Moreton Bay's health and productivity will decline unless protected

[Shane Boese]

Moreton Bay's health and productivity will decline unless protected


Friday, 29 June 2007


Moreton Bay faces a wide range of increasing threats and unless we create many more green zones Moreton Bay will continue degrade to the detriment of our wildlife and fisheries. Currently less than 1% of Moreton Bay is fully protected in Green Zones. The Expert Scientific Panel for Moreton Bay last week recommended that a very minimum of 10% of each habitat must be protected in green zones to secure the health and resilience of this special place. They also pointed out that the amount of protection recommended in the scientific literature generally fall in the range of 20% - 40%.
Mr. Baltais spokesperson for the Wildlife Preservation Society of Queensland said, "It is clear that unless we devise a 'comprehensive, adequate and representative' system of green zones for Moreton Bay Marine Park, the increasing pressures upon the Park will destroy the health and productivity of the Park."
"Climate change, damaging and unsustainable fishing practices, pollution, and poor catchment management are placing immense pressure upon Moreton Bay's biodiversity, which includes fisheries. Around the world many countries are implementing Green Zones as a means to alleviate pressure upon marine habitats," said Mr. Baltais.
"Green Zones secure safe areas for our wildlife, such as dugongs, dolphins and turtles, however, currently Moreton Bay provides no such areas and wildlife are subject to all manner of dangerous human activities." said Mr. Baltais.
"Green Zones protect the raw resources for industries like tourism and fishing, if you want fish for tomorrow you need Green Zones." said Mr. Baltais.
Mr Baltais continued, "While there are a range of measures to protect marine habitat only Green Zones offer certainty. Mangroves are allegedly protected yet we continue to destroy them. The airport expansion alone has seen 850 ha of mangroves destroyed and we will see further 90 ha cleared for further expansion, future marinas in SEQ will do likewise. If mangroves were protected in Green Zones then they would be safe. Also, Green Zones stop Fish Farms!"

[Chris Ryan]

Hey Shane - where did this come from? You know what an "expert" is - and "EX" is a has been and a "sPERT" is a drip under pressure!

Is there a counter release coming from the TFPQ or similar??

[Adamy]

Mr. Baltais spokesperson for the Wildlife Preservation Society of Queensland said, "It is clear that unless we devise a 'comprehensive, adequate and representative' system of green zones for Moreton Bay Marine Park, the increasing pressures upon the Park will destroy the health and productivity of the Park."
"Climate change, damaging and unsustainable fishing practices, pollution, and poor catchment management are placing immense pressure upon Moreton Bay's biodiversity, which includes fisheries. Around the world many countries are implementing Green Zones as a means to alleviate pressure upon marine habitats," said Mr. Baltais.

Can someone please explain to me how a "comprehensive, adequate and representative system of green zones" protects biodiversity from urban runoff, siltation, pollution, climate change, poor catchment management etc???

I'm either dumb, confused or both cause I just cant see how it works!


Oh hang on I get it!! If you create green zones then pollution - urban runoff, climate change etc. are forbidden entry! WOW these Greenie guys are smart - even smarter than nature!!

Adam

[Chris Ryan]

Well this is what happens when people believe their crap!! - IMHO of course.

[PinHead]

are they going to chain themselves to the mangroves to prevent the airport expansion..I doubt that..they are feel good greenies..whinge and whine till they get something which makes them all feel warm and fuzzy..all a bunch of jerks.

[Redspeckle]

Hasn't Mr. Simon Baltais Heard of Bag and Size limits and Seasonal closures on Fish species
Calling for Green Zones to be impentled all you are doing is going to herding fisherman certain areas to fish be like
EG Cattle grazing out a very small paddock of grass in no time instead of the cattle eat over a bigger paddock only eating the top of the grass and regrentae with fresh tops of grass then cattle can graze it again and again that's how Bag and Size limits and Seasonal closure's works the fish species are there again and again

About Brisbane Airport Expansion the filling in of Jackson creek and mangroves destruction developers do more damage the bays foreshores and developments on the bay than what A Rec fisherman does only catching a couple of fish
I tried to do something about last year but fell on deaf ears and if they call themselves Green's they should be there at least try to catch the fish species and wildlife and release them back into the bay instead of a crying about it going ahead with the development

With turtles,dugongs and dolphins they are free romaning animals of the sea they not going stop put in one area all the time
With the boat strikes its not the Rec angler doing that its bigger baots only have look at the size of the prop marks comes from bigger baots

Simon Baltais where is the science evidence to support his case in all of this

Mitch

[billfisher]

Actually rising CO2 levels may increase the productivity of our oceans according to new research. It is likely to lead to increased phytoplankton growth. These microscopic organisms fix carbon via photosynthesis and are the basis for all ocean life.

In any event if we are concerned about global warming the appropriate thing to do is stop burning fossil fuels - not ban fishing!

