We do what we can,
where we are
April- May
EARTHCARE ANNUAL GENERAL
MEETING, THURDAY 29TH APRIL
at the Port Phillip Eco
Centre, 7.00 pm for 7.30 pm start.
Co Presidents’ Report
Secretary’s report
Treasurer’s report
Election of Earthcare
Committee for 2004 – 2005, and
Guest Speaker: David Bryant
– The underwater treasures of Port Phillip Bays and its Marine Parks
Quicksilver is contributing $10K to run a range of coastal
protection activities at St Kilda Harbour on Sunday June 6th.
This is a fantastic opportunity to
showcase the great work done by Earthcare volunteers over many years in
monitoring and protecting the ecology of the harbour, get a lot of work done, and
hopefully to gain new Earthcare members and other forms of support for our
projects.
Activities include:
·
at the pier: North Pacific Sea Star collection, spreading
seaweed on the breakwater and touch tanks at the rotunda;
·
at West beach: planting, litter collection, weed control, storm
water quality analysis, and eco-tours.
Apart
from the fun environmental activities there will be lots of food and free
entertainment …. a mini, coastal festival at West Beach! Who knows, if all goes
well it could become an annual event.
On
the day, we’ll need up to 20 volunteers to welcome people, register
participants, help supervise activities and give demonstrations and tours, eat
yummy vegetarian food, listen to good music, and share their local knowledge
with the participants. Not your normal working bee!
If
you would like to be part of the organising team, and/or to help out on June 6 between 10.00 am and 2.00 pm - for part or all of
the time – please contact Robyn Mitchell on 0412 032 224, or mitchellrobyn@hotmail.com
Principal
partners: Quicksilver, Landcare Australia, Coast Action - Coast Care, Earthcare
St Kilda Inc, Port Phillip EcoCentre Inc.
Other
proposed contributors: City of Port Phillip, Fishcare, Marine & Coastal
Communities Network.
NEXT EARTHCARE PLANTINGS,
·
Eco-centre, Sunday, May 23rd, blah check Jo’s email
·
Balaclava rail
reserve, 10 am, Saturday … June. This is a great site and although close to the
railway line is also near a children’s playground, so you can bring the kids along.
REVIEW OF
EARTHCARE
ACTIVITIES ~ 2003 / 04*
ACTIVITIES |
WHAT WE DID |
COMMENTS / SUGGESTIONS |
|
Bi Monthly Guest Speakers In 2003/04, we changed our meeting structure to having our committee meetings every second (even) month and our general members/public meetings with special guest speakers every other (odd) month. |
April 2003 – Cam Walker from Friends of
the Earth May 2003 - July 2003 – Lisa Faldon and Greilach
from the Port of Melbourne Corporation on the proposed deepening of the
shipping channel. September 2003 – Susan Perry from the Port Phillip Bay Dolphin Research Project, on the dolphin families and individuals in Port Phillip Bay. November 2003 – Zoe Hogg, Andrew McCutcheon
and their fabulous photos from their research trip to Shark Bay. February 2004 – Matt Green, Earthcare member, on “the Natural
Step” in Australia (see also separate item in this newsletter). |
The format of having guest speakers at Earthcare meetings every second month has proved very successful. All the speakers have been terrific and we’d like to thank them again for volunteering their time and talents. We must remember to publicise them better - when we have advertised them well, the speakers nights have attracted many non-Earthcare members – some of whom have joined up. The topics have broadened our horizons as to how we fit in with the rest of Port Phillip Bay and beyond. |
|
EARTHCARE PLANTINGS |
We have continued our
local planting and weeding days - usually every second month - at sites such
as Balaclava rail reserve, West Beach, Point Ormond and St Kilda Breakwater –
planting and ‘seaweed spreading’ this year. Spreading seaweed around the new
plants stops the penguins from pulling them out. |
Thanks to Rob Scott and
team and volunteers. The West Beach weeding and follow up planting day in
particular has really livened up the site – the plants have survived well and
it’s looking fabulous. We always welcome more people at the plantings, even
for just a hour or so. We always have fun and it’s so satisfying to see all
the plants in the ground and to go back again later and see them still
growing. |
|
LITTLE PENGUINS |
The study of the Little
Penguin colony on the St Kilda Breakwater is now in it’s 18th
year. A report, on the Little Penguins inhabiting St Kilda Breakwater, is
about to be released on CD. The report details, the number and distribution
of penguin sightings since the reconstruction of the St. Kilda Breakwater in
June 1998; the number and distribution of breeding sites since reconstruction;
and estimates of penguin population. The Little Penguin
population has grown steadily during these years with a large recruitment
during the 2003/4 season. In 1998, the population was estimated at 346 at 71
breeding sites. In 2003/04 there are 112 sites and an estimated 520 birds.
