Original story by David Lockwood, Sydney Morning Herald
The contentious issue of marine parks and the ambitious efforts by some lobby groups to have the harbour sanctioned as one got me thinking.
Problems remain: Pollution levels in the Parramatta River remain a problem. Photo: Mike Bowers
What can we do to ensure our world-famous waterway remains an exemplary estuary brimming with marine life for all to enjoy?
Some whimsical, fanciful marine park utopia is off the mark. Commercial fishing has shutdown for a good reason and there are no fish species in the harbour under threat from angling.
By far the biggest problem is water quality. This isn’t rocket science. You need to ensure a clean source to safeguard the marine environment. If environmentalists spent one tenth of their energies focusing on water quality they might get somewhere.
Take Parramatta River, the very lifeblood of Port Jackson, whose sediments are so polluted that consumption of fish caught west of the Harbour Bridge is dangerous. In Homebush Bay, you are banned from even wetting a line.
Researchers have reportedly discovered that concentrations of copper, zinc and lead from stormwater and past industrial work in Port Jackson were so toxic they have rendered the oysters sterile. This is serious.
Oysters are the canaries in the mine or marine world, and less oysters mean less fish. But they are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to pollution woes and researchers fear other marine critters are under great stress.
University of NSW Professor Emma Johnston said we need to find ways to lessen the problem of heavy-metal pollution because it is causing ongoing ecological damage. The most heavily contaminated estuaries were Port Jackson, Port Kembla, Botany Bay and the Hunter River.
In fact, some parts of Sydney Harbour have some of the most contaminated sediments in the world. Yet as Professor Johnston lamented, rarely is anything done about it.
Since commercial fishing was banned from the harbour in 2006, we’ve seen nothing concrete to repair poisonous Parramatta River. The problems of heavy metals and dioxins won’t go away on their own.
If everyone with an interest in the waterway banded together and directed their energies and expenditure at a pollution fix, there would surely be something to show for it.
Meantime, the harbour is hardly the pristine environment that green groups would like you to believe. In an oyster shell, we should forget marine parks and clean up our backyard first.
Weather warnings are in place for fishers and boaters this Easter, with large groundswells predicted to continue throughout the long weekend. But around the tidal estuary mouths, you’ll find plenty of healthy fish for the frying.
Kingfish, samson fish and amberjack are on the chew, school jewfish are about the Hawkesbury, while bream, luderick and whiting are milling in big numbers including along the beaches.
Easter is snapper time, with yellowfin tuna making a seasonal appearance down south, and trout get frisky in the Alps in anticipation of their annual spawning run.
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