Last month tigtog had a post on Water, politics and lungfish regarding how the damming of the Mary and Burnett rivers in Queensland may destroy the habitat of the Australian lungfish.
Via US science blogger PZ Myers at Pharyngula and buried in a report from the Courier Mail on the water politicking during the Queensland election campaign, is an incident that could potentially damn the lungfish:
Meanwhile, Macquarie University professor Jean Joss claimed Department of Primary Industry bureaucrats had been ordered to shred any evidence of Traveston’s adverse environmental impacts on Mary River species, particularly the vulnerable lungfish.
However, Primary Industries Minister Tim Mulherin said the claims were false.
“There has been no direction or instruction to shred or destroy anything,” he said in a statement.
Former Labor MP turned Independent candidate for Noosa Cate Molloy said she was not surprised by the claims.
“If that is true it would make me sick in the tummy,” she said.
I’m with Cate Molloy on this one.
Wot..sick in tummy too?
Also, I’m not surprised by the claims, they are true (ie the claims are false).
Quite a few environmental impact statements are, i.m.h.o., at best, make-work, and at worst, a load of bollocks …. and sometimes much more beneficial to a commercial rival than to any wildlife (the windfarm scandal for a recent example?).
However, if what Prof. Jean Joss said is in any way true then there should be an immediate Senate enquiry or federal Royal Commission into the matter. Lungfish are far too important to the whole world to be endangered further.
btw, Preservation of Lungfish habitat and large-scale water storage do not have to be mutually exclusive ….. unless you happen to be a dud engineer, a dodgy biologist or a shonky administrator.
Thanks for bringing this to our attention, Shaun.
I find it frustrating that we really don’t have enough information to decide what we should think or whether, for example, we should change our vote.
There is no doubt in my mind that we need the water. Take a look at tha long term trend maps for Queensland or Australia. Go here and adjust the settings to Rainfall – Australia or Queensland – Annual – 1970-present
Sorry, I hit the “submit” button by mistake.
The map looks ugly but remember that it is expressed in mm/10 years so it’s not totally drastic. But it does seem to represent a long-term trend of significance in terms of climate rather than just weather.
The short-term data is also interesting. Look here for deciles and here for percentages for the last 3 years. In each case if I undersyand the geograpy Wivenhoe is in the ugly blob, whereas Traveston does better.
In addition, if you look at the averages it is a bit hard to see, but I’m confident that Wivenhoe is in the 800-1000mm band whereas the Mary River/Traveston catchment is in the 1000mm plus.
Also the population has increasd 50% since Wivenhoe was commissioned and will increase further.
All that means I suspect we are going to need all the help we can get even with desalination, savings, installing domestic tanks and recycling. But here again I don’t really know.
So what do you do – limit the population to save the lungfish? We need more information and lobbying for a Senate enquiry might be the best option. Any other ideas?
In that last link you have to go to Rainfall – Queensland – Annual
As always, but limited by my experiences on this or any other blog, Brian’s comments seem to be grounded in reality.
Shaun, you say:
Maybe that is the case. (And you do say ‘may’).
And, if so, it is a real cause for concern. However, in my experience to date, PZ Myers has some credibility problems, at least in terms of attention to detail
As for Professor Jean Joss, she needs to do better than simply claim there has been a ‘cover-up’. She needs to provide some evidence – some ‘leaked’ written documentation would be helpful.
Mulherin has denied it.
Also. as one who knows the area reasonably well, I would like someone to explain how their habitat will be destroyed. The catchment of the Mary River is massive and there already is a dam on one tribituary.
Why can’t the lungfish simply go upstream after the dam is built? TThe fact that they have survived for a very long time suggests they are resilient.
Also, there is any number (very large) of streams/tribs that make up the Mary. Look at a map of the region.
Just askin …???
Why can’t the fish just go upstream?, wpd asks
Why can’t birds just fly EAST in the winter.