Friday, August 10, 2012

Woodside's whale count is way too low, say gas hub opponents | The Australian

Woodside's whale count is way too low, say gas hub opponents | The Australian:

A whale breaches off the red cliff coast near James Price Point. Environmentalists say a proposed sea-wall near the gas hub could disturb whale and dolphin migration Picture: Damian Kelly Source: The Australian
 MIGRATING whales and newborn calves are streaming past Woodside's proposed $30 billion James Price Point gas hub site near Broome, eclipsing estimates in the company's environmental impact assessment, which has received a record number of appeals.

Volunteers, co-ordinated by marine biologist Maddie Goddard, counted 1423 individual whales within 8km of the red cliff coastline in 132 hours of observation between July 1 and Tuesday.

The count included 1233 individual whales and 95 calving pairs.

"Those figures suggest 8600 whales would have been sighted in the migration corridor if observations had taken place around the clock," volunteer Charlotte Buckton said.

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