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The Forum > Article Comments > The Gippsland Lakes debacle > Comments

The Gippsland Lakes debacle : Comments

By Anthony Amis, published 8/3/2018

In 2015 the Victorian Auditor-General delivered a damning report on the mismanagement of Victoria's 10 Ramsar-listed wetlands.

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Homo Sapiens.
The Ultimate Environmental Vandal.
Never mind, when it`s gone it`s gone.
Forever
Posted by ateday, Thursday, 8 March 2018 7:24:53 AM
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Another "Oh no! We are doomed" piece of nonsense. With the obligatory give a few million bucks to some self serving, left wing bunch of nut jobs.
The sooner we have a tax on the apostles of doom rather than feeding them the better!
Posted by JBowyer, Thursday, 8 March 2018 12:17:10 PM
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Wow can we get these people over to South Oz to do the same thing with the Murray mouth. It needs this treatment & quickly.

Otherwise the article sounds like an attempt to find some tax payer funded employment for the hordes of basically useless environmental scientists our universities insist on turning out each year.
Posted by Hasbeen, Thursday, 8 March 2018 1:19:51 PM
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The Gippsland Lakes are a very healthy ecosystem, even if different to what it was before Europeans. Lakes Entrance prawns are the sweetest you'll get anywhere, and as the article shows, there's a diversity of marine as opposed to aquatic biota. By contrast, the artificial freshwater Lake Alexandrina is stuffed, a big mulloway fishery was destroyed when they built the barrages, and ecologists want to deprive food growing irrigators of water to maintain their artificial duckpond. They claim it's naturally fresh, when Sturt wrote that it was salty, and reported that he saw a seal in the lake! What a wonderful world! George Orwell was prescient about politics in regard to socioeconomics, but he understandably failed to predict the incredible rise of environazis.
Posted by Little, Thursday, 8 March 2018 6:23:05 PM
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A number of issues. First, rainfall numbers are down and massively increased population pressures require increased food production. And only possible, if we use some of "OUR" fresh water to grow food.

We waste most of the storm water runoff, which is allowed to flash flood to waste. When instead it could be stored in the environment to force down the salt water table, iron out some of the peaks and troughs/water flows in the rierune system, massively improve on farm production.

Send all our waste water/treated effluent inland and use is in underground applications to support above ground, big water use agriculture. Rice, cotton, coffee, bamboo, fruit farming etc.

Finally we need to bite several bullets, one of them being nuclear power and as MSR's that'd massively reduce the price of electricity!

Which simply has to stop carrying passengers!

Like State governments, who dip the hand into the till to remove essential operating capital; and price gouging foreigners, who do far worse.

We need to go back to a mindset, which saw this as an essential service. not a government money tree, or captive market!

[And housing as a human right, not a captive market, screwed for every penny!]

With that done, then maybe we can afford, deionisation dialysis desalination and the 90% potable water and quadruple volumes for the same outlay we'd produce; and use it to at least put enough fresh into a freshwater irrigation environment. Then let the river run.

As opposed to dredging the entrance to keep it wet!

The fresh water run/routine flushes, is all that keeps this environment healthy, and maintains the fish nursery, we need to maintain fish stocks, that are maintained alone by the debri washed down with every fresh water run!

If farming doesn't then need the same water? And it wouldn't if supported by new space age deionization dialysis desalination/reassigned effluent? Then maybe the natural river flow can, once again, do the job the dredge is doing now, but with fresh water!?
Alan B.
Posted by Alan B., Thursday, 8 March 2018 6:55:58 PM
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Empirical evidence of substance proves beyond reasonable doubt the Gippsland Lakes are not healthy because that ecosystem is not producing enough small fish to feed ocean fish and other animals including whales.

I think the article is good.

However green organizations have let the damage and destruction happen.

Hopefully good sensible government will now see the consequences including under-nutrition and associated disease and early death among seafood dependent Pacific Islands people.

This is not just a Gippsland Lakes problem.
Devastated seagrass nurseries in Western Port Bay and Corner Inlet as well as in Port Phllip Bay and The Coorong in SA and worldwide are all supposed to be supplying food for migratory fish.

Fish are not immune to starvation.
Animals do not breed successfully when impacted by food shortage.
No wonder fishing restrictions have fundamentally failed to prevent ongoing and worsening depletion.
Overfishing is not the cause.

In 1980's I reported fish depletion and starvation of penguins involving mass mortality though Minister Joan Kirner at the time said no. A scientific study later revealed primary starvation due to food deprivation.