Many penguins stay around the same site all their recorded life. |
Thanks to everyone on the
Penguin Study team, for their amazing dedication and perseverance. The increased vegetation
has had a marked effect on the choice of burrow location with many more
penguins choosing to live among the Atriplex cinerea bushes. While it is very
heartening to see this encouraging population growth, we remain concerned
about Little Penguins getting caught in litter, particularly fishing line,
six packs and plastic bags, many of which appear to be discarded by anglers
on the pier. This problem was recently raised by Zoe in the local media and
was followed up by ABC radio and Channel 7. Earthcare is planning more
awareness raising about the litter problem in the coming year. |
|
RAKALI WATCH |
A group of dedicated
volunteers have observed the local rakali population, fortnightly on
Wednesday evenings since June 2003, to extend upon previous rakali research
conducted by Earthcare. The aim is to determine the rakali distribution and
density in the area, as well as making behavioural observations. Three sites
have been surveyed – St. Kilda Pier, Albert Park Lake and Elwood Canal.
Rakali have been observed at all three sites, although they appear to be
absent from particular locations within some of these sites. A detailed report on the
rakali watch will be included in the Earthcare Annual Report and on the
Little Penguin CD. |
Many thanks to Tiana
Preston for collating the rakali observations, which indicate a relatively
high density of rakali in the St. Kilda
/ Elwood area. Various sizes of rakali were observed at all sites.
Some were clearly juveniles, indicating that successful breeding is occurring
(most rakali reach adult size in a year). The rakali were quite often
observed eating food, such as tube worms, crabs (identifiable from middens
left on platforms, rocks and boats), small fish and yabbies. They had also
been seen eating pieces of bread (at Elwood Canal and the St Kilda pier. |
|
PORT PHILLIP NATURE
WATCH |
Port Phillip Nature Watch
(PPNW), an important new activity for Earthcare, has now been operating for
just under a year. All members of
Earthcare and other local environmental groups can participate at any time in
recording interesting or unusual sightings of wildlife within the City of
Port Phillip. Some highlights over the last twelve months have been, rainbow
lorikeets, crested pigeons, long billed corellas, chestnut teals, grey teals,
white-eyed or hardhead ducks, tawny frogmouths, crested terns, Australasian
gannets, little pied cormorants, a pied currawong, black faced-cuckoo shrikes,
an eastern spinebill, sacred kingfishers, eastern rosellas and black-winged
stilts. |
Thanks to Andrew McCutcheon for
initiating and coordinating PPNW. We have made steady but slow progress.
Hopefully, as more people get to know about PPNW we will get a lot more
responses - there is a lot more out there to see and record. Andrew would also be interested
in receiving lists of bird
and animal species you regularly see in your back yard or local area. If you
have any Port Phillip sightings to report, or any questions please contact
Andrew on 9531 2270, or email amccutcheon@melb.globaldial.com |
|
NORTH PACIFIC SEA
STARS |
Matt Green organized
successful sea star removal days on St Kilda Breakwater in 2003. ….. sea
stars were removed. Joe Malignani reports that the water temperature in Port Phillip Bay so warm this April, the
seastars have been laying low in the deeper, cooler regions of the Bay. We
will be organising a local sea star removal dive in the next few weeks. For more information, you can contact seastars2004@dse.vic.gov.au,
check the Earthcare website, the local papers, or listen to Radio Marinara on
3RRR fm 102.7 on Sunday mornings 9 to-10 am for updates and all news wet and
salty. |
Much
more needs to be done by governments to prevent and deal with marine pests
such as the North Pacific sea Satr. Earthcare plans to follow up with departments such as DSE
regarding better public awareness in sailing ands other water activity clubs
throughout Port Phillip.
Every club should at least have information posters and leaflets. |
|
CHANNEL DEEPENING |
Earthcare has been
keeping a ‘watching brief’ on the proposed channel deepening project. We have
invited the Port of Melbourne Authority to address an Earthcare meeting – see
above, attended all public meetings, studied the interim environmental
effects reports and attended the “Blue Wedges” public meeting at the
Melbourne Town Hall. |
Earthcare has real
concerns about the potentially disastrous
impacts of the proposed channel deepening on the Little Penguin colony
on St. Kilda Breakwater, the sea grass beds and water quality in St Kilda
Harbour and the ecology of Port Phillip Bay in general. |
NEWSLETTERS |
Earthcare News is now produced every second month, instead of
monthly, which fits in with the new meetings structure. The format has been
changed slightly and we have had very positive feedback about the new look. |
Many thanks to Amanda
Richter for layout and production of newsletter throughout 2003/04. |