wildlife – Page 6 – ANGFA Queensland

Fragmented forests warn of ecological collapse

Sep 272013

Original story by Bill Laurance, James Cook University at The Conversation

Humans have already felled or razed about half of the world’s forests, and much that remains has been fragmented into small pieces. Research my colleagues and I published in Science today shows that when forests become fragmented, native mammals rapidly disappear, adding to the evidence that deforestation has a devastating effect on biodiversity.

The creation of a reservoir in Thailand isolated forest fragments; new research shows the devastating effect on local mammals. Photo: Antony Lynam

Biggest threat

The fragmentation and loss of native habitats is regarded by many ecologists as the number one threat to Earth’s biodiversity—worse than climate change, pollution and overharvesting, for instance. It’s the reason I’ve spent most of my career studying habitat fragmentation and its impacts on nature, in places like north Queensland, the Amazon and the Congo Basin.

In Science, my colleagues and I describe our most recent attempt to understand the consequences of habitat fragmentation—for native mammals in Thailand. It’s difficult not to be jolted by our findings.

What makes our Thai study special is that, in effect, we watched nature collapse right before our eyes. The habitat fragments we studied were actually islands, created 25 years ago when a large hydroelectric reservoir was constructed.

Many animals drowned when the reservoir was flooded, despite the efforts of rescuers.

The larger animals—deer, tigers, elephants and the like—quickly vanished from the islands but, at least initially, a diverse assemblage of smaller mammals remained. This included native squirrels and other rodents, treeshrews and quirky animals called moonrats.

One of the native mammals – a moonrat – that disappeared following the fragmentation of the forests. Photo: Luke Gibson

Ecological collapse

But, as my colleague Tony Lynam initially discovered, the islands were a place of ecological ruin. Just a few years after the reservoir was created, native mammals had nearly vanished from any island under 10 hectares in area.

By two decades later, things were even worse. Another colleague, Luke Gibson, found the islands were virtually ecological deserts. Hardly any native mammals remained at all — even on the largest islands, which were over 50 hectares in area.

However, one species was found on all of the islands, and often in great abundance. It was an invader — the Malayan field rat.

Malayan field rats were almost the only mammals left after 20 years. Photo: Luke Gibson

The Malayan field rat is a lot like the common black rat — a highly adaptable species that lives near human settlements, agriculture and other severely disturbed environments. Black rats have been introduced inadvertently to islands around the world, where they’ve killed off scores of native bird species and other vulnerable wildlife.

The exotic Malayan field rat had invaded the islands, and given its great fecundity and generalised diet — it’s practically a walking rubbish bin — it evidently helped to wipe out the remaining native mammals.

One-two punch

Our study has two key implications. For starters, it shows just how severely habitat fragmentation can affect biodiversity when the surrounding habitats are severely inhospitable. This includes not just fragments encircled by water but also those embedded in intensive agriculture, such as large monocultures of soy, sugarcane, rice and oil palm, which are hostile to most wildlife and sustain few native species.

In addition, our study reveals that environmental synergisms — the one-two punch of interacting ecological threats — can be devastating. The mammals we studied suffered not only from the deleterious effects of population isolation, but also from the invading rat competitor.

This is a big concern because foreign species are invading fragmented and human-disturbed ecosystems across the planet. Some of those invaders — such as rats, cats, foxes, fire ants, brown tree snakes and fire-promoting weeds, to name just a few — can completely disrupt ecosystems and devastate their biodiversity.

Worldwide, surviving forests will continue to shrink and be fragmented this century as we struggle to sustain a projected 11 billion people. Unless we slow the destruction, we’ll see further collapses of ecosystems.

Another native mammal that disappeared – the grey-bellied squirrel. Photo: Luke Gibson

Bill Laurance receives funding from the Australian Research Council and other scientific and philanthropic organisations. In addition to his appointment as Distinguished Research Professor and Australian Laureate at James Cook University, he also holds the Prince Bernhard Chair in International Nature Conservation at Utrecht University, Netherlands. This chair is co-funded by Utrecht University and WWF-Netherlands.

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

Proposal to turn Swan Lake into a car park

community, government, waterways/wetlands, wildlife

Sep 242013

Original story by Brian Williams, the Courier Mail

BRISBANE City Council has raised doubts about the Port of Brisbane’s controversial proposal to fill in a lake teeming with wildlife to build a car park.

The council has complained about how the port proposes to address the loss of biodiversity if the man-made wetland is bulldozed.

The Port of Brisbane’s move to fill in a lake teeming with birds so it can be used as a car park for imported vehicles has been questioned by the city council. Photo: Tim Marsden, News Limited

Dubbed Swan Lake by birdwatchers, the wetland was built 14 years ago as open space and to handle run-off as the port expanded along the foreshore.

