Don't try on that crap Misha. Exactly which threatened species are there? And exactly how does a bunch of soldiers on manouvres pose a threat to these species, and what is the recovery rate and period after these impacts, if any?

The major threat to Turtles are Dingos digging up their eggs. Even on manouvres it is generally not good practice for soldiers to hang about on a beach where they are easily detected. Landing Barges are big and slow and pose no threat to Dugong.

Dear Perseus
have a look at the Peace Convergence web site www.peaceconvergence.com for photos of bombs going off in the bay where dugongs whales and other marine life live. NIMBY syndrome for the wildlife rules!!
Also worth looking at are the Youtube contributions from past midnight oil drummer Rob Hirst and film maker David Bradbury under a search of peaceconvergence.
annette

I agree that what is happening at SWB is environmental vandalism as is all military training

but fortunately for locals surrounding SWB the actual impacts are a long way from their homes

at Lancelin DTA in WA the americans are also training doing live ATG bombing just 8km from homes of locals. They fly over homes loaded with bombs and drop them just seconds later

the same lack of environmental assesments applies and despite evidence from Vieques that 8 MILES (14km) is NOT far enough away the govt refuses to admit there is any danger to health at Lancelin

NOTE residents near Lancelin are actually CLOSER that those in Vieques and their are already signs of high rates of cancer in the area

and the environmental damage here in a DTA of only 26000h is horrific .. in an area that is (was) part of one of the top 25 biodiversity hospots in the world

you may have notice that "officially" the US trains only at SWB Bradford and Dalesmere ........

me thinks Lancelin is conveniently forgotten as the govt knows full well we are being sacrificed

Australians are fools if they cooperate in any way with George W. Bush's USA administration. Bush and his administration have shown repeatedly that they don't care about the environment, global warming, or any views of anyone other than their own small group of ideologues. The best way the rest of the world can help us US citizens get rid of this mentally unstable man is by refusing to cooperate in any way with him and his administration .

It's very unfortunate that some people don't realise what a dangerous world we live in and the fact that you cannot wave flowers and give hugs to make hateful people like you. If it weren't for the horrible consequences, I almost wish the U.S would pull it's troops back home and let the world deal with the crazy, hateful people on their own. I understand the environmental concerns posed by such a large military exercise; I don't understand the anti-US people who obviously have no clue what would happen to the free world if the U.S. went and stayed home.