waterways/wetlands – Page 16

Record rains produce flash floods on north Queensland coast

community, waterways/wetlands

Nov 232013

Original story at ABC News

Parts of the north Queensland coast have been lashed by record rainfall with thunderstorms causing flash flooding.

Flooding in Bowen in 2010.

Bowen on Queensland's Burdekin coast officially recorded 267 millimetres overnight.

That is more than double the previous 24 hour rain record for the month of 129 millimetres set in 1950.

Jonty Hall from the weather bureau says much of that came in an hour long deluge.

"Drainage really struggles to cope with that sort of rainfall especially over that period of time," he said.

In the Whitsundays, Hamilton Island registered 233 millimetres - also well up on the previous November record of 145 millimetres in 1991.

Two cars were stranded in Bowen but the occupants of both vehicles escaped.

The incidents have prompted renewed warnings from authorities about the dangers of driving into floodwaters.

Mr Hall says a slow moving thunderstorm system caused the deluge.

"We often see this kind of activity when we have these sort of very humid northerly winds feeding onto the coast," he said.

"We see these very localised, heavy falls."

Mr Hall says other places in the region have received much less.

"It tends to be very hit and miss so a lot of places might be waking up not really understanding what is going on because they haven't really received anything," he said.

The flash flooding closed the Bruce Highway just south of Bowen along with a number of other roads.

Why it’s safer to eat shellfish in months with a letter ‘R’

community, environment, fisheries, waterways/wetlands

Nov 232013

Original story by Callum Whyte, Scottish Association for Marine Science at The Conversation

Vomiting since 500-470 BC. Photo: Stefano Bolognini

As I was growing up, any time my mother suggested buying mussels or cockles for dinner, my gran would pipe up with the old adage that “you should only be eating shellfish when there’s an ‘R’ in the month”. In truth, my gran didn’t much care for seafood any month of the year but is there any validity in that old saying?

The waters around our coasts abound with different species of microscopic organisms. Many of them are autotrophic, which means they gain sustenance by photosynthesising the sunlight that filters down through the water column. Others are heterotrophic and need to consume prey to survive and a number of others, called mixotrophs, do a bit of both. This microscopic micro-plankton community sits at the bottom of the intricate food web that extends throughout our seas and oceans and shellfish, both wild and farmed, feed on it.

Warning on Cape Scott Trail, British Columbia. Photo: Rick McCharles

Diarrhoea, memory and paralysis

While the vast majority of these organisms are perfectly harmless, there are a few that are capable of producing a range of different toxins that can get into these shellfish and cause food poisoning – it isn’t just that shellfish have “gone off”. And these toxins can’t simply be removed by cooking in high temperatures.

The most familiar of these, diarrhoeal shellfish poisoning, struck 70 unfortunate mussel eaters in south-east England in July. Symptoms include diarrhoea but also common are nausea, vomiting and cramps that can begin within half an hour of eating infected shellfish.

There are three other forms of shellfish poisoning, each caused by different toxins and found in varying areas of the world. Paralytic shellfish poisoning caused mainly by saxitoxin can, as you probably guessed, cause paralysis. What starts as a tingling in your arms and legs can lead to paralysis of the lungs and in the worst cases can kill in a couple of hours.

Pseudo nitzschia produces domoic acid, which causes amnesic poisoning. Photo: Sams

Neurotoxic shellfish poisoning causes muscle ache and pinprick sensations, and the final type, amnesic shellfish poisoning, caused by the toxin domoic acid can cause permanent short-term memory loss, brain damage and death.

Plating up

Luckily, these forms are more rare and most outbreaks of shellfish poisoning feature more diarrhoea than paralysis. The July outbreak was traced back to mussels that had come from the coast of Shetland, which resulted in the closure of the fishery and several harvesting sites for several weeks. The responsible toxins in this case – okadaic acid and its derivative dinophysistoxins (DTX’s) – are produced by an attractive species of winged dinoflagellates, a group of marine plankton and persistent offender also known as Dinophysis.

Not to be confused with flagellants, though poisoning by these also hurts. Image: Fickleandfreckled

They are ubiquitous around our coasts, but of the 100 different species of Dinophysis or so that have been identified, only eight are confirmed to produce toxins. They are generally found in relatively low concentrations and present very little risk to the public. However, as with many of the other toxin producing micro-plankton, problems can arise as under the right conditions, their numbers start to increase. Concentrations of these organisms become what are known as harmful algal blooms. And they can occasionally reach levels high enough to discolour the water, turning it red, brown or green, giving rise to the term “red tide”.