Despite intense development in the region, it has become heavily populated with birds and is one of the most important wetlands for black swans.

Cramped for space, the port now wants to fill in Swan Lake to make way for 20,000 to 30,000 imported cars which are parked at the port.

Queensland Conservation chairman Simon Baltais said if the Government approved the development it would set a precedent in which all environmental offsets offered by industry as a trade-off to land clearing would become worthless.

“They promise you something one day, then take it away the next,” Mr Baltais said.

This would produce an impossible situation where all sorts of projects including major mines and ports for which environmental offsets were proposed would become worthless.

“Communities put a lot of trust in industry when they offer environmental offsets,” he said.

“Communities oppose developments but are told if they let a development go ahead, the environmental offsets will make up for it. How could you trust them after this?”

A spokesman for Deputy Premier Jeff Seeney said the Government could approve the project it if it was satisfied the council had no substantial objection.

“The council has expressed concern regarding the retention pond and adjacent wetlands,” he said. “The department is awaiting formal advice from the port regarding the outcome of discussions to resolve these concerns.”

Council planning and development assessment chairman Amanda Cooper said the Government could approve the development regardless of the council’s opinion.

“Council has raised concerns regarding the way in which impacts relating to the loss of biodiversity values of the retention pond and adjacent wetlands have been addressed,” Cr Cooper said.

“It is council’s view that the port undertake further consultation with respect to measures to offset the impacts of filling the pond and associated wetlands.”

A port spokesman said a deal had been signed with Landcare to offset the loss of the lake by delivering four projects over five years with a value of more than $250,000.

The projects included work such as weed clean-up, revegetation and landscaping at the Minnippi Parklands, the Lindum Sandy Camp Rd freshwater wetland, Wynnum North roadside areas and Bayside Parklands.

Seven conservation and animal rights groups, including the RSPCA have formed an alliance to fight the port’s proposal.

More than 150 species use the lake which is carrying more than 1000 birds.

Pinjarra the 750kg saltwater crocodile retires to Melbourne Aquarium

aquarium, wildlife

Sep 222013

Original story at ABC News

One of the largest crocodiles in captivity has gone on display at the Melbourne Aquarium.

Youngster goes face-to-face with giant crocodile. Seven-year-old Sophie Fletcher watches Pinjarra in his new enclosure at the Melbourne Aquarium. Photo: Julian Smith, AAP

Pinjarra is a 50-year-old saltwater crocodile weighing 750 kilograms from Queensland.

Exhibit manager, Alison Edmunds, says he was rescued from flooding and sent to a crocodile farm in Rockhampton 30 years ago.

But now he has outgrown that home.

“Well he’s got his favourite girls and he’s a very big animal and unfortunately as his size is getting bigger, he’s really outgrowing his ladies,” she said.

“He’s retired now and living here happily.”

A group of aquarium staff have been given specialist training on how to take care of the crocodile

“We’ve learnt an amazing amount of things about crocodiles and we’ve got this magnificent state-of-the art aquarium here for him to live in,” Ms Edmunds said.

“We’re going to give him the best life and the best retirement that he could ever hope for.”

Eastern brown snake’s day at the beach

waterways/wetlands, wildlife

Sep 222013

Original story by Matt Deans, The Coffs Coast Advocate

Slither on the Sand. An eastern brown at Emerald Beach, Coffs Harbour Coast. Photo: Paul Widdowson

BASKING in the spring sunshine on the sand, this eastern brown snake surprised beachgoers and a flock of seagulls at Emerald Beach.

More likely to be found on sand tracks in the dunes, the snake was spotted at the water’s edge before it took to the surf on Sunday afternoon.

Paul Widdowson, who captured this great image, said at first he thought the brown snake was sick or injured.

“The hungry seagulls were moving in closer and closer, but then it seemed to catch its breath, saw off the seagulls and with a flick and a hiss, calmly slid back into the breaking waves,” Paul said.

“Head up, the snake swam along the beach then out on the rip in the corner until out of sight in quite big surf.

“It raised a few eyebrows on the beach especially among the surfers.

“We love nature, but don’t want to share the line-up with this guy.”

Steve McEwan of Reptile World identified the snake as a four-to-five foot male eastern brown.

“They do take to the water regularly, even the sea and this snake probably came off a headland,” Steve said.

“The thing about the browns is that they aren’t that common in Coffs Harbour.

“They usually prefer drier climates where you find their prey field mice, whereas black snakes are more common in our parts because they feed on frogs.”

He said the Coffs Coast is home to 20 species of snakes and just six, including this guy, are dangerous to humans.

