Info on coral sea closure please

[kieranc]

Hi all. I'm doing a speech regarding the closure of the coral sea (e.g. including the whole Australia recreational aspect and industry dissolving etc.) and I was wondering if someone could outline basically who, what, where, quotes if you have it. I would greatly appreciate it

Also, this is for a competition for my school in the public so the issue could/will get a bit of publicity if I do it right.

[Scott NQ]

the PEW environmental group is behind it, which is funded by PEW Charitable Trusts, a US 'charity' that was started by Sun Oil, and still today, over 95% of their monay comes from US Oil Companies. There's also a Cairns Based environment group behind it as well, CANFEC I think??

So far, the region has been declared a 'conservation zone' with ZERO consultation with stakeholder industries, only PEW, WWF and CANFEC were invited to discussions with Garret over the issue. This 'zoning' so far has no effect on the recreational or commercial fishermen, however, charter operators must now obtain a permit to fish the region.

Reasons behind the "needed" closure include:

1. Protect the Coral sea from "over fishing" even though PEW admitted in their submission that there is very little fishing pressure in the coral sea

2. Protect historical navel battle site, ie the site of the 'battle of the coral sea", even though where the battle took place and the resting place of the concerned ship etc are NOT within the proposed exclusion zone.

3. Protect the coral sea from mining and oil exploration, which is just a ploy from the powers that control PEW (that is the US oil Companies), to either stop any potential competition from other companies who could extract oil in the area (which in fact is illegal, that is stopping marketplace competition), or to eliminate an Australian presence in the area so that their own oil exploration goes unnoticed by the public.

Commercial bulk shipping will still be allowed to continue.

one down side other than the millions in lost tourism dollars, and fishing/boating industrly dollars, will be that without and Australian presence in the coral sea, illegal fishing by other nations will be given a free pass, after all, the majority of illegal fishing operations discovered, reported and stopped are with the sole information source of a recreational or licenced commercial fishermen.

Along with the obvious fishing and boating industry declines, this will produce a flow on affect across all Australian industry, from Tourism in the North, such as accomodation etc international and domestic travellers use when attending the Cairns Giant Balck Marlin season, manufacturing industry, such as marine electronics and hardware, mining (have to get the materials to build the boats from somewhere), which is a major part of North Queensland's and Australia's financial security. The list goes on and on, honestly, name an industry and it will be adversly affected by this closure. Tourism, hospitality, mining, manufacturing, processing, all facets of fishing, shipping, boating, PR, everything will suffer losses.

There's is a lot more I could've offered, but all the documentation I had was lost when my old computer blew up, so now I have to start over. The first port of call for you though, would be getting hold pf PEW's original submission to the federal zoo we call a govt

[kieranc]

Cool, thanks a lot!

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And so it would mean all the ocean within the red border is protected? http://www.fishingworld.com.au/images/dm...%20600.jpg

[Leakerty Split]

Hi Kieran,

The site below will give you an idea of what they're about.....It's a big file with lovely photos & one of the biggest cons apart from global warming/climate change. Keep in mind that's just their side of the story (& obviously the only one that counts as us fishers don't have a voice - yet). Scott is on the money with his summation of the idiots. By the way, good luck with the speech & I hope you do well with it. Wouldn't it be great to email Mr Garrett & get his take on it all but I doubt you'd get a reply....

http://www.pewtrusts.org/our_work_report...x?id=49380

Cheers,

Leakerty.

[kieranc]

Excellent thanks a lot everyone, my information pile is growing .

Also, if you have facebook, join our group which is against the coral sea closure at http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=260961548245

[Leakerty Split]

Kieran,

You'll see from the maps also that this new Coral Sea Conservation Zone boarders the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park to the west. This could be their next assignment & given they had virtually no hassles at all in getting the Coral Sea Zone enacted (probably other than a few hefty monetary kickbacks to certain public figures), why should they have any trouble in securing ALL of the GBRMP. They could easily get that through without the stakeholder consultation too.
Hope I'm wrong though....

Cheers,

Leakerty.

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Hi again Kieran,

Below are a couple of email addresses whereby you CAN email the PM Mr Rudd & the minister for environmental terrorists & maniacs, Mr Garrett with your concerns. Give it a go if you like, I did, but got no reply yet.

http://www.pm.gov.au/PM_Connect/Email_your_PM

http://www.alp.org.au/people/email/garrett_peter.php

Cheers,

Leakerty.

[Scott NQ]

Also, just to throw a bit of doubt out there and make the sheeple think about who this Govt is actually running the country for (Australia or the UN and Green zealots), I'd add in something suggestive about how the Coral Sea Conservation zone was seemingly a very smooth process when PEW came knocking with their Billions in the bank and the Aust Govt in billions of debt, just mention how convenient it was

[kieranc]

Hi guys.

Just wondering, who actually defines the rules and regulations for fishing QLD?

Thanks!

[Scott NQ]

Bag limkits sizes etc are defined by the State Govt, but zoning in heritage listed areas and commonwealth waters (beyond 3nm) is done by the feds, all other zoning if by the State govt

[kieranc]

Hi all. Will the closure stop things such as sight seeing trips to the reef e.g. snorkelling and the like?