AMCS latest wish list

[Shane Boese]

Well people looks like an election coming up soon and the AMCS is starting to ramp up the government with their latest wish list. So hold on to your hats because here we go again.



Environment Written by Australian Marine Conservation Society and Queensland Tourism Industry Council Tuesday, 02 September 2008

This is a much shortened version of the new 10 Missing Jewels of Moreton Bay brochure produced by AMSA
Jewel 1: The Eastern Banks. Extensive seagrass beds off One Mile on North Stradbroke Island), stretching northwards to Kooringal township off southern Moreton Island. The Eastern Banks are amongst the healthiest and most significant natural areas of the marine park. Their wildlife and scenic beauty are unsurpassed and are often compared to that found on the Great Barrier Reef
Jewel 2: Manta Ray Bommies An underwater outcrop which lies north east of Point Lookout, North Stradbroke Island. Manta Ray Bommies is the most important aggregation site and ‘cleaning station’ for manta rays in Moreton Bay Marine Park. It is of immense value to the local tourism industry, recreational divers and marine scientists.
Jewel 3: Flinders Reef complex North west from Cape Moreton, Moreton Island. includes Flinders Reef and extends north to Hutchisons Shoal and south to Smith Rock. This is a very beautiful and highly biodiverse offshore coral reef that has very little protection.
Jewel 4: Peel Island – south East of Dunwich, North Stradbroke Island. The extensive coral reef that fringes south western side of Peel Island is offered no protection in draft zoning plan from fishing or anchor damage.
Jewel 5: Myora Reef and Wanga Wallen Banks Western shore of North Strad extending north from Myora Springs near the to Mile to Amity township. The coral reef is of high conservation value with high coral diversity. The area stretching from Myora to Wallen Banks is widely recognized as a si ebird roosting and feeding site and nursery nile fish and invertebrates, including prawns. l
Jewel 6: Ormiston North of Cleveland and Raby Bay. Includes Empire Point, Hilliards Creek and the Geoff Skinner Wetlands. Ormiston displays a wide range of habitats that need protection. These include mangrove forests, seagrass meadows, shorebird feeding sites and ancient reefs.
Jewel 7: Waterloo Bay – south North of Wellington Point from the mouth of Tingalpa and Lota Creeks extending north to the tip of King Island at Wellington Point. Diversity of healthy habitats: Waterloo Bay is the only embayment on the western side of Moreton Bay that supports corals, macro-algae and extensive, healthy seagrass beds. Dugongs frequent this area to feed on the seagrass, much to the delight of visitors and locals on the mainland.
Jewel 8: Green Island – east Green Island To the east of Wynnum Manly and south of St Helena Island. Green Island is covered by one of the most healthy island mangrove forests in the marine park.
Jewel 9: Bird and Goat Island Situated between Peel Island and North Stradbroke Island, Goat Island is joined to Bird Island by a sandy isthmus. Bird Island is one of only four sites in the marine park to have fringing limestone reef. This reef type has not been given any protection at all in the Draft Zoning Plan.
Jewel 10: China Wall East of Moreton Isle. Characterised by spectacular granite outcrops, large caves and overhangs. Rocky reef marine Broad-leafed golden coloured kelp, providing a home to various species including crayfish and slipper lobster. Rays, seawhips, fans, schooling and pelagic fish (tuna, mackerel and barracuda) are among other notable species here. Critically endangered grey nurse sharks frequent China Wall in winter but are unprotected at this site.


In response to an attempt by three Labor backbenchers to weaken protection measures in Moreton Bay Marine Park this week, a coalition of groups has united to call for greater protection of the Park.
Yesterday, seven leading conservation organisations joined with the Queensland Tourism Industry Council and Tangalooma Island Resort to call on the state government to significantly increase the number of Marine National Park zones, or ‘green zones’ proposed for protection.
In a document titled ‘The 10 Missing Jewels of Moreton Bay’ the coalition identified 10 special places in Moreton Bay which should be included in Marine National Park Zones but which had failed to make it into the draft Zoning Plan.
Craig Bohm, Campaigns Director at the Australian Marine Conservation Society said, “Today we call on Minister McNamara to secure these 10 Missing Jewels in Marine National Parks zones.”
“The protection currently on offer (less than 15% green zone protection) is simply not enough and in the majority of submissions, the public called for at least 30% protection. Protecting these ‘jewels’ would significantly raise the protection of Moreton Bay Marine Park,” Bohm said.
The 10 places identified by the coalition are: the Eastern Banks, Manta Ray Bommies (off Point Lookout), the wider Flinders Reef Complex, Peel Island (south), Myora Reef and Wanga Wallen Banks (Stradbroke Island), Ormiston, Waterloo Bay – south (Lota), Green Island – east, Bird and Goat Island and China Wall (east of Moreton Island).
These places represent the precious seagrass meadows, rocky reefs, coral gardens and sandy shoals which are critical to the survival of our threatened wildlife such as turtles and dugongs.
Daniel Gschwind Chief Executive of the Queensland Tourism Industry Council said, “Moreton Bay is a precious tourism asset with immense economic potential.
Greater protection of Moreton Bay will only add to its value. We found this on the Great Barrier Reef which generates over $5.2 billion for the economy.
This is why we support the protection of these 10 special places in Moreton Bay.”
Toby Hutcheon, Executive Director of the Queensland Conservation Council concluded, “It is bizarre that a few Labor backbenchers scramble to represent a few vocal fishing interests in Moreton Bay when clearly the wider public, tourism groups and bayside residents expect environmental protection. Let’s now see if the Labor Government is up to the task.”
The conservation groups supporting the document include the Australian Conservation Foundation (ACF), Australian Marine Conservation Society (AMCS), National Parks Association of Queensland (NPAQ), Queensland Conservation Council (QCC), The Wilderness Society (TWS), Wildlife Preservation Society of Queensland (WPSQ) and WWF Australia. Contacts: Craig Bohm – 0427 133 481, Daniel Gschwind – 07 3236 1445 Toby Hutcheon – 0419 664 503
Facts supplied by AMCS