[Mad-One]

How can they call themselves green when they make their speaches sitting in front of a roaring fire and wipe their backsides with toilet paper made from tree's........Only green when it suits them

Mad

[flathead_fred]

The airport may enlist a local commercial fisherman to "remove" and realease as many fish and crabs as possible from Jacksons Creek, similar to what occured when the port was extended which trapped countless sharks and turtles etc within its walls. Currently I am collaborating with the commercial fisherman (as part of a univeristy study) who was resposible for the capture of the protected species trapped within the port extension, and he is pushing for action to be taken before they infill the creek. It seems such as waste.... Ive listened to Simon speak before at a stakeholder engagement meeting and yesh he is definately a greeny but id like to think his heart is in the right place. The study I am conducting at the momment with the commercial fisherman is alligned directly with Simon's statement "Mangroves are allegedly protected yet we continue to destroy them", as I am looking at the consequences for fisheries that the dieback/removal/reclaimation of mangroves has had in Moreton Bay to provide further support for their protection.

Mike

[Adamy]

The airport may enlist a local commercial fisherman to "remove" and realease as many fish and crabs as possible from Jacksons Creek, similar to what occured when the port was extended which trapped countless sharks and turtles etc within its walls. Currently I am collaborating with the commercial fisherman (as part of a univeristy study) who was resposible for the capture of the protected species trapped within the port extension, and he is pushing for action to be taken before they infill the creek. It seems such as waste.... Ive listened to Simon speak before at a stakeholder engagement meeting and yesh he is definately a greeny but id like to think his heart is in the right place. The study I am conducting at the momment with the commercial fisherman is alligned directly with Simon's statement "Mangroves are allegedly protected yet we continue to destroy them", as I am looking at the consequences for fisheries that the dieback/removal/reclaimation of mangroves has had in Moreton Bay to provide further support for their protection.

Mike

I have also recently been in contact with Simon and have to agree his heart is in the right place. I have also offered to take him on a fishos tour of the bay so that he can see it from our perspective. Right now he feels like he is doing all of us a favour and I can see it from his point of view, however I have tried to impress upon him the fishos point of view. He seems like a nice guy, and I think he can see the point that from our perspective, it seems like they are trying to say that if they implement green zones then the Bays problems will all go away.

They are working on many fronts to improve the bay - and green zones are just one of them - I also get the feeling that they are just as frustrated with Govt as we are - we are all just trying to push from different sides.

Think we should adopt a greenie and take them fishing - put a rod in their hand when they have a rampaging snapper on the end and let them fight it all the way to the boat - then see how they feel about shutting off the bay forever.

Mike... good luck with the project... hope they can get all the fish n crabs out!

Cheers,

Adam

[Lovey80]

EG Cattle grazing out a very small paddock of grass in no time instead of the cattle eat over a bigger paddock only eating the top of the grass and regrentae with fresh tops of grass then cattle can graze it again and again that's how Bag and Size limits and Seasonal closure's works the fish species are there again and again



Simon Baltais where is the science evidence to support his case in all of this

Mitch

Thats exactly what we need to show them. The cost of this is going to be massive on the economy. Why not make the paddock 3 times the size by building arty reefs. This way the same amount of cattle have a bigger area to roam and spelling the padocks will be a lot easier and put less pressure on everyone. Also there will be an actual return to the govn't through taxes without killing the industry.

Cheers Chris

[Chris Ryan]

Since when has a Government actually given a toss about how they spend our money Chris?? Also commonsense needs to a place to live in governing and that is lacking when votes for issues are dealt before the issue is debated and vetoed by the Governance and Scrutiny Committees.

Cheers,
Chris

[pickers]

the bay is in fine shape thanks to the last lot of bag limits and legal sizes that were put in place and hasn't fished this well in years , if you believe a single word that comes from a polly of ANY sort you want your head read , they are only out to line their own nest.
if any of you saw the shape the bay was in 30 years ago you would know what I'm on about , the water is so much cleaner now than it was then.
if they want to close anything , CLOSE CANBERRA , IT WOULD MAKE MORE SENCE.

PICKERS

[Jeremy]

the bay is in fine shape thanks to the last lot of bag limits and legal sizes that were put in place and hasn't fished this well in years , if you believe a single word that comes from a polly of ANY sort you want your head read , they are only out to line their own nest.

PICKERS

Ain't that the truth!

Jeremy

[wombat 100]

The Expert Scientific Panel for Moreton Bay , Always exercise extreme caution when confronting these terms when associated with research data and final reports. Such data is always bias to the sponsor s point of view . In other words you get what you pay for otherwise you wouldn't bother releasing it to the public if it didn't support the intended motive and stated position . Regardless of who conducts the research or for whom the researchers " So call experts " need continued sponsorship or they perish . This is also true of Government Departments and Uni's , it's called publish or perish in the trade and many rush to press just to see their name in print