Algal blooms from space. Van Gogh from Space

Not all species have to be present in large numbers to produce toxicity in shellfish. The number of Dinophysis found around Shetland this summer wasn’t enough to discolour the water but was much higher than usual, probably because unusual wind patterns in Shetland in June and July blew them onshore where they accumulated in the inlets and bays along the coast. And so the stage was set for the unfortunate poisoning finale over a thousand miles away.

So should you only eat shellfish when there’s an “R” in the month? Well, the majority of the dinoflagellate species that are capable of producing toxins are happiest when the top layers of the waters where they grow are stratified – when water with different properties form separate layers and levels of nutrients. This tends to happen during the summer months as the sun heats up the surface layer of the sea, lowering its density and allowing it to float on top of the cooler, denser water below. Perfect for marine plankton to thrive.

So, in general, there is likely to be more risk of a harmful bloom in summer and, as a rule of thumb, in the past abiding by the old aphorism may have saved you from some unpleasant stomach upsets.

Warmer seas and worrying blooms

Unfortunately, as sea temperatures continue to rise, the conditions favouring dinoflagellate growth are becoming more common and around the globe harmful algal blooms are perceived to be on the increase.

Warmer seas also mean that these favourable conditions can begin earlier in the year and end later, sadly, extending their growing season into months that do have an “R” in them.

Much of the shellfish produced in UK waters is farmed and as the industry continues to grow, the threat of closure due to harmful algae blooms is a worrying one.

Fortunately in the UK, research to find better prediction methods is ongoing, and the Food Standards Agency regularly monitors shellfish growing areas to ensure that the shellfish arriving on our plates is safe to eat. And while some areas may occasionally be forced to close there will always be others free from toxic algae where the shellfish can be safely harvested whatever month of the year.

Callum Whyte does not work for, consult to, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has no relevant affiliations.

This article was originally published at The Conversation.
Read the original article.

Raw sewage spills near Currumbin Creek

waterways/wetlands

Nov 222013

Original story by Charmaine Kane, ABC News

More than 10,000 litres of raw sewage has spilt near a popular creek at Currumbin on Queensland's Gold Coast.

Currumbin RSL Club

Gold Coast Water says a sewerage main was damaged during construction work in the car park of the Currumbin RSL Club yesterday afternoon.

The manager of operational performance, Paul Gear, says swimming and fishing has been banned in an area of Currumbin Creek but the situation could have been much worse.

"The supervisor on site of the construction works acted very, very quickly and stopped some of the sewage going down the stormwater drains within about 15 or 20 minutes, we have been told," he said.

"What that allowed it to do was form its own lagoon in the car park of the RSL.

"That stopped a lot of the spill going into the waterway."

UQ scientists discover a hidden giant

Interest, waterways/wetlands

Nov 222013

Media release from The University of Queensland

University of Queensland researchers have discovered a vivid new species of giant clam on reefs in the Solomon Islands and at Ningaloo in Western Australia.

The newly discovered giant clam. Photo: E. A. Treml.

UQ School of Biological Sciences postgraduate student Jude Keyse said the find was surprising.

“DNA sequences strongly suggest that a distinct and unnamed species of giant clam has been hiding literally in plain sight, looking almost the same as the relatively common Tridacna maxima,” Ms Keyse said.

“Giant clams can grow up to 230kg and are some of the most recognisable animals on coral reefs, coming in a spectrum of vibrant colours including blues, greens, browns and yellow hues.”

Charles Darwin University postgraduate student Mr Shane Penny, who co-authored the paper, said identifying a new species within a well-known group such as giant clams was a unique opportunity for a student.

“To correctly describe the new species now becomes critical as the effects of getting it wrong can be profound for fisheries, ecology and conservation," he said.

Giant clams are beloved by divers and snorkelers but also prized as a source of meat and shells.

Overconsumption by humans has depleted giant clams populations in many areas and most giant clam species are on the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN ) Red List of Threatened Species.

Ms Keyse said the discovery of a new species had implications for management of giant clams.

“What we thought was one breeding group has turned out to be two, making each species even less abundant than previously thought,” she said.

These results have been described today in the open access journal PLoS One, http://dx.plos.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0080858.

Media: Jude Keyse, School of Biological Sciences, +61 7 3365 7235, j.keyse@uq.edu.au.

Miner fined $120K over waterways pollution

waterways/wetlands

Nov 222013

Original story by Renee Cluff, ABC News

A mining company has been fined $120,000 for polluting a waterway on the Atherton Tablelands in far north Queensland.

