If they were planning on building a freeway through Wilson Prom or the Grampians there'd have been all hell let loose.
Very sad to hear about what's happening in Taz, I was under the impression that the fisheries down there were managed quite well, obviously not. I would actually love to come down and see the kelp forests, we're planning on doing it next year sometime over a long weekend.

Tony