August
September
2005
Earthcare
News
we
do what we can, where we are
Port
Phillip Ecocentre
Thursday 25th August 8.00PM
THE
SEPIK RIVER AND BEYOND
WILD
LIFE PHOTOS FROM
NEW GUINEA
Canterbury Road Urban Forest
Sunday
11th September
11
am 1 pm
South Melbourne Council established this
road and railway reserve as an experimental Australian Native plantation during
the 70s. During the 90s the City of Port Phillip tried to establish a series
of Victorian groups of vegetation along the length of the plantation. The
plants from the Mallee in the section between Harold St and Middle Park Station
were the most successful. The plants between Langridge St and Fraser St are
truly indigenous and represent the original swamp, which unfortunately dried
up when the South Melbourne Soccer club was demolished and the drainage overflow
was cut off.
This
is a plantation with a history. Be part of it.
Meet
at Canterbury Road Middle Park opposite Wright St.
Rakali Symposium
The Rakali Symposium and Public Awareness day will
be held on the last weekend in October at the Port Phillip Ecocentre corner
Blessington and Herbert Streets, St Kilda.
So far we have several speakers on the Saturday.
A rough outline of the two days :
Saturday 29 October - 10.00 am to 3.00 pm
Several very experienced Rakali people to present information
(and promote discussion) on Rakali populations. Various topics will include;
·
Keeping:
The Problems with keeping Rakali in Captivity
·
Rakali
Research in St Kilda and Elwood: Where are the Rakali now?
·
Other
topics to be confirmed.
A light lunch and dinner will
be provided for participants.
Starting around 8.00 pm
An opportunity to see Rakali
and Rakali Middens on the St Kilda breakwater.
Sunday 30 October Public Awareness Day St Kilda Pier Shelter.
Starting around 11.00 am we will have a display of
Rakali photos, people on hand to meet and talk with the general public, handouts
and a visit from our special guest, Riki Rakali!
Registration: Our intention is to make this
Symposium free.
If you would like more information on how to register
then please email us at bob.alyson@aapt.net.au
or phone 9531 5001.
Breeding
had started early this year. There are eggs, chicks from just hatched to 7
weeks old and a generally healthy looking colony. A few interesting things
are happening in the colony. Peg Leg 103924 (the one with only one leg next
to the steps) has eggs again but somehow we seem to have never caught his
partner. We must make an effort to
identify her. He could be choosing a new partner each year for all we know.
The
pair at P.0.1 are back again and have built a nice cosy nest over the small
rocks that were deposited in their burrow during the February storm. 108506
is big and healthy 1500 grams, he is back with his partner 621552D but he
did have a brief fling with 635F88A in May.
6353987
(Male) has been caught three times with 670A00B (Female) but in three completely
different places:
S,
H and J. They seem to be very choosy about Real Estate.
In what seems to be a poor winter for wildlife sightings,
I have had only two reports from Earthcare members. I do not know if anyone else has seen anything
and tried sending me a message on my old email address, which was mistakenly
published in the last Earthcare Newsletter. Please note my email address is now amccutcheon@aapt.net.au
The
most notable of the reports I received last week was from Geoff Parr-Smith
after enjoying a round of golf at Albert Park on Tuesday 9 August. He saw about 10 Yellow-tailed Black Cockatoos
on Albert Park Golf Course, feeding on pinecones and enjoying them thoroughly
in what appear to be Ponderosa Pines. Neil
Blake also saw a similarly sized group at Fairfield about 2 months ago, again
feeding on pinecones. Although I have
seen many of these birds in most parts of southern Victoria I have never seen
them anywhere near the City of Port Phillip.
The
Bird Observers Club have taken an interest in the occurrence of these birds
in the Melbourne metropolitan area, and publish sightings by members in its
Melbirdian supplement (BOCAs Melbourne Branch Newsletter) on a regular
basis in The Bird Observer magazine. It
seems that these cockatoos are now well established in Melbournes eastern
suburbs with 20 reported sightings listed in the August Edition of up to 50
birds in a single sighting. The closest
sighting to CoPP and CBD was of 12 birds in Richmond on 26 June 05.
The
other report was from Zoe Hogg. She
saw a Royal Spoonbill on Albert Park Lake in mid July and a raft of about
20 Hoary-headed grebes in St Kilda Harbour in early August. Zoe has also taken
note of the seaweed species washed up on St Kildas beaches by the early August
storms. Masses of seaweed (Algae)
Jeanerettia lobarta (red algae) were washed up, but in the previous week it
was Caulerpa brownii (green Algae) and Sargassum paradoxus (Brown Algae). It is assumed wind direction created these
differences.
I
have nothing noteworthy to report from my own observations other than to say
that the Superb Fairy Wrens are doing very well on the Elwood foreshore at
the moment. I estimate that there
are at least three family groups between Elwood Canal and Pt Ormond with at
least four birds in each group.
As
you will be aware after reading the last Earthcare News there is now a Superb
Fairy-wren Coastal Survey Group for which the PP EcoCentre is the supporting
umbrella group. The survey group
intends to get together again to plan for spring surveys. For anyone interested the next meeting will
be at Truganina Explosives Reserve, Altona.
The order of the day will be a BBQ lunch followed by a tour of the
Reserve (in which we can road test the blue wren survey sheets), and finally
the meeting/discussion time.