I returned again to Aus last night, shocked after feeling disgusted seeing more Pacific Islands children eating rice or potato only at almost every meal, fish maybe once weekly.
Amino acid protein deficiency is occurring in seafood dependent humans, not malnutrition due to starvation.

Loss of estuary seagrass nurseries is the problem, coupled with wrong or gagged advice.
Posted by JF Aus, Friday, 9 March 2018 11:47:38 AM
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Come off the grass JF Aus. The big problem with telling porkies by inference is that there will be some people who know the facts, & can show up your fabrications for what they are.

You trying to suggest that fish from the Gippsland Lakes swim up to the tropics to feed the islanders. What utter garbage.

Then you bemoan the fact that that islanders are eating rice, as if that is caused by a lack of fish, & attempting to tie that to the Gippsland lakes. Again utter garbage. Perhaps you haven't noticed this type of misrepresenting the truth is now recognised as lies, perhaps the reason for the reduction of green votes.

The fact is islanders, just like us are lazy. Rice is their McDonalds, quick & easy.

I spent quite a bit of time in the islands, & know many well. I was once offered a meal on one in about 1976. Rice with Curry paste for main course, & rice with powdered milk & sugar for desert.

This was on Nugerria atoll, with it's 3000 nautical square miles of lagoon, & 90 nautical miles of reef, 200 nautical miles from the nearest town. It has enough fish to provide a cannery, as well as feed it's 200 people. However fishing is work, & requires organisation & planning.

No bait shop, so you first have to net some bait fish. Then you have to canoe to a good entrance channel, where the blue runners, their favourite fish, are likely to gather. No refrigeration, so you have to do it all again tomorrow, or just throw some rice in a pot. This is of course the fault of the people of the Gippsland Lakes, if we are silly enough to believe your ranting.

Do try to be more truthful in your posts, if you want to be taken seriously.
Posted by Hasbeen, Friday, 9 March 2018 2:07:26 PM
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Hasbeen,

You have now put youself in serious trouble. LOL.
Because of your stupid claims I am going to enjoy knocking your legs out from under you, as soon as I get time out from travelling.
Posted by JF Aus, Friday, 9 March 2018 4:00:08 PM
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JF Aus's childish response to Hasbeen (I've got ya now but I ain't got time) is the icing on the cake. Here's the cake: The Lakes are supposedly stuffed cos there's "Marine species invasion. Shore Crab; sharks; stingray; squid; starfish; marine oysters etc." but the Lakes aren't "producing enough small fish to feed ocean fish". What are the sharks etc. eating? don't they live in the ocean too? You can't have your cake and eat it!
Posted by Little, Friday, 9 March 2018 4:27:56 PM
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Hasbeen,

I challenge you to show the facts and name the people to prove the fabrication you claim. You cannot do that because I have fabricated nothing. But try. No excuses.

Bass Strait used to be a significant marine animal feeding ground.
Pacific tuna migrate from one feeding ground to another. Does anyone have evidence otherwise?

By 1982 Western Port Bay Victoria had lost 100 out of 150 square kilometers of seagrass.

Scientific studies have revealed 400 square metres of seagrass can support 2,000 tonnes of fish per annum (Dept Environment Study Notes).
Bass Strait had a significant squid fishery that collapsed.

Lakes Entrance Processors Ltd was Australia's most diversified fish processing plant. The manager caught me inside the broken fence as I photographed a massive trawl net. He showed me inside the building and told me the plant had closed forever due lack of the resource. He showed me the huge dryer drum for turning pilchard and anchovy into fishmeal.
I had alteady read literature stating initial scientific estimates put the areas catch at 200,000 tonnes per annum, but that was soon reduced to 100,000 tonnes.
The manager told me they never even reached 10,000 tonnes.

Think.
There used to be a Shearwater mutton bird population estimated at 100 million, now estimated at 17 million.
Imagine 50 million birds unable to find food at northern feeding grounds and arriving and nearly eating out Bass Strait.
Same with millions of tuna, food gone from say Moreton Bay and Sydney and Jervis Bay offshore feeding grounds, impact on another, leaving not much for the processing plant.

For the past 10 years I have been living 6 months a year on one Pacific island. Last week I watched kids eating rice only. I used to see baitfish chased out of the water by bigger fish but not anymore. The village people used to eat fish every day but not anymore. Now its a 20 mile canoe trip to scrounge reject fish from ocean seine net boats.
I live there.

Fish populations have changed since the 1970's, and since 10 years ago.
Posted by JF Aus, Friday, 9 March 2018 11:46:42 PM
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What a rant, & not a word about islanders eating rice. You do appear to have dropped the fairy story suggestion that Gippsland lakes fish swim up to the tropic islands at least.

