Sunday, June 20, 2010

Kimberley Humpback Whales threatened by oil and gas and no marine protection


MEDIA RELEASE
JUNE 20, 2010

Call for action from Garrett in Morocco


While pregnant Humpback Whales arrive off the Kimberley coast Australian Environment Minister Peter Garrett arrives in Morocco ready for a fight with Japanese whalers.

The Kimberley Humpbacks, one of the largest populations in the world, are arriving on Australia’s Kimberley coast on their annual migration from Antarctica to give birth to their calves and mate.

Meanwhile the State and Federal Government are investigating an industrial port for up to 1,500 supertankers per year and associated shipping and a gas processing facility for oil and gas company Woodside petroleum in the same place the first Humpbacks arrived on May 24th, north of Broome.

The industrial port on the Kimberley coast would threaten the Humpback’s migration as well as cut through the southern calving ground. Environment groups and locals are calling on the State and Federal Government to move the project south to an already industrialised area.

“The impacts of this industrialisation on an undeveloped coast would be catastrophic.” said Louise Middleton, an environmentalist from Broome, Western Australia.

“This Humpback population is twice the size of the East Coast population and calves and mates in seas off a coast that has not been developed. It’s one of the few populations that can be observed from land that is undisturbed.” said Ms Middleton.

“As a sign of things to come, seismic testing is happening, in the migration pathway as whales are coming through.” Ms Middleton said.

“We were promised marine sanctuaries by the Federal Government at the last election but unfortunately they seemed to have disappeared off the radar.” said Ms. Middleton.

‘We have an international obligation to protect Humpback whales and the Federal Government are at the International Whaling Commission in Morocco now, loudly advocating on their behalf. They cannot claim to be protecting whales by opposing harvesting, when at the same they are putting whales at risk in their calving grounds. If they don’t want to be accused of hypocrisy, they must ensure that whales are protected at home as well as in other parts of the world,” said Ms Middleton.


Media Contact: In Morocco Ph 0648862352

3 comments:

  1. What is this strange game being played by Peter Yu and Frank Parriman?Yu says the Yawuru should have been included in the process.Parriman says[in his best innocent voice]that the Yawuru were asked and he just cannot understand why they were not included.However if you look at the Yawuru claim some of the same people are on T.O.N.C. In particular Mary Tarran who featured in the K.L.C. adverts for the T.O.N.C.in the Broome advertiser for months.Also in these adverts were Mary Tarrant's sister,their children and their mother Cecilia.Cecilia was one,along with Pat Dodson,of the main claimaints on the Yawuru claim.Pat and Cecilia are closely related.Pat works with Peter Yu.Given all these people know each other so very well,why is Parriman carrying on as if no one was aware of each other?What crazy game is this?So we have some of the main claimants on the Yawuru claim fronting the Jabir Jabir claim.And yet it seems they are claiming they don't know each other,or strangely,themselves!

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  2. If you reckon that's strange try this.If anyone got the billion and had say as much success as ATSIC at getting it on the ground it would work out to about $330,000 a year for 30 years!A block of land a year in Broome-just.Now the worrying part is if they had as much "success" as the northern territory government.That would work out to about a block of land every 10 years.Joe Roe is spot on when he says"...and when the money is gone,what have you got?".The answer of course is the same as ATSIC...lots of secondhand office furniture.

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  3. who's your daddy wayne?c'mon own up WHO IS YOUR DADDY???

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