Buley Rockholes and Florence Falls, Litchfield National Park

Australian native freshwater species, waterways/wetlands, wildlife

Aug 302013

Another excellent Northern Territory freshwater video on YouTube by Greg Wallis

Swimming holes such as Buley Rockholes and Florence Falls are popular tourist attractions in Litchfield National Park; an easy day trip from Darwin. Despite the numbers of tourists that visit the area, the waterholes still readily attract the local residents such as goannas and tree snakes and support a variety of fish. This video gives a different perspective on a visit to the area; it was shot entirely underwater over an afternoon visit and showcases some of the more common fish and the variety of underwater environments present. Florence creek is part of the Finniss River catchment.

Fishing is strictly prohibited in areas such as these because they are important refuge areas for fish during the dry season months.

Enjoy your swimming here but spare a thought for the animals that call this place home and refrain from using sunblock and insect sprays. Better to don a long-sleeved shirt and hat for a swim than leave a slick of oily suncream on the water; these areas get hundreds of visitors a day during the dry season months.

Some of the fish seen in this video are Banded Rainbowfish, Purple-spotted Gudgeons, Sooty Grunters, Spangled Grunters, Black Catfish and a Tarpon. The snake is a Macleay’s Water Snake, which while rear-fanged and technically venomous, is generally considered as harmless and inoffensive if left alone.

Birdsville’s elusive freshwater crocodile trapped by volunteer

Australian native freshwater species, wildlife

Aug 252013

Original story at ABC News

The game is up for an elusive freshwater crocodile that has been giving authorities the slip in Birdsville in south-west Queensland.

he freshwater crocodile is being removed from the Diamantina River near Birdsville and taken to Dreamworld. Photo: Sandra McShane via ABC News

Concerns had been raised about a threat posed by the crocodile to visitors to the Birdsville races next month.

Council officers and park rangers had been trying to trap the crocodile for nearly a fortnight and council planned to shoot it if it was not caught by the end of the month.

Queensland Parks and Wildlife ranger Don Rowlands says everyone was about to give up yesterday, when volunteer crocodile catcher James Brough jumped into the water and grabbed it by the snout.

“There was mud and water and splashing and all sorts of things going on,” he said.

“It was quite exciting, you know, he is only a metre long poor, little fellow.

“It’s a pretty happy day for all of us here. It [would have been] a sad thing to see this poor creature be shot for no good reason.

“It’s a good outcome and the crocodile is now going to be relocated to a new home.”

Mr Rowlands says Mr Brough is a brave man.

“[The crocodile] went under the water and we thought ‘oh bugger, he might of slipped back through’, so we jumped into the water and there he was and we grabbed him by the snout,” he said of the capture.

“He done the crocodile roll, he put up a bit of struggle, but James is a professional catcher so it went pretty well otherwise.”

The reptile will be moved to a temporary home at a Gold Coast theme park.

Krill face risks in warmer Antarctic

fisheries, waterways/wetlands, wildlife

Aug 232013

Original story by Alex Kirby at ABC Environment

Krill, the foundation of the Antarctic marine food web, could be in trouble as the region’s seas continue to warm – but scientists think the risks are manageable.

THEY MAY NOT LOOK VERY appetising, but they are what sustains much of the marine life in the southern ocean. Antarctic krill, usually less than six centimetres long, are the primary food source for many species of whale, seal, penguin and fish.

Krill, a staple in the diet of most Antarctic animals, may struggle as the climate warms. Photo: Rebecca Brewin, ABC Goldfields

But there’s a problem: the waters round Antarctica are warming, and it looks as if they will probably continue to do so. If they do, a team of UK researchers says, the area where the krill grow could shrink by a fifth.

It is the fact that krill are known to be sensitive to sea temperature, especially in the areas where they grow as adults, that prompted the scientists to try to understand how they might respond to the effects of further climate change.

Using statistical models, a team from the British Antarctic Survey and Plymouth Marine Laboratory assessed the probable impact of projected temperature increases on the Weddell Sea, Scotia Sea and Southern Drake Passage, the area of sea between Cape Horn and Antarctica, which is known for its abundance of krill.

The sea surface in this area has warmed by as much as 1°C over fifty years, and projections suggest the warming could increase by another 1°C by the end of this century.

Commercial catch

The scientists’ models are based on equations which link krill growth, sea surface temperature, and food availability. An analysis of the results, published this week in the online journal PLoS One, suggests that continued warming could reduce the area where the krill grow by up to 20 per cent.

In early life krill need deep water with low acidity and a narrow range of temperatures for their eggs to hatch and develop successfully. The larvae then feed on algae on the underside of sea ice.

