January 13, 2014, 8:40 am

Claims a marine sanctuary zone in upper Gulf St Vincent will destroy a local fishing town have been dismissed as “rubbish” by the South Australian Government.

A group of Port Wakefield residents gathered to protest against the zone outside the office of the previous Environment Minister Paul Caica at Henley Beach on Sunday.

The State Government says the sanctuaries in 19 marine parks make up just 6 per cent of the state’s waters, but the protesters say the 61-square kilometre area at the top of Gulf St Vincent bears the brunt.

The State Opposition has vowed to reduce the size of the zone if it wins the election in March and the Primary Industries Department (PIRSA) has received more than 100 offers from fishers who want to surrender their licence or entitlement in return for compensation.

Commercial fisherman Bart Butson says the zone will hit the town hard because most people only visit for the fishing.

“The people that come to visit our community – they come here to go fishing. There’s not a lot else to do in Port Wakefield,” he said.

“They come fishing, they eat at our cafes and they stay at the caravan park and we rely on that sort of investment into our town.”

Recreational fisherman Jeff Sutton described their likely impact as “catastrophic.”

“It’s far bigger than any other marine park in South Australia and it just blocks off the whole of the top of the Gulf,” he said.

Government says residents unwilling to accept compromise

The South Australian Government says the boundaries of the marine parks were set after a major public consultation process in which more than 8000 submissions were received.

Environment Minister Ian Hunter says Recreational Fish SA supports the zone, accepting the benefits outweigh the disadvantages.

Mr Hunter says the zone prevents offshore catches but does not prevent fishing from beaches, boat ramps and jetties.

He dismissed claims the sanctuary would harm the local economy.

“It’s just rubbish because we haven’t stopped people from engaging in recreational fishing from the shoreline. In fact, we changed our policy position to allow that to happen,” he said.

“This area is a very important breeding ground for many important fish stocks that people like to fish.

“That’s why [Recreational] Fish SA support the proposition that these areas be kept for those marine environments.”

Mr Hunter says the Government made several changes to the marine park plans after consultation.

“Port Wakefield residents are – some of them – unwilling to accept the compromise position that we adopted. I understand that but we think we’ve got the best outcome we possibly could get,” he said.

Opposition vows to scale back size of exclusion zone

National marine management plans signed off under Labor have recently been scrapped by the current Abbott Government.

State Opposition spokeswoman Vickie Chapman says a Liberal Government would reduce the size of the zone in upper Gulf St Vincent.

“Under a Liberal Government, the top of St Vincent Gulf would have an exclusion zone that would be different and less,” he said.

A total of 21 fishing licences have so far been accepted for surrender.

PI

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[New post] Tasmania on its way to the polls Inbox x The Tally Room <donotreply@wordpress.com> 9:30 AM (11 minutes ago) to me New post on The Tally Room Tasmania on its way to the polls by Ben Raue Following on from recent speculation about a possible snap election to be called in Tasmania, the Tally Room guide to the next Tasmanian state election is now up on the website. Tasmania last went to the polls in March 2010, and the next election was expected to be held this March, and must be held by June. Recent speculation suggests that Labor Premier Lara Giddings could call the election as early as this week. The guide features a summary of the electoral system and political circumstances, and profiles of all five electorates. Each electorate will elect five members of Parliament. At the last election, all five electorates produced the same result: two Labor, two Liberal and one Green. This resulted in the Labor government losing its majority after three terms in government, and forming an alliance with the Tasmanian Greens which saw Greens take on ministerial roles for the first time in Australian history. Since that last election, the Liberal Party has shot ahead in the polls and is expected to win the next election. Throughout this week I will be profiling one of the five electorates each day. I’ll start profiling electorates for the March election in South Australia from next week, but if you’re interested you can read those profiles already written by clicking through to the South Australian guide or clicking on the links on the right-hand sidebar. Bass Braddon Denison Franklin Lyons If you want to comment on the general campaign or the possible timing of the election, please use this thread. For specific discussion on a particular electorate or candidate, please use that profile’s comments thread. Ben Raue | January 13, 2014 at 8:30 am | URL: http://wp.me

Thousands flee Indonesian volcano

Updated: 14:28, Sunday January 12, 2014

More than 25,000 people have fled their homes following a series of eruptions and lava flows from a volcano in Indonesia.

Mount Sinabung, on the western island of Sumatra, sent hot rocks and ash up to 5000 metres in the air several times on Saturday, National Disaster Mitigation Agency emergency response director Tri Budiarto told AFP.