Sounds like we need to cull more of those damn mutton birds. They were once an economic useful resource, but no more. Obviously their population has exploded, & is way excessive, now we no longer harvest them.

Typical stupidity in protecting something to the detriment of many others.

Typical greeny result, of never thinking anything through to it's obvious, & possible conclusions.
Posted by Hasbeen, Sunday, 11 March 2018 12:30:02 AM
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Hasbeen,
The
What do you mean not a word about islanders eating rice?
Read my second last paragraph above.
I was there and watched it happening because fish are no longer available daily as they used to be.

Think, Hasbeen.
Tuna from Pacific waters migrate including from Coral Sea to Bass Strait waters, to feed.

Fish don't know about names of places such as Bass Strait, to migratory tuna it's all one big place.

Purposely ignoring or twisting or making fun about the plight of these kids is an insult to humanity and is virtual child abuse.

I am not a greenie, kill all Gippsland Lakes if you want, but why ignore seafood dependent islanders and livelihood of our pro and amateur fishing communities?
Posted by JF Aus, Sunday, 11 March 2018 3:59:48 AM
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Islanders don't catch tuna, they eat local fish stop talking greenie garbage, & start culling those mutton birds.
Posted by Hasbeen, Sunday, 11 March 2018 11:12:08 AM
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Tuna go into island waters to feed but not so much these days.
A 40 year old teacher told me he used to go fishing with his father in a hand paddled canoe and using custom hooks they could return with 8 to ten yellowfin tuna. But not anymore.

Island people say one big tuna used to feed a whole family and a few big tuna could feed a whole village.

Hasbeen, what do tuna eat and where does their food come from?

To my knowledge food for tuna used to come from seagrass nurseries for small fish such as pilchards and anchovy that used to teem out of the Gippsland Lakes estuary, for example.
Those small fish were food for tuna and other marine animals.

Hasbeen, who are the experts you indicated in a few posts back, or where is the evidence to prove me wrong?
Posted by JF Aus, Sunday, 11 March 2018 11:49:01 AM
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This all started with a complaint that marine species were invading a supposedly aquatic or freshwater environment and salt was killing plants. Now JF Aus has the 'crisis' twisted around and the pilchards and anchovies are stuffed. There's only one sure thing if you're a greenie with wilderness between the ears. We'll all be ruined. Should call 'em Hanrahans.
Posted by Little, Sunday, 11 March 2018 12:14:40 PM
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Try getting it right, Little.

Salt is killing aquatic plants in upper reaches of Gippsland Lakes.

Has anybody said salt is killing seagrass at (the) Lakes Entrance?

It's the deep dredging plus sewage nutrient pollution that has killed most seagrass in the lower lake/estuary.
Posted by JF Aus, Sunday, 11 March 2018 12:33:41 PM
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I've got it exactly right JF Aus. In typical arrogant green mode you're trying to hijack the debate. The article says: So how did the Lakes become so environmentally degraded? An entrance to the ocean was constructed near Lakes Entrance in 1889, and this allowed salt water to enter the Lakes and impact on the fringing vegetation. Since then, the Thomson and Blue Rock Dams have been constructed, and intense irrigated farming in West Gippsland has further reduced fresh-water flows to the Lakes. Freshwater input has declined and tidal flush has increased. That kills your argument (not in the article) about pollution.
Posted by Little, Sunday, 11 March 2018 12:51:42 PM
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Little,

The article also indicates the tidal salt water inflow has increased due to deepening of the entrance.
This lakes always had an entrance, but that lkely changed from time to time depending on outgoing runoff. Perhaps it was always open.

My comments are not necessarily about what caused all the damage to the lakes. Is thete only one cause according to you?
My comments refer to what the damaged lakes ecosystem has done to fish stocks and to downstream stakeholders including the Lakes Entrance, SE Vic, NSW, QLD coast and SW Pacific Islands - seafood linked communities.

Farmer's are always being blamed for too much fertilizer runoff while sewage nutrient overload dumped daily by government seems always ignored, in Australia at least at present.

Nutrient over-load pollution is feeding algae that is reducing sunlight essential for photosynthesis in seagrass.

I repeat, I am not a greenie. I have never sought or collected donations and never will.
Posted by JF Aus, Sunday, 11 March 2018 3:26:13 PM
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Hasbeen & Little,

Perhaps this will help you comprehend.

http://newsok.com/article/5586958

I wish Australians were not such knockers and could instead see avenues to progress and prosperity.
Posted by JF Aus, Sunday, 18 March 2018 4:14:21 AM
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