The adults require suitable temperatures and enough of the right type of food (larger phytoplankton) in order to grow and reproduce. Many of these critical features (temperature, acidity, sea ice and food availability) could be affected by climate change.

The projected effects of warming are not evenly spread. The island of South Georgia is in the area likely to be worst affected. Here the reduction in krill habitat could be much larger — as much as 55 per cent.

The island is home to a range of animals such as fur seals and macaroni penguins that depend upon krill, and others, such as black-browed albatrosses, which eat substantial amounts of krill as well as fish and squid.

The researchers say animals which don’t travel far to forage, like fur seals, would be most affected by the projected changes.

Krill is also caught commercially, though the researchers say there is nothing to suggest that current catch levels are unsustainable. In fact, at less than one per cent of estimated biomass, catches are much lower than with most other commercial fisheries.

But the Antarctic krill fishery took 68 per cent of its total catch made between 1980 and 2011 from the area of projected habitat damage. The scientists suggest improving management systems so they ensure that the fisheries take into account both the growing demand for catches and the effects of climate change.

The lead author, Dr. Simeon Hill, a marine biologist at BAS, said: “Each year, the growth of Antarctic krill in the southern ocean produces new material that weighs twice as much as all the sugar produced in the world.

“Krill grow fastest in cold water, and any warming can slow down or stop growth, reducing the food available for wildlife. Our research suggests that expected warming this century could severely reduce the area in which krill can successfully grow.”

Although there is evidence that warming seas pose a threat to Antarctic krill habitats, the researchers believe the risk can be reduced if effective fisheries management systems are in place.

Climate News Network

Salmon Boom

environment, fisheries, waterways/wetlands, wildlife

Aug 192013

Transcript from ABC Landline
Broadcast: 17/08/2013 5:41:19 PM
Reporter: Fiona Breen

PIP COURTNEY, PRESENTER: Tasmania’s three biggest salmon growers are undergoing a massive expansion on the state’s west coast at Macquarie Harbour which will double production.

In a state with the nation’s worst unemployment levels and a struggling economy, fish farming is seen as one of the few economic lights on the horizon.

But as Fiona Breen reports, the salmon industry’s expansion is causing concern in some quarters.

Salmon Boom

FIONA BREEN, REPORTER: It’s edged by giant World Heritage-listed forests and fed by rivers renowned for their almost pre-historic beauty. But Macquarie Harbour is also famous for its cruel history. In the harbour’s remote reaches is Sarah Island, Tasmania’s first penal settlement. It held the worst of criminals sent out from the Northern Hemisphere.

Today, Macquarie Harbour is home to some different Northern Hemisphere convicts. Millions of Atlantic salmon and trout in huge underwater cages.

DAVID WHYTE, HUON AQUACULTURE: So what we’re doing here is we’re putting in new anchors to position this grid. So the grid was dropped in earlier this morning, so we’re about to see an anchor go over the side to tension off the grid, and that’ll provide us with a really stable underwater parking garage that we can then bring our pens in when the fish come in and move them off there safely.

FIONA BREEN: Tasmania’s three big fish farmers are almost doubling their operations on Macquarie Harbour. Tassal, Huon Aquaculture and Petuna’s joint planning application to extend the farms from 560 to 920 hectares has been approved. And they’re moving fast to get the pens in.

How deep is it here?

DAVID WHYTE: Here, I think we’re probably sitting around about 30-plus metres. So it’s one of the deeper parts of the harbour. So there’s a fair amount of chain involved just to help stabilise the anchor and give a little bit of tension closer to the seabed and then that’ll become rope as it gets closer to surface.

FIONA BREEN: Huon Aquaculture has imported 50 1.5 tonne fluke anchors from Norway. They burrow into the sediment on the harbour floor, each providing 30 tonnes of tension to the new underwater mooring grid.

The infrastructure moving to and from the dock each day is constant. There’s anchors, chain, buoys, barges and state-of-the-art feeding equipment. It’s a $90 million investment for a huge amount of fish. Each company is more than doubling its fish population in the harbour.

DAVID WHYTE: We’ve got about 650,000 salmon right now and towards 150,000, 200,000 trout. After the expansion’s completed, we’ll probably have around about 1.4 million salmon and still around 150,000 to 200,000 trout.

MARK RYAN, CEO TASSAL: At any point in time there’s probably, you know, two year classes of fish overlapping one another, so depending on the harvesting of those fish, you know, at the very most we would have 4.8 million fish in the water at any point in time.

FIONA BREEN: Petuna, the oldest operator on the harbour, is aiming to eventually have 5.5 million fish. It’s a long way from the single pen of trout the fishing dynasty the Rockcliffs put in the harbour 20 years ago. The company, now half-owned by New Zealand fishing giant Sealord, will have the biggest area of farming water in the harbour.

