Bike To Broome: 21 August 2011

A young lad with a donation.

With one week to go before riding off to Broome, the next 7 days is promising to be a very busy week indeed.

We have a bundle of bike spares to buy, posters to draw, food and drinks to buy, meet our team members at the airport, final fitting and pairing of riding pairs, team jerseys to pick up, hire vehicles to pick up, get all our camping gear together…

Everything is coming together now.

Everyone we have met have been supportive, and people have been so generous with their donations – even the many oil and gas workers we met have been supportive and generous!

We have many challenges ahead, physical, mental, and emotional.  But spirits are high.  It is going to be a great week!

Thank you to Environs Kimberley for allowing us to share this with you.

Media release

August 11, 2011

GOVERNMENT GIVES GREEN LIGHT TO CORAL REEF DESTRUCTION IN THE KIMBERLEY

 Fishing and conservation groups unite

Fishing and Conservation groups have united to express alarm over Federal government plans to allow trawling of an area the size of greater Perth in the pristine Kimberley next month.

Dr Jill St John, Marine Co-ordinator for The Wilderness Society (WA) said the shallow area up to 30m in depth is dotted with coral reefs, as beautiful and significant as those found on the Great Barrier Reef, as well as sponges and seagrass areas.

“Trawling will destroy these pristine areas along with its marine life.

“The Australian Fishery Management Authority’s proposal to allow trawling in the area has upset local fishers as trawling in this area will destroy the local trap and line fishery.

Bob Masters, Broome representative of the local trap and line fishery (Northern Demersal Scale Fishery (NDSF)) says “This 6000 sq km area was never meant to be part of the deep water prawn trawl fishery (North West Slope Trawl Fishery) that trawls offshore areas deeper than 200m.

“The Authority’s own management plan states that no trawling should be done in shallow areas (less than 200m in depth).

”We fish for tropical snappers in this area and our fishery has strict effort quota restrictions to ensure stock sustainability.

“Trawlers have not been allowed into the area since the Taiwanese trawlers were stopped in the 1970s and since then the seabed habitats have regrown and the fish communities have been replenished.”

Grant Barker, of NDSF and based in Darwin, said, “We provide high quality fish for the Australian market and, unlike trawling, don”t destroy their habitat – seafloor communities.”

Dr Jill St John adds, “Trawling destroys coral reefs and sponge gardens that may be hundreds of years old. Trawling also kills high-risk and protected species, such as sea snakes and sharks, as bycatch”.

Martin Pritchard, Director of Environs Kimberley says “This area is currently being considered for the National Marine Reserve Network and trawling is one of three fishing gear types disallowed in the reserve network.”

“Why will this area be opened to trawling before the marine reserve network is finalized?” he asked.

Further comment:

Bob Masters, Broome 0408 923 454

Grant Barker, Darwin 0428 797 490

Dr Jill StJohn, Perth 0423 225 564

Examples of bottom trawling

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-VPghE51kB0&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zikSzUhUGtA&feature=related

Yesterday was the first time that any of us had ever ridden a tandem bicycle.  Anthony ‘Hab’ Collier, from the WA Tandem Cycling Advisory Council gave us our first and only lesson in tandem riding.

A few interesting things to learn this morning: balance, communication, and trust.  Balance is initially tricky on a tandem, which makes taking off, pedaling and turning a bit more difficult.  Communication is important because the person at the back to a very large extent has to depend on the vision of the person in front.  Trust, because riding a tandem requires both riding pairs to work together effectively.

Leading up to Sunday 21 August, the riding group will have a few opportunities to train together to get more proficient at riding the tandems.  I’m guessing that it won’t take the group too long to get good at this, after all, within minutes we were riding quite well and doing speeds of around 30 km/h.

In the photo are James Campbell, Mariana Galrao, Paul Theseira, Alice Ross, Jenita Enevoldsen, Leigh Burns, Steve Gero, and Guy Sullivan.

Many thanks to the WA Tandem Cycling Advisory Council for the loan of these two tandem bikes.

Here is a brief itinerary of the Bike To Broome bike ride.  The bike ride will start on Sunday 21 August at the Murray Street Mall, Perth City, at approximately 12 noon after a few formalities, introductions, etc.