‘So far, 25,516 people have been evacuated. There’s nobody now within a five-kilometre radius of the crater. We are urging those living within seven kilometres southeast of the crater to move, too,’ he added.

Hot lava, which has been spewing from the volcano for the past two weeks, has flowed into a river and filled up valleys with volcanic fragments, he said.

‘There were small secondary explosions when lava flows came into contact with the water, but there are no casualties so far. We are urging people not to carry out any activity in the rivers,’ he added.

Mount Sinabung is one of 129 active volcanoes in Indonesia that straddle major tectonic fault lines, known as the Pacific Ring of Fire.

It had been quiet for about 400 years but rumbled back to life in 2010, and again in September 2013.

In August, five people were killed and hundreds were evacuated when a volcano erupted on a small island in East Nusa Tenggara province.

The country’s most active volcano, Mount Merapi in central Java, killed more than 350 people in a series of eruptions in 2010.

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Ocean Dead Zones More Deadly for Marine Life Than Previously Predicted

Jan. 9, 2014 — Ocean dead zones — regions with levels of oxygen too low to sustain marine life — have grown to become a common feature of coastal regions around the world. A new study published in the January 8 issue of PLOS One by Christopher Gobler, Professor in the School of Marine & Atmospheric Sciences at Stony Brook University and colleagues, has found that low pH levels within these regions represent an additional, previously unappreciated, threat to ocean animals.

Coastal and river flooding struck Britain again this week with huge waves hitting southern and western coasts and around 100 flood warnings still in place by Wednesday evening. Disturbing but, sadly, not unfamiliar scenes were accompanied by an impressive catalogue of disruption and bitter tales of avoidable personal tragedy.

But was this weather or climate? Must we expect more of these kinds of events and if so what can we do about it? As with all things climatic the answers are far from simple, but we can start with three basic facts.

First, a warmer atmosphere can hold more water, so at the simplest level, the global hydrological cycle is likely to intensify. This suggests it’s likely to get wetter somewhere, but not necessarily everywhere. Second, the ocean will expand as it warms, leading to rising average sea levels in the coming decades – this is one of the most confident predictions of climate-change science. Third, any melting of the continental ice sheets on Antarctica and Greenland would raise global sea levels further.

Of these three factors, only more intense storms would affect river flooding. Changes in storms are extremely difficult to predict, and will vary between regions, while river flooding is also affected by highly local factors related to soils and land use. If river flooding is changing already then the signal is not yet clear, but the evidence from the past is that relatively modest climate fluctuations since the last glacial period have been accompanied by substantial changes in flooding regimes.

But coastal flooding is another story. Although individual events are highly dependent on winds and tides, and hence subject to the same uncertainties as inland storm behaviour, the inexorable rise of sea level in response to ocean warming shifts the probability of coastal flooding steadily upwards.

The fact that the dynamics of ice sheets are hard to predict just means we can’t be sure how fast sea levels will rise, but the “likely” range from the IPCC is 26-82cm by 2100, so the uncertainty is as big as the signal itself. Indeed even predictions of the warming component of sea level rise depend on poorly understood processes such as the rate of transport of warm water to the deep ocean and typically vary by a factor of two.

Protection pays, but how much?

As rising sea levels will mean more coastal flooding it might seem the answer is clear – invest in sea defences now to avoid damaging floods before they happen. But how much to invest, where and when are much harder questions to answer. We’ve already seen that the rate of sea level rise is highly uncertain, but this is only one factor in the equation of cost versus benefit of sea defences.

Just as important is the value of land to be protected, which depends on how it is used. If land is built on, the degree of coastal development invokes public planning policy as well as private and commercial development decisions. And if land at risk is used for producing marketable agricultural or commercial output, then the value depends on the price of those goods on international markets.

Science or policy first?

Any decision of where and how much to invest in coastal protection is thoroughly mired in uncertainty. The rate of sea level rise is highly uncertain, and the statistics of individual flooding events even more so. The value at risk depends on the propensity for coastal versus inland development; and the fact that coastal economies are embedded in a globalised world means macroeconomic forces, including international trade, affect the cost-benefit calculation.

So far, the instinct of scientists and politicians has been to take a “science-first” approach, working forwards from the most complete possible scientific knowledge to the best possible decisions. But the science will never be complete and time is short. Much better, some have argued, to start from the policy end – prioritising the science that is necessary to choose between the policy options that are actually available, and using models as tools to explore the most relevant options.

Science first or policy first, we need better ways to making decisions under conditions of uncertainty. The ERMITAGE project has taken important steps in this direction by combining models of climate, economy and agricultural production. Initial results confirm earlier conclusions: money put into coastal protection pays for itself handsomely.