MARK PORTER, CEO, PETUNA: We’re currently sitting on our feed barge, Provinda. It’s feeding the Table Head central lease here, and this is one of the new leases in Macquarie Harbour, and we’re leaning on one of the selectors here that sends the feed out to the cages. So you can see the pipes going out to the individual cages here.

FIONA BREEN: Petuna’s new grid and pen system went in the water a couple of months ago. This expansion is allowing it to seriously increase its salmon numbers.

Today it’s harvest day. A barge has carried a semi-trailer 30 minutes across the sometimes-rough waters of the harbour to the fish pens.

MARK PORTER: Today we’re doing a trout harvest so we’ll take probably about 2,500 fish. They’ll be taken from the pen itself. They’re sucked up into the stunners. From there, they go straight into the tanker you can see behind us and there’s a slurry ice there that’s constantly circulating and then they’ll be in the factory in probably about four hours time.

FIONA BREEN: It’s a system that cuts out handling and costs. At peak time, there can be two to three semi-trailers on the harbour at any given time.

The Macquarie Harbour expansion is key to the future growth of the industry. Fish farmers are excited about its potential. The lack of the native amoebic gill disease in the harbour is a real plus for farmers.

MARK RYAN: You really just set the fish and forget in a lot of ways. You’re just feeding the fish around there. Whereas down in the south-east we have to bathe the fish for an amoeba which costs a lot of time and money and the time and money’s what makes it a more expensive place to grow fish in the south-east versus Macquarie Harbour.

FIONA BREEN: In Tasmania’s south, growers spend millions bathing affected fish with fresh water. At times they’re forced to treat the fish with antibiotics, which is put in their food.

In the past, the companies have been criticised for using tonnes of antibiotics each year. Tassal in particular has been targeted by conservationists concerned about wild fish and birds eating the medicated meal.

LINDA SAMS, TASSAL: We’re using much, much less antibiotics than we have in the past and we report that out in our sustainability report, but we’re talking easily under 100 kilos for a year and this year it’ll be even less. And we’re talking when we produce 24,000 metric tonnes of salmon, it puts it in perspective. So we really do follow the plan that we only use it if we have sick fish.

FIONA BREEN: In the 2011-’12 financial year Huon Aquaculture used 35 kilos of antibiotics across its farms and hatcheries. Petuna, which only farms in Macquarie Harbour, hasn’t used any antibiotics.

Not only is Macquarie Harbour the most cost-effective area to grow fish, it also has huge potential for future growth. The companies are still in the preliminary stages of building their extended farms, but already they’ve flagged interest in future extensions on the harbour.

Convicts called this narrow channel Hell’s Gates. It’s hard to believe the 80-metre opening is the only entrance to the vast waters of Macquarie Harbour, a waterway that’s six times the size of Sydney Harbour.

It’s the narrow oceanic opening, a unique mix of fresh water from two major west coast rivers and low oxygen levels that has conservationists worried about the harbour’s water quality and the species living within it, including the rare maugean skate.

REBECCA HUBBARD, ENVIRONMENT TASMANIA: It’s quite an enormous piece of water and extremely beautiful, but very unknown and we may have more rare species or endangered species here that we just don’t know about. So the increase in fish farming activity is a really big concern.

FIONA BREEN: The body which approved the expansion acknowledged a lack of data and information on issues like nutrient cycling, sediment health and the endangered maugean skate.

REBECCA HUBBARD: One statement that the review panel delivered was we cannot assess the breadth and depth of the impact of this expansion on Macquarie Harbour’s marine life, but then they still approved the expansion. And in my mind that is in complete contradiction to what that entire process was for. I mean, why do you have a process if you ignore the objectives of the process, which is to assess the impacts and then manage those impacts.

FIONA BREEN: All three companies argue their environmental impact statement was the most extensive marine farming application conducted anywhere in the world, but conservationists point to problems in the past. Farmers have been asked to move fish pens because of sediment buildup under cages.

MARK PORTER: We’ve moved pens from the corners of leases into the centre, and again, that’s to move away from certain areas of natural deposition. So in the harbour itself there are large areas where the currents and tides go, and as soon as you get a shallow area going into deeper water, the water slows down very considerably, and then you get sedimentation, so any natural sediments will then start depositing at that point.

FIONA BREEN: But you have been asked to move pens?

MARK PORTER: Yes, yes, we have, yes. And we’ve done that as well.

REBECCA HUBBARD: We would definitely like to get more information and I think the fact that the companies have been asked to move some of their farms and their pens into the new lease areas is a really big red flag for us.