• Over 8000 submissions were received by the Queensland Government in response to the Moreton Bay review.
• Over 6000 submissions indicated that Moreton Bay needed a far greater level of protection
• Over half of all formal submissions called for at least 30% protection of Moreton Bay Marine Park in Marine National Park Zones
• Every week, hundreds of additional submissions are sent to the EPA in support of at least 30% protection of Moreton Bay Marine Park, most of these from tourists who visit the Park.
• A coalition of six prominent University of Queensland marine scientists called for 30-50% protection in their submissions on Moreton Bay to the Queensland Government.
• Each year 200 turtles die in Moreton Bay Marine Park due to human impacts.
• The loggerhead turtle, a Moreton Bay resident, is listed as ‘critically endangered’ and according to the EPA faces extinction in Queensland in the next 40 years unless significant steps are taken to protect them.
• Scientific surveys indicate that dolphins and dugongs occur in the greatest numbers over the Eastern Banks.

[Tangles]

I saw that and thought, well how surprising, ie if they dont get all they want they will no doubt bleat about it and say what a win for the nasty fisho.

Also love how it will all be open to recreational divers though and green commerce of course.

[frogfuzz]

I lived in and around the Bay for the best part of my life (now on Sunny coast; the Greens next "Jewel" once all the Greenies have moved into the mass produced suburbs and then decide to save what's left; while flushing all their crap into the oceans), and going by the list given up above, why don't they just say "lets ban all fishing".

Don't these morons know that its our spending that generates the tax teet upon which they suck?

[Chris Ryan]

eco-tourism is the buzz and where they see the $$$$.........

Funny though as in total, the whole industry generates $1.575 BILLION in output for the Queensland economy and generates 31,167 jobs, just over 12,053 jobs directly in fishing.

This number comes from a report written by EMDA.

[Lovey80]

These people make me sick! Someone needs them to put them out of MY misery

Cheers

Chris

[Tangles]

Following on from Chris,

Few interesting facts from the Qld Govt natrecdoc dealing with the years 2000-2001 ; couldnt upload whole pdf but heres some bits and it related to Australia wide: Also i couldnt find anything later. the full title of the publication is "The national recreational
and Indigenous fishing survey"

1:All primary demographic, fishing and boating information was obtained from 29,837
households (an effective response rate of 80%). No contact was made with 5% of
households, 4% refused the interview and 11% of households provided insufficient data (full or partial refusals) to be included in the survey.

2:Australia had an estimated 3.36 million recreational fishers and a national recreational fishing participation rate of 19.5%.An estimated 1.8 million Australian households contained at least one recreational fisher, representing 24.5% of households nationally.

NSW had the highest number of recreational fishers (999,000) followed by Queensland (785,000) and Victoria (550,000). But the highest participation rates were recorded from Northern Territory (31.6%), Tasmania (29.3%) and Western Australia (28.5%).

3.More than 512,000 boats with a capital value of $3.5 billion were used for recreational fishing.

4: Recreational fishers in Australia spent more than $1.8 billion on fishing related items during the survey year. Expenditure was generally related to the size of the population and the number of fishers.

NSW had the largest expenditure ($554 million) and ACT the smallest ($19 million).
Australian recreational fishers reported more than 45 different expenditure items.
Expenditure on boats and trailers ($872 million) was the largest individual expense for
fishers. Travel associated with fishing ($432 million), accommodation ($184 million) and fishing tackle ($146 million) followed in importance.

The average expenditure was $552 per fisher per annum.

5: Approximately 4.6 million international tourists came to Australia during 2001.
Approximately 4% of these tourists (191,000 people) engaged in fishing while they were in Australia.

6: Of the 7.2 million Australian households, an estimated 789,000 (11% of total) owned at least one recreational vessel as at April 2000, with the total number of vessels (including jet skis, canoes, sailing boats, row boats and power craft) owned by Australian residents at that time being about 925,000 vessels (Table 3). Not unexpectedly, the level of boat ownership was higher for households containing recreational fishers, with approximately 574,000 (32%) of
the 1.8 million Australian fishing households owning a boat. Not all recreational vessels are used for fishing and out of the total; only 512,000 (55%) were identified as having been used for recreational fishing in the twelve months prior to May 2000.

7: Based on the estimated market value of the fishing boats and adjusted for the proportion of time (attribution) spent using the boat for fishing (as opposed to other boating activities), the total attributed value of recreational fishing vessels in Australia was approximately $3.3 billion (Table 3). The value of fishing vessels in New South Wales and Queensland exceeded $750 million.

8: Australian recreational fishers identified ‘to relax and unwind’ (37% of respondents), ‘fishing for sport’ (18%), ‘to be with family’ (15%) and ‘to be outdoors’ (13%) as their primary motives for fishing. Only a small proportion of fishers (8%) considered catching fish for food as their primary motivation.


So there are over 3 million people who fish in Australia yet ... well you know the rest

mike

[Lucky_Phill]

So why aren't these 3 million jumping up and down about having their lifestyle undermined with intention to remove, by the so-called conservationists ?

Don't bother answering.... apathy is at the start of the list.

Phill