Curtis Island gone....

[Ben D]

as I said 6 months ago, maybe those who are choosing to work for the LNG industry might now begin to realise the true costs of their jobs and the economic prosperity that comes from them. Massive problems with kills of many species of fish in Gladstone Harbour associated with LNG developments.

http://www.gladstoneobserver.com.au/...ng-ban-health/

What we are seeing here is collapse of an ecosystem into a much less productive alternative state. All in the name of economic prosperity. The Indian chiefs were right when they said how people must eventually realise they cannot eat money.

Has anyone thought of how the coal seam gas process contaminates ground water -seen those pics of the farmers lighting up their bore water ? Has anyone thought of how most base river flows originate from groundwater? And how we all fish for creatures that currently live in the water that originates from said rivers ? Could well be a huge environmental problem (Poisoned Rivers) coming our way. But the ecosystem services are nearly always undervalued during these big developments, so the "benefits" always seem to outweigh the costs. Problem is, the environmental assessments, even if they identify the full extent of the ecosystem losses (and they never do, they just do the bare minimum to get stuff through), do not subtract loss of those ecosystem services from the loss inflicted from the previous developments. The impacts of each development are basically considered in isolation. Then, once the ecosystem is sufficiently degraded, the usual modus operandi is to then claim further development is OK because the system is already degraded. I guess people like Axl and others who choose to work for these industries never fully realise the true costs of their jobs or the economic prosperity that comes from them. As fishers, they might if they hang around an area for long enough, but most move on with their employers to the next "big thing". I think the Indian chiefs were the first ones to coin the phrase about how people will eventually realise they cannot eat money.

[TheGurn]

How tragic (and probably inevitable) is that?

First Sydney harbour.
Then Moreton bay after the floods.
Now Gladstone harbour.

So Mackay, Townsville, Cairns & Darwin... watch this space and wait your turn... .

Sometimes I wonder what might be different if humans lived to be 600 years old, and had to live with the consequences of their decisions much longer.

[TimiBoy]

Yep, while I lament the destruction of such an area, I find it difficult to reconcile the idea that it would be better that we not develop at all. Some folks would have us living in shanties, and I am not interested. The Economy, and the comforts it provides, are why we work.

I don't have the answer, but stopping progress (or my idea of it, and the idea of around 86% of the Voting Public, ie. not Green Voters would agree with) is not the answer.

Tim

[TheGurn]

Agreed Timi, but perhaps with a bit more longevity would come a bit more caution and foresight.
Perhaps not.
Regardless, after things like this happen, it's hard to accept that we're doing the best we can with what we currently know.

Cheers

Gurn

[Argle]

And now this pops its head up

http://www.couriermail.com.au/news/q...-1226139089099

[tunaticer]

you would think simple water sampling would very quickly expose the damaging pollutant that is turning the fish rotting so quickly. According to a live trout exporter, his catches barely survive the journey from the reefs to port. Reckons that as soon as he hits the harbour waters the fish change colour and ten minutes later they are reaching the point of no return. Something that toxic would be verty easily to analyse I would suspect.
I also suspect that this is not from the floods, but from the dredging bringing up decaying chemicals that have slowly buried over decades and incubated into a really nasty substance.
To link this with the CSG or LNG projects being the cause of the problem are wild brands to weild. Could be any other business needing more draft in the channel that could expose the crap like it is now.

You have to face it that this harbour has been handling very toxic gear for decades relentlessly, of course there will be buried toxins temporarily sequestered until dredging begins for whatever project.

[Bros]

One of the things that is forgotten is Gladstone harbour has been heavily dredged before on several occasions and this hasn't happened and they have barely started on the dredging so the dredging maybe may be not. There are plenty of cases of fish kills in SE Queensland and the chances of them finding the cause seems to be nil. I don't think the answer is simple. Oysters hold the key as they are water filters if they can't find toxins in them well who knows.

