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AUSTRALIA
Marine Biodiversity Threatened by Oil, Gas Exploration
By Stephen de Tarczynski
MELBOURNE, Australia, Jul 30, 2010 (IPS) - In early July, whales from the world’s largest population of
humpbacks began arriving in the warm, subtropical waters off
Australia’s north-west coast to breed and nurse their young.
From May each year, some 22,000 humpbacks make the
pilgrimage up Australia’s west coast from their Antarctic
feeding grounds before beginning the return journey in
September.
The whales, which usually grow to between 12 and 16
metres when mature, constitute just a tiny fraction of the
wide variety of life supported by Australia’s marine
ecosystem, considered to be the most biologically diverse on
the planet.
But in recent months, environmentalists around Australia
have been expressing concern that the marine environment is
largely unprotected from threats like overfishing and the
exploration and production of oil and gas.
While the government of Prime Minister Julia Gillard is
aiming to have a system of marine reserves in place by 2012,
less than five percent of Australia’s Exclusive Economic
Zone is currently protected.
For the Aug. 21 general election, green groups are
calling on the two major parties, Gillard’s Australian Labor
Party and the conservative opposition coalition, to commit
to establishing an extensive network of large marine parks
immediately in order to safeguard the humpback whales’
breeding grounds and other important marine environments.
"Numerous scientific and economic reports have
demonstrated that a network of marine sanctuaries will
protect marine life, help to make fisheries sustainable and
bring long-term economic benefits," said Piers Verstegen,
director of the Conservation Council of Western Australia
(CCWA), the state’s peak environment organisation, on
Jul.17.
In October 2009, Western Australia’s leader, Premier
Colin Barnett, announced that his state government intended
to declare the humpbacks’ breeding area "a (protected)
marine park". But action has yet to be taken on this.
"There has been delay after delay and everything we are
hearing is that protective measures within the park are
being watered down," said the Wilderness Society’s Peter
Robertson.
"There is every indication that commercial fishing will
continue throughout the marine park, putting marine life at
risk," he added.
Of additional concern to environmental groups is the
federal government’s continued release of offshore areas for
oil and gas exploration. In May, Minister for Resources and
Energy Martin Ferguson announced the release of 31 marine
areas across five submarine basins for petroleum
exploration.
Twenty-six of these areas are in waters off Western
Australia.
"These are primarily in deep water and as we’ve seen in
the Gulf of Mexico, the industry is completely ill-equipped
to deal with deepwater oil spills and oil blowouts," the
CCWA’s Tim Nicol told IPS.
Described by U.S. President Barack Obama as an
"unprecedented" environmental disaster, an April explosion
on the Deepwater Horizon oil rig - owned by oil giant
British Petroleum - in the Gulf of Mexico killed 11 people
and led to the uncontrolled leaking of millions of barrels
of oil into the sea.
While the flow of oil appears to have been halted,
concerns remain over the short and long-term environmental
consequences of the massive spill.
Australia has not been without its own spills. Following
a blowout at the Montara wellhead platform in the Timor Sea
off Western Australia’s northern coast in August 2009, oil
and gas leaked for some 74 days before being plugged.
The Australian Greens party and World Wildlife Fund-
Australia say the spill was worse than the government has
hitherto admitted.
Martin Ferguson, the resources minister, commissioned an
inquiry into the incident - the report of which he received
on Jun.18 - but remains tight-lipped on the subject. A
ministerial official contacted by IPS would give no
indication as to when the report will be publicly released.
One of the zones made available for exploration is
located at the Mentelle Basin off Western Australia’s south-
west coast, some 70 kilometres from Margaret River, which
boasts clear water and pristine beaches. The Margaret River
region, a few hours’ drive south of the state capital Perth,
is also a renowned wine-growing region.
Environmentalists warn that any oil or gas leaks in the
Mentelle Basin would likely have a disastrous effect on the
local economy, similar to what has occurred along areas of
the United States’ coast.
And like the Gulf of Mexico spill, local marine life
would also suffer. The Mentelle Basin is in "an area of
important deepwater habitat," according to Nicol. "It’s the
area where the southern right whales and humpback whales and
even blue whales migrate through every year."
But the government has so far rejected calls for a
moratorium on the release of acreage for petroleum
exploration. Ferguson said that stopping the process would
"do nothing to improve industry safety."
"All petroleum exploration and development activities are
subject to stringent environmental standards, approvals and
reporting requirements set out in petroleum-specific
environmental legislation," said the minister when the
acreage release was announced.
Ferguson has also linked oil and gas exploration to
Australia’s energy security, a point supported by the
Australian Petroleum Production and Exploration Association
(APPEA), the industry’s peak representative body.
"Australia’s oil production peaked ten years ago. From
meeting nearly 100 percent of Australia’s needs in 2000, we
have fallen (to) just over 55 percent in 2010. And without
major new discoveries, it’s anticipated to be just 32
percent by 2017," said APPEA’s chief executive Belinda
Robinson. (END)
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