Dead Fish in the Walsh River. Photo: Save the Walsh Action Team

Kagara Proprietary Limited pleaded guilty to causing environmental harm after flooding last year at its Baal Gammon Copper mine near Herberton, south-west of Cairns.

The flooding caused 650,000 litres of contaminated water to flow into Jamie Creek and the Walsh River.

The Cairns Magistrates Court heard it contained levels of copper 400 times the allowable amount, along with dangerous levels of cadmium, lead, aluminium and zinc, which had the potential to kill up to half of the river's fish.

In sentencing, magistrate Joe Pinder said Kagara had begun operating before water storage requirements were in place but noted it had alerted authorities as soon as the pollution occurred.

The mine is no longer operating and the company is under voluntary administration.

Baal Gammon Copper was also fined $80,000 earlier this year, over the pollution.

Wireless in the wetlands

community, waterways/wetlands

Nov 212013

Original story by Lucy Barbour, ABC Rural

A group of volunteers restoring a wetland at Goulburn, on the New South Wales southern tablelands, have given the site a very modern touch - wifi.

Free internet is provided through a small solar panel and battery system, set up on a bird hide by the water.

Wifi in the wetlands. Rodney Falconer and Urs Walterlin are part of a community group helping to restore a wetland at Goulburn on the southern tablelands, in New South Wales, and they've given it free wifi.

It's part of a community-driven project by the Goulburn Group, which has given the town 10 free wifi spots in the last few years.

Volunteer Rodney Falconer says having wifi in the wetlands will attract more people to the region.

"And while they're here we can do all sorts of subversive things to them like educate them, get them to appreciate the environment, get them to think, 'hey, this is a really nice town'," he said.

"And then as they look around, they can see all the stuff around us was made by the community. It wasn't done by some wealthy guy giving us loads and loads of money, it was Goulburn people doing stuff."

The Goulburn Group was established about five years ago and its volunteer members work on sustainable economic, social and environmental developments for the region.

Urs Walterlin is the group's chairman and he says it's taken a lot of hard work to get to this stage.

"First you need partners, you need the businesses. They have to host these units," he said.

"It doesn't cost them actually anything except maybe 10 cents a year of power, but first they have to agree, they have to trust you.

"But the Goulburn Group has now done many many good projects and so these businesses who agree to be part of this Goulburn free wifi network, they say, 'ok, we give them a go because they've done good things before'."

Goulburn's free community wifi network, and the fact that it's available in a wetland, has attracted the attention of Australian scientists.

Doctor Ian McShane, a senior research fellow from the Centre for Urban Research at RMIT in Melbourne, thinks this is the first time that community-driven free wifi has been set up in Australia.

"Well, Goulburn's a national leader in terms of community wifi development, bottom up broadband, as it's sometimes referred to," he said.

"We're doing a research project on public wifi in Australia and Australia is probably about 10 years behind other parts of the world in public wifi rollouts.

"And interestingly enough, although most of the publicity in the last three of four months or so has been around the capital city rollouts of wifi in the CBDs, most of the interesting stuff is really happening in regional Australia."

Scientists anxiously await Barrier Reef coral spawn off north Qld

waterways/wetlands

Nov 212013

Original story by Stephanie Small, ABC News

Researchers waiting to catch coral spawn from 10 different species off Townsville in north Queensland, will have to move fast as it happens on just one night a year.

Coral in the Great Barrier Reef. Scientists do not know exactly which night each species will spawn. Photo: GBRMPA, Reuters

However, scientists do not know exactly which night each species will spawn.

Dr Sylvain Foret from the Australian National University is trying to capture some of it for research.

"Coral spawning is a little bit like snow except it goes from the bottom to the top of the ocean and so you see all these tiny particles of yellow, red and white floating slowly towards the surface," she said.

Dr Foret says researchers do have a rough idea when coral will spawn, but it can keep them waiting for weeks and does not last long once it has started.

She says to get a clean sample, scientists moved corals into tanks on Orpheus Island off Townsville, which are checked every 20 minutes.

"You know roughly that it's going to be within a week or two weeks interval, but you don't know exactly which night it's going to be, so slowly the stress builds up," she said.

This year's coral spawning is a crucial part of a study that is mapping the DNA of 10 types of coral for the first time.

You don't know exactly which night it's going to be,

so slowly the stress builds up. Dr Sylvain Foret

Only two species out of an estimated 1,000 in the world that have been mapped before.

Dr Foret says coral spawn is the purest sample of the coral animal.

"If you take coral on the reef you have all these additional components - the algae and the microbes," she said.