FIONA BREEN: The companies are moving away from their original sites in the sheltered south-west regions of the harbour to more open water. In the sheltered bays, stocking densities are likely to be lower.

MARK RYAN: With everything, we’ve complied with what we’ve got to comply with from a government perspective. The EIS was incredibly detailed, and so we made sure we addressed every single component that we believe that we needed to address. There’s a magnitude of other things that you could go way outside of what you need to go outside of and so where do you draw the line in terms of testing and the like?
Like, we’re more than comfortable with, you know, the testing that we’ve done.

FIONA BREEN: A recent report by researchers at the Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies supports current marine farm practices in Tasmania’s south. Their report acknowledges a nutrient load coming into the rivers, but found there were no adverse effects and the level of nutrients released was below the cap set by governments.

Certainly in the tourist town of Strahan, the gateway to Macquarie Harbour, locals are happy. If there are any concerns, they’re not voicing them publicly. Most are hoping the expansion will bring more jobs and more people into the shrinking local community.

LOCAL: We’d love to have more people living in our community because we would attract more government funding for our school, our primary school, for our sporting groups. There’s lots of sport on the west coast in the other towns, but we can’t attract the funding because we have a lack of population.

LOCAL II: If the expansions bring more people into town, well that’s just good for everybody.

FIONA BREEN: The 66 per cent expansion of fish pens will be sprinkled right near the path of tourist vessels and run close to the World Heritage area’s boundary. In summer, the ferries carrying thousands of tourists are a regular sight on the harbour. At the moment the two industries are working together.

ANDY MARSHALL, WORLD HERITAGE CRUISES: As far as an interest level of the customers go, they certainly enjoy, you know, highlights of the Gordon River and the historical Sarah Island, but their attentiveness, they’re very, very interested when we go to the fish farms. and they’re curious about it because they’re exposed to it in the marketplace, they’re told it’s healthy to eat, they see it here and there and in the restaurants, but this is the first time they’ve actually been able to see a working fish farm and having it explained for them.

FIONA BREEN: In an industry first, the three aquaculture companies working on Macquarie Harbour will share some facilities here at a new land base a few kilometres west of the township of Strahan, out of sight of the main tourist area.

For more than a century, a delta of copper mine tailings from the Mount Lyle mine in Queenstown flowed down rivers to Macquarie Harbour. Many of the locals aren’t too worried about the effect of fish farming on the harbour or the maugean skate.

ANDREW DISHINGTON, THE STRAHAN SHACK: If they can tolerate what’s been coming down the King River for so long. Obviously they’re here to stay and I don’t think the fish farm’s going to make a lot of difference to them.

FIONA BREEN: For former beef farmers Frances and Peter Bender, the Macquarie Harbour expansion is a big move. It’s been 27 years since they first set up a pen of trout beside the family’s beef property in the D’Entrecasteaux Channel just south of Tasmania’s Huon Valley.

PETER BENDER, HUON AQUCULTURE: Always wanted to be a farmer and I did that for about 15 years and then salmon farming started – or a trial farm started in the Dover area, so we got interested in what they were doing and thought it might be a good sideline for our farming venture.

FIONA BREEN: In the first year they lost 50 per cent of their fish, but persistence paid off. Now the family-owned business is Tasmania’s second biggest aquaculture company.

PETER BENDER: This year we’ll turn over about $170 million. We’ll grow about 14,500 tonnes of salmon. About 450 staff. We’ve got about 12 farming sites. We’ve got hatcheries in about six locations now. We’ve got a processing plant at Parramatta Creek where we do all our wet processing and a smoked salmon factory in Mount Barker in Adelaide.

FIONA BREEN: The couple have no intention of slowing down. They’re still intimately involved in the business.

FRANCES BENDER, HUON AQUCULTURE: You really need to have the ownership because, quite frankly, everything’s on the line every day. So that sharpens up your decision-making processes.

FIONA BREEN: They recently hosted a media event at their main marine farm site, flying local reporters on a sea plane from Hobart to give them a look at new nets designed to keep seals at bay. Huon Aquaculture is hoping the $40 million it’s spending on nets will fix the problem.

Last year, 1,000 seals broke into Huon’s pens, costing the company $15 million in lost production.

The deaths of seals at fish farms is a controversial issue in Tasmania and companies are moving to bring the numbers down. More than 140 seals have died over the past four years as a result of fish farming. Some were caught up in nets and drowned. Others died during relocations. And some of the more aggressive seals were euthanased.

PETER BENDER: This is the outside net and we’ve put it on the outside to stop the seals getting onto the walkway because before if they were standing on the – or able to get onto the walkway or the collars, they were able to then stand up and push their way into the cage.

