Gladstone Harbour

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Report says dredging threatens Gladstone fishing industryWilliam Rollo reported this story on Monday, June 18, 2012 07:26:00Listen to MP3 of this story ( minutes) Alternate WMA version | MP3 download TONY EASTLEY: When a UNESCO report declared the Great Barrier Reef under threat from port developments earlier this month, it was hardly a surprise to people in the fishing industry in the Central Queensland town of Gladstone.They say their industry has been devastated by the expansion of the town's liquefied natural gas export facility.The operators of Gladstone's port say they're operating within strict environmental guidelines, but fishers say a new report directly links dredging in the harbour to outbreaks of fish disease.William Rollo reports from Gladstone in Central Queensland.WILLIAM ROLLO: The harbour city of Gladstone sits on the southern tip of the Great Barrier Reef.It's also home to the largest port in Queensland and to service the boom in liquefied natural gas exports, the Gladstone Ports Corporation is undertaking one of the biggest dredging programs in the country to make the port both deeper and wider to facilitate larger ships.But local fishers are outraged. They say the dredging program is destroying their industry and that they've now got a report to prove it.TED WHITTINGHAM: The industry here before the development started was worth around about $40 million a year. I believe we've lost up to 90 per cent of that in the town. So it's been devastating.WILLIAM ROLLO: Ted Whittingham owns the Gladstone Fish Markets. He says the local fishing industry once thrived with an abundance of healthy marine life off its shores. But it came to a grinding halt last September after fishers discovered mysterious conditions like lesioned skin and cloudy eyes on barramundi and other fish.And after fishers starting falling sick too, the State Government responded with a three week ban on fishing near the port.The fishers say it's the dredging program that's causing fish to become sick, but the state-owned Gladstone Ports Corporation blames it on floods and cyclones and say they're operating within strict environmental guidelines.So the local fishing industry commissioned James Cook University researchers to investigate. Ted Whittingham says the study shows the Ports Corporation has it all wrong.TED WHITTINGHAM: The report has come along and said it isn't weather events, it wasn't the water, that the harbour is dirtier now than it was in 2010 and it is caused by the dredging and the turbidity from the dredging.WILLIAM ROLLO: Satellite images in the study show dredging sediment, including metals, may be drifting up to 35 kilometres out to sea. That's much further than previously thought.Fishers like Trevor Felzon believe those metals are poisoning the fish in what he says is prime fishing territory.TREVOR FELZON: I go out to sea about 15ks. Actually sometimes I can travel up to you know 30 odd ks out to sea. I chase a lot of shark, pelagic fish, mackerel, tuna. So you look for ridges and you know rocks and those sort of things, and you set your nets off it. Now what's happening now is when I set nets off those plumes, what I think is a good spot to net, the sediment from the plume is actually attacking the net.WILLIAM ROLLO: AM contacted the Gladstone Ports Corporation for comment but didn't receive a response.The researchers say they'll need higher resolution data to conclusively determine the impact of dredging on marine life.And with Queensland's liquefied natural gas industry soaring, local fishers fear the problem is only going to get worse.TONY EASTLEY: William Rollo reporting.http://www.abc.net.au/am/content/2012/s3527116.htmTB