"If you should try to extract DNA from this complex community, it is extremely hard to make sense of it."

Professor Eva Abal, the chief scientific officer of the Great Barrier Reef Foundation coordinating the project, says researchers are applying the techniques used to map the human genome to coral to see how it can adapt to global warming.

"If we understand the human body, the human function, and we know what our DNA composition is, we are able to look at how our body responds to treatment for cancer for example," she said.

"For a coral, that's exactly the same.

"If we're able to understand the genetic composition of a coral, we're able to understand how it can adapt, if it does adapt."

Professor Abal says analysing the coral spawn is a baby step toward finding ways to protect the Great Barrier Reef.

"Can we develop a test that will actually determine stress before the corals die off by looking at the DNA?" she said.

"Can we come up with a map of the Great Barrier Reef that will look at connectivity, that these coral species are connected to these coral species because of their DNA composition and as such, they are probably are more resilient compared to the other.

"This will hopefully lead us to looking at areas in the reef that we need to protect."

Qld MPs trade blows over extending Stradbroke Island sand mining

community, government, waterways/wetlands

Nov 212013

Original story by Brad Ryan, ABC News

The Queensland Government and Opposition have accused each other of allowing "dirty deals" to dictate mining policy on North Stradbroke Island, off Brisbane.

Sandmining on Stradbroke Island. A bill has paved the way for the company Sibelco to extend sand mining on the island from 2019 until 2035. Photo: Giulio Saggin, ABC News

A bill passed overnight paves the way for the company Sibelco to extend sand mining on the island from 2019 until 2035.

Opposition environment spokeswoman Jackie Trad told Parliament the State Government has given preferential treatment to one of its supporters.

"The environmental conditions and the economic modelling used to justify the introduction of this bill have all been provided by the mining proponent Sibelco, who incidentally spent more than $90,000 at the last state election advocating a vote for [Premier] Campbell Newman," she said.

But Natural Resources Minister Andrew Cripps says there is nothing improper about the policy, which was an election commitment.

Mr Cripps says the island's economy would suffer under the former Labor government's plan to end sand mining in 2019.

"It is not this amendment bill that is the result of a dirty deal," he said.

"It was the 2011 Act that was a dirty deal between Labor and the Greens.

"Not only is this bill fixing up the mess left behind by Labor, but in the process it ensures that mining continues within a smaller footprint."

Steve Irwin’s Reserve in Cape York granted all-time protection

community, environment, government, waterways/wetlands, wildlife

Nov 202013

Original story by Amy Remeikis, Brisbane Times

There will never be mining in the Steve Irwin Wildlife reserve on Cape York.

Terri and Bindi Irwin thank the premier, after he announced that Steve Irwin Wildlife Reserve would be protected. Photo: Amy Remeikis

Premier Campbell Newman announced the reserve "will be protected for all time as a vital environmental reserve" as a "strategic environmental area".

Terri and Bindi Irwin were at parliament for the announcement. Bindi, who was unaware of why she was there, said it was "probably the greatest day of of my life".

"This is so exciting, it is completely incredible and we are totally thrilled," she said.

"The Steve Irwin Wildlife Reserve was truly set aside in honour of my dad and the legacy he had, to mark all the incredible work that he achieved during his life for wildlife and conservation. It is the most pristine land on planet Earth and we are just thrilled."

Different to a national park, which is owned by the people, a strategic environmental area designation is a planning instrument and will restrict land use to the ones considered appropriate.

In the case of the Steve Irwin Reserve, the only land use which will be permitted is an environmental one.

Which means Cape Alumina's $1.2 billion bauxite mine project, previously granted significant project status by the government, is out.

"This has a very direct impact on their proposals," Mr Newman said.

"They wanted to go into this area and that won't be feasible in this location.

"There will be no mine, on this location, on this designated land, on this reserve. The government has made this call and we have advised them of that."

It also spells the end of Labor's Wild Rivers legislation, which the government promised to repeal during the election campaign.

"The vital environmental areas on the Cape are going to be protected, the Steve Irwin Wildlife Reserve is a prime beneficiary or example of that, there will be economic opportunities for Aboriginal communities on the Cape, which is the other thing we promised," Mr Newman said.

"We said we'd get rid of Wild Rivers because it is a fundamentally flawed way of doing business. This new approach gives greater certainty, also opportunity, as well as protecting the vital areas of environmental interest."

The Wenlock River will also be declared a Strategic Environmental Area, but the Stewart, Archer and Lockhart River basin's will not.

Deputy premier Jeff Seeney will introduce the legislation in parliament on Wednesday afternoon.