Date:
Saturday, August 27; Time:
noon to 3pm;
Location:
Entry to Truganina Explosives Reserve is on Queen Street, Altona (Melways
209 B1).
The
Reserve is a fascinating place to visit for anyone interested in natural,
industrial and maritime heritage. I do hope you can all make it. Food will be provided. Just bring your appetite and binoculars. Please
let Neil Blake know, phone 9534 0413, if you are able to be there to ensure
everyone is well fed.
Trial Dredge Monitoring
Zoe Hogg and Andrew McCutcheon
Zoe and Andrew were invited by the Port of Melbourne Corporation to a meeting
on performance standards for the trial dredging program. The PoMC provided details about the locations
subject to trial dredging, safeguards against potential environmental damage
and monitoring methods to be used to assess disturbance caused by the dredge.
For now these assurances appear to be adequate in regard to risks posed
by trial dredging in the northern part of the bay.
But this is largely due to the fact that they are operating in a relatively
benign area at the south end of the Port Melbourne Channel, where no toxic
substances have been identified in the sediments.
We are still however very concerned about the Yarra
dredging and its toxic substrate, but as this is not subject to the present
trial dredge agenda it was not discussed in detail with PoMC. Indeed if this trial dredging process was considered
successful in causing minimal disturbance it cannot be concluded as safe for
a final dredging project to go ahead over the Hobsons Bay and Lower Yarra
seabeds, where toxic substances and possibly algal cysts are known to exist.
We have been invited to go out on the monitoring vessel
to observe the trial dredging process. Thereafter
we hope to continue this relationship with the PoMC, and provide further input
into any processes to minimise any potential environmental damage if the government
pushes ahead with this project. To gain a better understanding about the Little
Penguins in Port Phillip Bay, representatives
from PoMC and Boskalis accompanied us on the last penguin research night.
Birds Australia and Phillip Island Penguin Research have also been
engaged in discussions on performance standards with PoMC.
The 'trial' has been characterised
as a 'small' dredging project by comparing it to the Mega dredge that the
entire project entails. In fact, based on the National Ocean Disposal Guidelines
(NODG), which represent the current best practice in Australia, this project
is considered as big. NODG considers a small dredge project as less than 50,000
m3 and a medium as less than 500,000 m3 - this project is 1,700,000 m3 - not
small by any standards. iin addition it will dredge rock on the boundary of
Marine national Park, will establish an entirely new sediment dump ground
in the bay and will potentially release toxic substances into the environment.
1) The rock dredging in the heads.
The proposed dredge site is probably the worst that could be picked to try
an untested technology. The site is right up against the Lonsdale Marine National
Park boundary. Rock from the dredging operation could be moved by the high
currents in this area both into the park and over the edge of the canyon where
it can be swept by the incoming tide into the sponge gardens on Lonsdale Wall
(within the park). Many of these sponges are estimated to be hundreds of years
old and are highly vulnerable to physical disturbance. The current information
on the dredge head cannot predict the size of the rubble it will produce or
the effectiveness of the suction head in removing the rubble. There could
be a large debris field generated and in this part of the heads any medium
size storm will lead to a cessation of dredging and the increased wave and
current power which can move rocks of considerable size. There appears to
be no justification for choosing this area as a test site, it presents the
worst possible risk in terms of the dredge, its potential ecological effect
and the deployment of monitoring gear to asses damage.The fact that a world
acclaimed marine park will be at high risk both in the short and long term
should be sufficient stop the trial in this area.
2) The establishment of a new spoil ground in the bay.
The panel recommended serious reconsideration of the establishment of this
ground based on effects on fisheries (snapper), water quality at nearby beaches
and the generation of turbid plumes that would alter the biology of bottom
dwelling organisms. The establishment of a new spoil ground should occur only
if no reasonable alternatives exist. The panel considered that dumping in
Bass Straight would be potential alternative and should be investigated as
part of the new EES. The establishment of the new spoil ground pre-empts the
new EES process. It is telling that an expert scientific panel that was also
recommended by the panel to assist the Port of Melbourne to review these type
of decisions is yet to be established. This spoil ground appears to be necessary
to contain the huge amount of material being dredged in the south as part
of the 'trial'. There has been no rational justification given for this volume
of sediment to be removed either here or in the north of the bay.
3) The dredging in the North presents the possibility of toxic sediment
being resuspended and moved around the bay. It is clear again that the
dredging here is a big project on its own. The sediment toxicant sampling
presented to the panel was seriously deficient in this area of the bay. Significantly
smaller numbers of samples were obtained than required under the NODG. The
toxicants measured did not cover the range of contaminants known to
be present in the area and the quality control around the testing was shown
to be highly suspect. The panel recommended that all these results should
be viewed with suspicion! The Port of Melbourne and the Government have consistently
refused to release any results from subsequent testing that occurred late
last year and early this year. It is hard to understand how this part of the
project could have passed the requirement of best practice management controls
given the paucity of data obtained. If toxicants are in this material a significant
proportion will be released to the environment in the turbid plumes generated
during dredging activity. Once this material is released it cannot be contained
or managed. Overall the trial seems ill conceived and contains high levels
of risk. Ironic given that its primary purpose is to inform the proper environmental
management of the full dredge project.
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