FIONA BREEN: So super strong.

PETER BENDER: Yes, it’s made out of a material called Dyneema, which is what they make bulletproof vests out of or motorcycle jeans.

FIONA BREEN: As the fish farms expand, demand for new fish grows. All three major companies now have their own hatcheries producing millions of smolt, or baby fish.

This year Tassal is growing the first of an elite pool of Atlantic salmon bloodlines, the result of years of work by CSIRO and industry scientists.

LINDA SAMS: We work with CSIRO on a very advanced selected breeding program which is molecular based, which means we have all these road maps on the different traits of the fish and we can look at them on a molecular level and identify them by family and individual. So what it means – instead of just taking a random shot at getting the best fish, you can actually pick the proper mother and father and the best cross between the two.

FIONA BREEN: Progeny from the elite broodstock have recently been put in open water. And the verdict is good. Resistance to the amoebic gill disease appears to have improved, with these new generations needing fewer costly freshwater baths.

LINDA SAMS: This is a new-year class that we have coming out and we call them our 13 – 2013 year class and these fish have been picked to grow a little faster and to survive a bit better in Tasmanian conditions.

FIONA BREEN: So they’ll be watched closely?

LINDA SAMS: Absolutely. We’ll be really watching the progress of these fish. I have to say we’re very excited. We think this is really good for our industry.

FIONA BREEN: The fish are fed pellets throughout the growing stages. By the time a one kilo salmon gets to Tassal’s state-of-the-art cold smoking plant in Tasmania’s south, it will have consumed 1.5 kilos of wild pilchards, ground up into the dry food. It’s a point of contention for critics, who say it’s unsustainable to feed farmed fish with so much wild fish. It’s something the feed companies have been working on.

LINDA SAMS: Right now we’re probably replacing anywhere from 20 to 30 per cent of it. So we have oil and we have meals, so we’re replacing some of the oil, the fish oil, with poultry oil and much more of the meal with poultry meal. But we also use vegetable meals and there’s other ingredients in there too. So I don’t think – there’ll be a point where we won’t want to replace anymore. We’ll always keep fish meal in our diets, but we’ll make sure that we source it from responsibly fished fisheries.

FIONA BREEN: They’re aiming to at least match it – one kilo of pilchards to make one kilo of salmon. In the meantime, sales of the fish continue to climb. For Australia’s smallest state where unemployment is high and the economy is suffering, it’s good news.

Once, Atlantic salmon was a treat; now it’s a popular family meal.

A piece of salmon is about the same price as a good cut of beef or lamb.

Tasmania’s biggest salmon producer, Tassal, is responding to the increased interest by teaching people how to cook it.

The salmon industry’s worth $500 million now. It’s expected to double again in the next 15 years.

MARK PORTER: If you look at the consumption of fish per capita in Australia it’s still way behind Europe and the rest of the world really and I think we’re only now seeing that starting to kick in.

FRANCES BENDER: It’s one of those products that’s very quick and easy to prepare. It’s, you know, it’s a fast food, but it’s a healthy fast food.

Art and endangered species: eye candy, or action?

threatened species, wildlife

Aug 152013

Original story by Dustin Welbourne at The Conversation

Joel Sartore has been an explorer and photographer for National Geographic for 20 years. He captures the drama and beauty of wild animals from all corners of the earth, some of which you see here.

A salmon makes an unfortunate leap. Photo: Joel Sartore

But after looking through his impressive body of work recently, I wondered: is there any real conservation value in this type of photography or is it all just eye candy?

While that may seem an obtuse question, just look at the track record.

National Geographic magazine has been publishing brilliant wildlife pictures since 1906, and publishing articles about endangered species earlier still, yet problems persist. In the November 1900 issue of National Geographic John Torbert wrote “The fact that the wild animals of the world are in danger of extermination is being forcibly driven home to the minds of all who are interested in natural history.” He identified the ivory and fur trade as the problem. Fast forward nearly 112 years to the October 2012 National Geographic issue, the cover story read, “BloodIvory, 25,000 elephants were killed last year”.

As you are well aware, National Geographic is not in this game alone. For 60 years Sir David Attenborough has been leading all manner of creature through our lounge rooms (and not cleaning up after them I might add). And yet, the Yangtze river dolphin, the Baiji, an extraordinary creature, was declared functionally extinct in December 2006.

In 1983 Andy Warhol took up arms (or canvases) to save endangered species and created 10 colour screen prints of threatened wildlife. One print, the San Francisco Silverspot, recently sold for US$1.3m, great for the art dealers I guess. Meanwhile, the western black rhinoceros, a species represented in Warhol’s work, has been declared extinct.

