A NEW database will provide the public with details about sewage being poured into the ocean, estuaries and rivers. The database developed by the Clean Ocean Foundation, which successfully campaigned to clean up sewage being pumped into the ocean at Gunnamatta, has been compiled with a $400,000 federal government grant announced by Flinders MP Greg Hunt in October 2015. Now based at Wonthaggi, the foundation’s head John Gemmill joined Mr Hunt at Gunnamatta on Friday to announce the establishment of the national outfall database, or NOD. Citizen scientists were recruited to monitor and take water samples from many of Australia’s…
Author: Keith Platt
KILLER whales, or orcas, have returned to Port Phillip. A group photographed off Point Nepean included a male known as Ripple, who has been tracked and catalogued by whale watchers since 2005. Marine wildlife consultant with the Dolphin Research Institute David Donnelly said Ripple was last sighted in Port Phillip in 2015, but has also been recorded in waters off southern NSW, western Victoria and south eastern Tasmania. “Australian killer whales are highly mobile and on the east coast rarely spend longer than a few hours to a day in any one location,” Mr Donnelly said. While killer whales were…
THE state government has been told that it should rule out Hastings for the state’s next container port on economic and environment grounds. Infrastructure Victoria last week recommended that a container port be built at Bay West, in Port Phillip north of Geelong. The Advice on Securing Victoria’s Ports Capacity report also states that it is unlikely there will be a need for a new container port until 2055, with detailed planning needed to begin in 2040. The advice from Infrastructure Victoria is not binding and state government’s are becoming notorious for overturning decisions made by their predecessors. While a…
DIVERS are continuing to uncover acts of cruelty to fish caught from piers in Port Phillip and Western Port. The killing of a “resident” smooth ray on Rye pier on 2 April resulted in a 25,000-signature online petition calling for a ban on the killing of rays in Port Phillip, including stingrays and banjo sharks. The CEO of peak Victorian recreational fishing body VRFish, Michael Burgess, says his organisation “encourages all fishers to return unwanted rays to the water unharmed and comply with fishing regulations”. “We all need to work together to stamp out this unacceptable and illegal behaviour. Rays…
FIVE Mornington Peninsula beaches make the top 10 of cleanest beaches in Port Phillip, according to summer testing by Environment Protection Authority Victoria (EPA). Water quality recorded by the EPA over summer saw Eastern Beach, Geelong, The Dell, Portarlington and St Leonards tied at the top. Portsea came fifth and Blairgowrie and Sorrento sixth; Dromana and Rosebud were equal 10th. Over summer the EPA provides twice-daily forecasts for 36 beaches of either good, which equates to suitable swimming conditions, fair, meaning beaches may not be suitable, or poor, which advises beaches are not suitable for swimming. Other peninsula beaches ranked…