A New Dam On The Mary???

[Cammy]

hey,

i heard a rumor on another fish forum, that they are wanting to put a dam on the mary river? is this true? anyone hear about this? apparently its gonna wipe out a very endanged turtle along with the lungfish and mary river cod of that area.

sorry if this has been posted before.

Cammo

[ffejsmada]

Cammy, have you been hiding under a rock for the last 2 years???????????
The dam wall will be at Traveston, just north of Cooran .
The government has bought heaps of properties out already.
Not a good thing but I suppose dams have to go somewhere.

You should be able to find info, do a google search on "Traveston Dam".

ps, my toga is powering, put a bass in the tank yesterday, toga doesn't eat livies as yet, i've got glassy perchlet, hardyheads, rainbowfish, gudgeons, pacific blue-eyes in the tank with it, all caught out of my local creek. Cool hey?

Cheers Jeff.

[Didley]

Cammy, have you been hiding under a rock for the last 2 years???????????

Well said Jeff

[Cammy]

lol im an idiot, ahh well. Now i feel like a BIG fool!! you can tell i have never fished that area lol

Just had to check and confirm, as i supported the idea on this other forum ( aquarium forum )and i got hammered for it, they are trying to get people to sign this petition to stop the dam being built and they recon its going to stop it, because of the endangered turtle stocks.

heres teh link anyway to check the petition out, THE LINK

thats great news about your toga mate!and he has some nice tank mates ,
i recently put mine into a 6ftx24x28H (inches) tank and he is powering on!

Cammo

[Luc]

Can't see the dam endangering turtles and lungfish. Both seem to thrive in other dams in SE.

Cod may loose breeding sites but stocking and providing suitable nesting sites may fix that.

The turtle and lunfish argument is the same one that was tried to stop the construction of the Paradise Dam. Just a load of c--p.

Luc

[Cammy]

Can't see the dam endangering turtles and lungfish. Both seem to thrive in other dams in SE.

Cod may loose breeding sites but stocking and providing suitable nesting sites may fix that.

The turtle and lunfish argument is the same one that was tried to stop the construction of the Paradise Dam. Just a load of c--p.

Luc

Thats exacly what i said, except for the Paradise Dam bit.

try telling that to other peeps on the forum.

Cammo

[greenbeest]

Info here >>> http://www.themaryvalley.com.au/arti...infrastructure

[Dirtysanchez]

Thing I don't comprehend is that they say it will endanger these creatures, and well god forbid, but umm, aren't they aquatic critters in the 1st place, so a bit of water would be OK for them ?

I appreciate on the other hand that this proposed dam isn't popular with farmers etc in the area, a few of which are members of this forum, and in an earlier thread things got a bit heated about their long term prospects

[shayned]

As long as there is adequate weed and lilly cover the lung fish will continue to breed. Still haven't read any official proof that Mary River Cod are breeding in the impoundments they have been currently stocked in to, but according to people more knowledgeable than me, they should be able to. Not sure on turtle.

[Outdoor Guy]

I would like to know where the new Bruce Highway will go,and how much we will have to pay for that and the dam

[Cammy]

here is a bit of info about the turtle.

The Mary River Turtle was only described by Cann and Legler in 1994. It is a monotypic (one of a kind) genus representing a very old lineage of turtles that has all but disappeared from the evolutionary history of Australia. It is one of Australia's largest species of freshwater turtle with specimens measuring in excess of 50 cm carapace (shell) length! The tail structure, particularly in males, is a unique feature that has been lost in all other modern turtle species! This species is able to absorb oxygen via the cloaca/vent whilst underwater which is a survival strategy, particularly for hatchlings and juveniles. To do this, they require the water to be highly oxygenated and therefore impounded or dammed areas do not provide suitable habitat for their survival! Dams also have the effect of dividing or fragmenting populations thus impeding the gene flow and causing a loss of diversity.

The main threatening factors to the survival of the Mary River turtle include slow maturation (20+ years), the continued use of historic nesting sites (even when nests are heavily predated by feral pests and trampled by livestock), loss of habitat and loss of specific foods associated with the lack of aquatic and riparian ecosystems. Do they really need a dam to add to all of this?

Prior to the announcement of this dam the Mary River Turtle was federally and internationally listed as endangered by the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act (1999) and the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species (2000), respectively. This listing is currently being revised using available data and, even before this dam is constructed, their status may be changed to ‘critically endangered’.

The Federal Minister for Environment and Heritage is the only person with the power to stop this dam. He has to be made aware of the potential destruction of this species, to be persuaded to act!


and it sounds like i brang up an old thread, so sorry for that. this was just the first i heard about it cause i live under a rock lol



Cammo X

[Dirtysanchez]

Cammo, are there any endangered species under this rock you live under ?

Just a heads up, if there are, get out before you get blamed for any sort of extinction

[ssab1]

wont happen !! the powers to be are already realising it would be and expensive hole in the ground only fools build dams in a drought to solve water shortages.If and when it rains all our existing dams will fill and there wont be a water shortage .desalination maybe expensive but is the only way to have reliable drinking water in times of drought ,Ask the Arabs. cheers Alex

[bigboss]

good comments from all! As for Lung fish and turtles being endangered Wivenhoe dam is full of them. so dams won't affect them to much as long as they stay protected.The turtles i'm not so sure about, but IM sure that if they need oxygen they can go to the surface for a breather!(oxygen galore) now that this problem is solved, lets move on to the dam and the f$#kn greenys they have stopped over 10 dam proposals since the completion of wivenhoe,and we 're all here wondering why in this day and age of technology that we don't have a stable water supply . dont blame the govt blame the wankers that stop these dams from going ahead. hows it gonna be for our kids with no water?morons snap out of it.Mate I hope they build a dam on my property if its gonna save our kids or your kids give me the money and I'll move. really people take one for the team,think about others for a change,or go hug a tree.( I got my vest on )

[hondaguy]

my biggest concern about the dam is the effect it will have downstream when the natural flooding does not occur that the mary river current does regularly. Will the waters of the Great Sandy Straits and Hervey Bay Marine Parks be affected with out the extra nutrients that the flooding provides to the saltwater ecology? If so will it be for the better or the worse?