Sandhill Cranes. Photo: Joel Sartore

Closer to home, we have great wildlife photographers such as Shannon Plummer, and untiring wildlife warriors such as the late Steve Irwin.

Despite all their efforts, and beautiful photos, films, and works of art, we continue to lose species, a fact not lost on Joel Sartore. Referring to his work in a recent TEDx talk, Sartore said:

what I am doing here in the wild is just not enough, through my career I have seen more and more species head toward extinction.

But he is not going to take the loss of species lying down. In an attempt to get more people to sit up and take notice, he is photographing as many endangered species he can for the Photo Ark, a project aimed at immortalising endangered species and connecting with the public. Sartore says he is halfway to his goal but still questions whether it is enough.

It may not be. But I think Joel, and other communicators like him, shoulder a responsibility that is not all their own. We are all a party to the problem of species loss. Certainly, many species are going extinct because of our activities, but many disappear from a lack of attention.

So, what is the value of this type of work? Its value is to be a torch. To shine a light onto the face of extinction so that extraordinary species are not lost to the darkness. It is then up to the rest of us to make a change.

Joel Sartore will be speaking at the Sydney Opera House on August 25 as part of National Geographic Live

The Conversation is running a series on Australian endangered species. See it here

Dustin Welbourne 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.

Which politician will protect our unique species?

community, environment, government, threatened species, wildlife

Aug 152013

Original story by Bob Brown, ABC Environment

Voters uninspired by a choice between Labor and Liberal have a third option, writes Bob Brown.

AS AUSTRALIA’S PRESIDENTAL-STYLE election unfolds, the environment is being squeezed off the agenda. Neither Tony Abbott nor Kevin Rudd has an environmental bone in his body. Far from the environment being a non-issue, it is being undermined on a wide front by both party leaders.

Who cares about these guys? Only the Greens, says Bob Brown.

Both are committed to winding back the climate change laws which Christine Milne, Adam Bandt and I negotiated with Julia Gillard and her ministers. Both will allow mining in Tasmania’s Tarkine rainforest. Both will let Japan send its whaling fleet back to Antarctica next summer. Both back thousands of coal seam gas wells in the nation’s farmlands regardless of what the farmers think.

A vote for Labor or the Coalition is a vote for the continued loss of the habitat of rare and endangered wildlife like the swift parrot, koala, Tasmanian devil and Victoria’s state emblem, Leadbeaters possum.

Older voters will remember Gough Whitlam signing the World Heritage convention in the wake of the bloody-minded destruction of Tasmania’s Lake Pedder National Park by Tasmanian Labor Premier ‘Electric Eric’ Reece. That led directly to the Great Barrier Reef’s protective listing. Malcolm Fraser stopped whaling and protected Fraser Island. Famously Bob Hawke saved the Franklin River thirty years ago and then the the Daintree Rainforest and Kakadu.

However, under mounting pressure from resource extractors such as miners and loggers, along with the greenwash industry, this process of protecting the nation’s natural heritage with real teeth has slowed dramatically.

In the meagre Howard years, although the Prime Minister declared himself to be “greenish”, no new world heritage nominations were made without the prior agreement of the state involved. Even so, after his celebrated 2004 stoush with Labor leader Mark Latham over Tasmania’s forests, Howard protected the nation’s largest temperate rainforest, the Tarkine, from imminent logging.

In 2013, Labor’s environment minister, Tony Burke, goaded by NSW right power broker Paul Howes, dumped the National Heritage Council’s advice to protect the same Tarkine from mining. Burke gave the go-ahead for the bulldozers to invade vital habitat for the Tasmanian devil and Tasmania’s giant wedgetail eagle. Burke’s successor, Mark Butler, moved quickly this month to agree to more mining even though it was subject to objection by environmentalists in the courts. Butler turned down requests from Save the Tarkine (I am the group’s patron) to visit the Tarkine rainforest.

A vote for Rudd is a vote for Tarkine mining. Tony Abbott ditto. What can environmentally-alert voters do?

Not voting is not an option. Voting Green is. It is also the obvious alternative for major party supporters disgusted by that other potent vote-turner, the inhumane treatment of asylum seekers coming to this wealthy nation by boat.

If the Coalition wins the election as the polls suggest, the Senate becomes doubly important for the environment. The Coalition will be hoping it can win control of the Senate to convert it from the people’s backstop to Abbott’s rubber stamp.

While the Rudd-Abbott contest will produce no environmental dividend, it may well produce its own brand of greenwash. Watch for policy announcements with pictures of young people planting trees while, out of shot, Victoria’s great forests continue to fall and Leadbeaters possum follows the Tasmanian tiger down that needless path to deliberated extinction.

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