What a relief, recently the Shen Neng 1 finally left Hervey Bay after being towed there to have its coal cargo offloaded in what was a risky operation in one of the most delicate and important marine environments in Australia.
Hervey Bay is a national Marine Park. It is where I pioneered my Whale watching operations in 1989. Every year hundreds of humpback whales use Hervey Bay as a rest stop from their arduous 5000 km journey from the Antarctic to mate and calve in Queensland waters. Hervey Bay, is also home to many endangered seabirds and Dugongs. It is a fish nursery, it is basically a marine wonderland and right next to it is World Heritage listed Fraser Island. Not only is this area ecologically significant ,it is an important tourism area, worth millions of dollars annually. What was the government thinking when they used this incredibly important area to off load the stricken Shen Neng 1 ? You only have to have a look whats happening around the world to see it could have been an absolute disaster. This is another example of big business getting away with too much. And it seems if there was a disaster the cleanup may have eventually cost the Australian taxpayer millions.
In march 2009 the Pacific Adventurer spilt 272 tonnes of fuel oil and 31 containers of ammonia-nitrate on Moreton Island. The clean up cost was $25 million. The queensland government has yet to recoup these costs from the owners of the vessel. And as there is currently a $17.5 million cap on compensation for shipping companies under international maritime law, it would seem Aussies will ultimately foot a large portion of the bill.
What worries me even more is that as the Queensland government is chasing more international trade for our coal and gas industries , the resultant increase in shipping these commodoties will mean up to 8000 ships a year will be entering our pristine waters. Most of them foreign owned.
We should not be travelling down this path. It seems to me that our government is looking at the wrong industry to be supporting here. Who is looking out for our tourism industry ? This is where we should be focusing our efforts in the face of climate change. The tourism industry and the development of clean energy technology is really where we should be be moving into the future.
Australia has amazing natural resources for tourism and a reputation as being pioneers in science and technology. We should be using those resources to path a way through the climate change crisis. Not looking to expand our big polluting industries, which for all intensive purposes have no place if our children’s , children will have a world to live in.
One Comment (Leave a Reply)
What were the decision makers of this operation thinking!? It is disguisting that they even contemplated jeopardising the ecological sensitive environment around one of Australia’s most beautiful landscapes. When will the big cash riddled companies ever learn!!!!?