Fish fears rise over LNG port dredging

community, fisheries, government, waterways/wetlands

Nov 192013

Original story at The Australian

AN outbreak of diseased fish in Gladstone Harbour coincided with a toxic algal bloom that may have been fed by a leaking rock wall used to contain dredge spoils from the $33 billion Curtis Island LNG projects.

Dead fish in Gladstone Harbour. Photo: Gladstone Conservation Council

Gladstone Ports Corporation has known about the algal bloom and increased sediment from its infrastructure works for more than two years but only in recent weeks has it made the reports publicly available.

It said it still believed that heavy flooding was the primary cause of the outbreak of fish disease in 2011, as established by a scientific review.

However, the just-published 2011 report says it is "possible that harmful algal blooms may have been a possible contributing factor in the fish disease syndrome".

Veterinarian Matt Landos, who has investigated fish health in Gladstone, said the newly published material provided a convincing alternative point of view.

"Scientists can only work with the data which is provided to them," Dr Landos said.

"The full data now seriously contradicts the conclusions of the state and commonwealth that floods were to blame.

"Given the serious nature of the 'new' information that is now in the public realm, another independent review of the science around causes of Gladstone ecosystem crisis seems warranted, in addition to an inquiry into the decision-making around information control during the project."

The head of the scientific panel for the state's review, Ian Poiner, confirmed that the algae reports were not available at the time of its review into fish health and said he had not studied them in detail to determine whether they contradicted the official finding that the marine-health issues were related to flooding.

Dr Poiner is now chairman of Queensland government's Gladstone Healthy Harbour Panel.

A spokeswoman for GPC, whose dredging project is essential for the development of the Curtis Island liquefied natural gas plant, said the reports were made available to the federal government's independent review panel, which was requested by UNESCO.

The Weekend Australian revealed plans by GPC to dump 12 million cubit metres of dredge spoils into the Great Barrier Reef World Heritage Area have been blocked by Canberra. The spoils from the dredging of a second sea lane will now be used to reclaim land in Gladstone Harbour.

GPC has previously conceded environmental problems caused by a "leaking" bund wall designed to contain dredge spoils.

Gladstone Harbour was closed to fishing in September 2011, following reports from commercial fishermen in August that many fish were showing signs of disease. The ban was lifted but commercial fishermen continued to report high numbers of turtle, dugong and dolphin deaths.

GPC said it commissioned the special water-quality report in October 2011 after higher turbidity readings were recorded during this period, "due to extreme tidal movements, high wind conditions and the porosity of the bund wall".

The report finds "highly turbid waters were most likely created in September/October 2011 due to the addition of fine sediments derived from the overly porous bund wall and dredge-related operations".

It said organic matter comprised a large proportion of the total suspended sediments measured in October 2011, suggesting an algal bloom, particularly in the Western Basin area of the harbour. "Several potential harmful algal species were identified, which have previously been associated with fish kills."

An analysis of the algal bloom by Larelle Fabbro, from Central Queensland University, found three algal types, including Chaetoceros, had previously been associated with fish kills.

"There is scientific evidence that concentrations of Chaetoceros of more than five cells per millilitre can kill fish," Associate Professor Fabbro writes in her report. She says "concentrations of Chaetoceros were as high as 300 cells per millilitre in a sample taken on 12 October, 2011".

"The spines of this diatom spear into the gills and can result in significant damage," the report says.

"The sequence of injury is by initial penetration of the silica spines into the fish gills, capillary bleeding or the production of excessive quantities of mucus leading to death by suffocation."

Associate Professor Fabbro told The Australian it was a condition of her research that she not make any public comment.

But the 2011 report says "the finding of potentially toxic algal species was also of note in light of the fish disease syndrome which was being concurrently investigated in Port Curtis".

"A number of fish, particularly barramundi, had previously been presented in Port Curtis with lesions, rashes and excess mucous production with the syndrome being the focus of a separate independent investigation," it says. "Therefore it is possible that harmful algal blooms may have been a possible contributing factor in the fish disease syndrome."

GPC has confirmed that the water quality reports for September and October 2011 were not made publicly available until September this year.

But it said all relevant reports had been made to all government departments and relevant agencies.

It said the key finding was that research indicates an algal bloom was present in August 2011 prior to the start of dredging with the cutter-section dredge.

"Several potential harmful algal species were identified, which had been previously associated with fish kills," it said. "The algal species identified were not uncommon for the Port Curtis area, for that time of year."

It said an independent panel had concluded that, based on all data available, the most likely cause of fish health issues were flood-related.

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