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Australia

Commercial fishers eyeing compensation as six offshore wind farm zones get green light

Commercial fishers eyeing compensation as six offshore wind farm zones get green light

Trawl fishers have ramped up calls for compensation following the federal government’s announcement that it will establish six offshore wind energy zones.

Waters off Gippsland, Portland, the Hunter Valley, Illawarra, northern Tasmania, Perth and Bunbury have been earmarked for development.

But fishers are concerned they will be excluded from the sections of the ocean where the turbines are built.

The most progressed wind farm proposal is the Star of the South project in Gippsland.

“I think it’s obvious that Australia is moving to a lower carbon future,” South East Trawl Fishing Industry Association executive officer Simon Boag said.

“The problem we have is that the federal government has already given out rights … to go commercial fishing.

“Then they appear to be giving out a second set of rights to put in wind farms.

“The two are obviously to some extent mutually exclusive.”

An offshore wind farm
If built, the Star of the South wind farm may resemble Veja Mate in Germany.(Supplied: Star of South)

Bottom line for fishers

Mr Boag’s organization represents the interests of owners, fishers and sellers in the trawl fishery of south-eastern Australia.

He said fishing or quota rights sat “in the balance sheets of fishing businesses”.

“Fishing businesses borrow against them. They’re bought and sold between fishing businesses,” Mr Boag said.

Fishers already work around oil and gas platforms in Bass Strait.

Mr Boag said the exploration phase for new oil and gas developments was intrusive for the industry, but the longer-term exclusion zones were only a few hundred square meters.

“These wind farms are more or less a 500-square-kilometre exclusion,” he said.

“We’re assuming trawlers can’t go in there.

“What we need and want is that if we’re giving up our rights to go fishing and they’re going to build a wind farm and we’re all going to enjoy the electricity … that the fishing industry is adequately compensated.”

A 60-day consultation period was initiated alongside last week’s wind energy zone announcement.

Star of the South acting chief executive officer Erin Coldham encouraged people who used the waters to engage in the consultation process.

She said Star of the South’s turbines would be between seven and 25 kilometers from the coast of Woodside Beach, McLoughlins Beach and Port Albert.

“We’re aiming to get power into the grid by the end of this decade and we think that’s important, noting Yallourn [power station] is closing by 2028,” Ms Coldham said.

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Australia

Tanya Plibersek proposes blocking Clive Palmer’s Queensland coal mine on environmental grounds

A woman speaks at a lectern

For the first time in Australian history, a federal environment minister has set the wheels in motion to reject a coal mine.

Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek has proposed the rejection of Clive Palmer’s Central Queensland Coal Project on the grounds it is likely to damage the Great Barrier Reef.

The decision remains a “proposal” because a final decision can only be made after 10 days of further consultation, including public comment. But given the wide range of reasons cited by the minister, it is unlikely to be approved.

The planned mining site is just 10 kilometers from the Great Barrier Reef near Rockhampton, and was likely to have contributed to ocean pollution, according to the minister.

“Based on the information available to me at this stage, I believe that the project would be likely to have unacceptable impacts to the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park, and the values ​​of the Great Barrier Reef World Heritage Area and National Heritage Place,” Ms Plibersek said.

A map shows the location of a mine and the location of the Great Barrier Reef.
Clive Palmer’s proposed coal mine site is just 10 kilometers from the Great Barrier Reef World Heritage Area.(abcnews)

The decision was also based on potential impacts to local water resources.

Although it is the first time a federal environment minister has proposed to reject an application to develop a coal mine, the Queensland government recommended the rejection last year.

The move was announced the same day the government passed its climate bill through the lower house, with the support of the cross bench including the Greens.

The Greens have been pushing the government to reject all coal and gas projects while the government has said it will approve those that stack up environmentally.

“That’s now one down and 113 to go. There’s 114 of these projects in the pipeline,” Greens leader Adam Bandt said.

The Greens have also been pushing for a “climate trigger” that would require the potential impacts of coal and gas projects on climate change to be considered by the environment minister. As it stands, the potential climate change impact of this mine was not considered in the approval process.

Conservationists, activists glad minister ‘listened to warnings’

The preliminary decision was applauded by conservationists and climate activists.

“This is the right proposed decision for the Great Barrier Reef from the environment minister,” Cherry Muddle from the Australian Marine Conservation Society said.

“We are glad she has listened to warnings from government-appointed and independent scientists, as well as the Queensland government who said the mine was ‘not suitable’ to proceed in April 2021.

“In the wake of the fourth mass bleaching event on the reef since 2016, it is vital new coal and gas projects like this one are refused. It shows the government are serious about saving the reef and tackling the issues that threaten it.”

A photo from above the Great Barrier Reef shades of blue ocean
Queensland’s environment department deemed Clive Palmer’s project “not suitable” to proceed last year.(Facebook: Great Barrier Reef Legacy/File photo)

The proposed project included two open-cut pits north of Rockhampton over an area of ​​more than 2,660 hectares.

The detailed reasons for the proposed decision have not yet been released, but included impacts on a world heritage area, and on-water resources. The project’s potential impacts on threatened species was not listed as a reason for rejection.

The public has 10 days to comment on the proposed decision.

Mr Palmer’s company Central Queensland Coal was not available for comment.

The Queensland government concluded in 2021 the mine would generate royalties for the state of between $703 million and $766 million in total.

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Categories
Australia

Jellyfish filmed by scuba diver off Papua New Guinea could be rare or new species

Jellyfish filmed by scuba diver off Papua New Guinea could be rare or new species

When scuba diver Dorian Borcherds turned on his video camera, he became transfixed by the giant translucent mass bobbing along beside him.

What he had captured on film in the watery depths off Papua New Guinea now has marine biologists excited.

The jellyfish was believed to be one officially sighted only once before off the coast of Far North Queensland — a quarter of a century ago — but it could also be a new species, a researcher believes.

The owner of a Kavieng-based scuba dive company, Mr Borcherds was diving with a customer in December when he spotted the strange creature and described it on social media.

“Saw a new type of jellyfish while diving today. It has cool markings and is a bit bigger than a soccer ball and they are quite fast swimming,” he wrote at the time.

Still stumped, Mr Borcherds enlisted his daughter in South Africa for help.

“I thought it was interesting as I had never seen one of these before, so I felt [the video] to my daughter who downloaded a jellyfish app,” he said.

“It couldn’t be identified, so she uploaded the footage to the app and within half an hour she had a very excited jellyfish expert on the phone from Tasmania.”

That expert was Lisa-ann Gershwin from the Australian Marine Stinger Advisory Service, who at first thought it was the same jellyfish caught on the Great Barrier Reef in May 1997.

A small spotted jellyfish in blueish water
Screenshots from a video shot in 1997 of the original specimen that was found on the Great Barrier Reef.(Supplied: Queensland Museum)

“I was completely gobsmacked when they sent me through the photos,” Dr Gershwin said.

“I thought, oh my God, what is this thing and where is it?

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