[Axl]

you would think simple water sampling would very quickly expose the damaging pollutant that is turning the fish rotting so quickly. According to a live trout exporter, his catches barely survive the journey from the reefs to port. Reckons that as soon as he hits the harbour waters the fish change colour and ten minutes later they are reaching the point of no return. Something that toxic would be verty easily to analyse I would suspect.
I also suspect that this is not from the floods, but from the dredging bringing up decaying chemicals that have slowly buried over decades and incubated into a really nasty substance.
To link this with the CSG or LNG projects being the cause of the problem are wild brands to weild. Could be any other business needing more draft in the channel that could expose the crap like it is now.

You have to face it that this harbour has been handling very toxic gear for decades relentlessly, of course there will be buried toxins temporarily sequestered until dredging begins for whatever project.

Well said tunaticer Gladstone harbour is and has been for many years one of the most industrious in the nation. I dont think that you can blame this particular issue on the LNG projects.

[Ben D]

One of the things that is forgotten is Gladstone harbour has been heavily dredged before on several occasions and this hasn't happened and they have barely started on the dredging so the dredging maybe may be not. There are plenty of cases of fish kills in SE Queensland and the chances of them finding the cause seems to be nil. I don't think the answer is simple. Oysters hold the key as they are water filters if they can't find toxins in them well who knows.

Oysters are good water quality indicators, but if the ones at the mouth of the Boyne are something to go by, the main populations were all dead even before the January floods. They were too sensitive to survive until now. Dredging works for the LNG facility has caused massive increase in turbidity.

link to fisheries site - advice to dispose of all fish with lesions seems a bit heavy handed to me. Clean up the water and the fish will recover.
http://www.dpi.qld.gov.au/28_20898.htm
http://www.dpi.qld.gov.au/30_20910.htm

[Bros]

Oysters are good water quality indicators, but if the ones at the mouth of the Boyne are something to go by, the main populations were all dead even before the January floods. They were too sensitive to survive until now. Dredging works for the LNG facility has caused massive increase in turbidity.

Its funny you said that but on Saturday I was talking to someone who works for GPC not top level just workers and he said there are bunches of oysters at the sampling points that are used for testing. Today I was down a the marina and I was surprised how clean the water was both sides of the bundwall. I've seen much much worse on big tides with strong SE winds blowing stirring up the water on the mudflats.

[Lucky_Phill]

Ya gotta hand it to the spin doctors.

The water quality is OK, fish are OK and the fishery will re-open in 2 days. We caught 160 fish and all was good.

NOW ( same day ) the actual pro fisher that the department contracted to catch the fish stated in public that the numbers didn;t stack up and there were many signs of diease etc. Not long after that, a new media release states the govt only caught 4 fish and none had issues.

What the $%### is going on. ????????????????????????

LP

[TimiBoy]

Separation of Fisheries Management from the Political process is required. It's all good up there because Anna has to have an Election soon, that's all. Watch for a rash of overdue positive announcements about Reports on Fisheries and other things in the next few months. I cannot for the life of me imagine why they would all be late. Our beloved Government wouldn't be in the practice of politicising everything now, would they?

Tim

[TheRealAndy]

I like how the gov can give this shit a tick, but still create green zones. Apparently its still recreational fishing that is destrying the fisheries.

I did notice an article in the CM the other day stating that now cane farm run off is killing the great barrier reef. Wonder if anyone has look at the effects of farming run off in gladstone?

[Lovey80]

There is already an LNG project approved and ready to build on the Fishermans Landing site but the big boys in this recent announcement have been doing all they can to stop it from progressing so they could get there own projects up. Funny how Royal Dutch Shell launched a takeover of Arrow Energy so that the joint project with LNG ltd would fall over with its gas supplier effectively bought out to stop it supplying gas to them. LNG has been sitting idle looking for a gas supply so it can attract the funding to carry on with it.

I owned a few LNG.AX shares early on. That was an impressive little earner. I sold before Arrow actually bought a large chunk of them. Good when you can get a 300% return and get out before things turn sour lol

[Bros]

Don't dismiss the hand up hand out.