No!! Massive Dredging In Great Barrier Reef May Threaten Health Of Great Barrier Reef
Tonight's Four Corners on ABC investigates dredging at ports on the Great Barrier Reef, including claims that the federal government is reportedly seeking alternatives to dumping dredge spoil at sea at Abbot Point.
Proponents for the huge expansion of coal ports along the coast of Queensland, including at Abbot Point, have asserted that dredging and dumping of dredge spoil at sea won’t harm the Great Barrier Reef. But this runs counter to the growing weight of scientific evidence.
The latest healthcheck of the Great Barrier Reef confirmed that much of the Reef is in a bad state, and getting worse. Leaving aside the challenges of global warming and ocean acidification linked to the extraction and burning of fossil fuels, key issues for the expansion of coal ports in Queensland are the amount of dredging and the dispersal of sediment beyond dredging and disposal sites. Dredging in the marine park is not new, but the scale of proposed dredging and dumping of sediment along the Queensland coast is vastly greater than before. Sediment from dredging at five major ports could soon exceed the amount coming from land.
Today, runoff of sediment from all of the rivers in the Great Barrier Reef catchment averages about 9 million tonnes each year, depending obviously on year-to-year variation in rainfall. Historically, before land-clearing, it was one-third that level — close to 3 million tonnes.
EDIT
http://theconversation.com/mounting-evidence-shows-dredge-spoil-threat-to-the-great-barrier-reef-29773
= new reply since forum marked as read