The ride will follow the coastline all the way to Broome.  So if you’re along the way, do come out and wave the riders.

12 noon Sunday, 21 August, leave Perth City (Team 1)

12 midnight Sunday 21 August, arrive at Jurien (via Lancelin), 244 km (Team 1)

12 noon Monday 22 August, arrive at Northhampton (via Green Head, Leeman, Dongara, Geraldton), 247 km (Team 2)

11pm Monday 22 August, arrive at Overlander Roadhouse, 228 km, (Team 1)

9am Tuesday 23 August, arrive at Carnarvon, 196 km, (Team 2)

9pm Tuesday 23 August, arrive at Burkett Road corner of NW Hwy 240 km, (Team 1)

8am Wednesday 24 August, arrive at Robe River rest point 225 km, (Team 2)

8pm Wednesday 24 August, arrive at Roebourne Wittenoom Rd 235 km (via Karratha and Wickham), (Team 1)

8am Thursday 25 August, arrive at De Grey River, GNH via Port Hedland 246 km, (Team 2)

6pm Thursday 25 August, arrive at Sandfire Roadhouse 206 km, (Team 1)

6am Friday 26 August, arrive at Port Smith Caravan Park 198 km, (Team 2)

3pm Friday 26 August, arrive at Broome 168 km (marry up at Roebuck Roadhouse 131 km), (Team 1), then all ride into Broome

A fourth dugong has been found dead in the last 3 months since May this year, washed up on a beach south of the Great Barrier Reef in Queensland.  Environmental groups are warning of an ecological disaster in this part of Queensland.  Friends of the Earth spokesman Drew Hutton said we are seeing destruction around Gladstone Harbour with the construction of the LNG plant there.

An LNG plant and port facilities are being built in this part of World Heritage listed Great Barrier Reef, which is a dugong sanctuary.

Mr Hutton asked, “How do you develop an environmental management plan that allows you to sensitively dredge your way through sea grass beds, removing 50 million cubic metres of spoil?”.

The Department of Environment and Resource Management (DERM) reported that six dugongs have died since the start of 2011 in the Gladstone area. This compares to just two in 2010 and one in 2009.

There has also been an increase of sea turtle deaths in the area, from 26 last year to 48 for the same period this year.

While recent floods in Queensland may account for many of these marine animal deaths, the reduction of the natural habitat from dredging is “at least helping to create a situation where they are slowly being forced out of their traditional habitat to die of starvation”, said Mr Hutton.

Meanwhile the Australian Greens are calling on the Federal Government to investigate what impact the James Price Point LNG plant and port facilitie will have on the Kimberley marine environment.

Greens Spokesperson Senator Rachel Siewert said, “According to the Government’s own reports, dredging and blasting of seabeds and reefs for the gas hub would lead to a 50km2 ‘marine deadzone’. This is a huge area to take out of an important international marine sanctuary”.

The Kimberley could be heading down the same path to a marine environment disaster and the WA Government must take the Queensland dugong deaths seriously.

Wouldn’t it be great if all we had to do to be environmentally-friendly was to drive a Toyota Prius and to put up some solar panels on our roofs?

Yes, that would be great.

But the sad truth is that it’s not that easy.

What is also sad is that if something is difficult to fix, then we would rather wish it away or let someone like David Suzuki solve it for us.

Another sad truth is that there are creatures out there that can’t drive a car or put up solar panels.  I’m talking about the creatures out there whose habitats are at the mercy of us humans.

We have the technology.  We have the capability.

We are not saying we don’t want the gas.  We are saying that we don’t want the gas processed at the culturally significant, ecologically sensitive James Price Point.

Shell is soon building the world’s largest floating LNG plant out in the Browse Basin.  Woodside is soon to start its own floating LNG plant at the Sunrise field near Timor-Leste.

So, we have the technology.  We have the capability.  So let’s now use some commonsense shall we, Woodside?

A project like Bike To Broome could never happen without the support of family, friends, work colleagues, etc.

We are so grateful to the people and organisations who are already supporting us.

Please help us raise awareness, stop this gas hub, and protect the Kimberley marine creatures by going to our Donate page and making a donation.