Shipping and the Great Barrier Reef

In the news recently a Chinese coal ship captain was arrested for sailing through part of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park without a pilot.  

News article; http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-02-16/chinese-coal-ship-captain-arrested-sailing-through-reef-no-pilot/6115514

Ofcourse, the usual anti coal activist organizations were quick to jump on this with their scaremongering of supposedly hundreds more coal ships going through the reef. An example below from the Greenpeace Australia Facebook page.

 

What, they don't bother to tell their followers , is that many ships use the waters of the Marine Park , not just coal ships.  How do these people think that their goods like fuel, food and clothing get delivered to Queensland. Many cargo ships come into the country via the Great Barrier Reef bringing all sorts of goods.  There are also Cruise ships going up and down the coastline on a regular basis. Fuel ships, live cattle ships, naval ships and fishing vessels to name a few.

And, as the population grows , more ships will use the waters to travel through.

Interesting Facts.

Much of the prosperity of the communities in central and north Queensland, as well as the Australian economy, is based on the mining and agriculture industry, whose products by necessity must travel through Queensland’s ports.

Access to Queensland ports requires ships to travel through environmentally sensitive areas such as the Great Barrier Reef, Torres Strait and the Coral Sea. As such, it is essential for the survival of regional communities and the Australian economy that these shipping routes remain open and available to shipping on an equitable and sustainable basis.

Commodities shipped through the Great Barrier Reef region include metal ores, coal, bauxite, liquefied natural gas, sugar, timber, oil, chemicals, live cattle and general cargo.

Source: AMSA

http://amsa.gov.au/

What the anti coal activist organizations also forget to mention is that there is a very good monitoring system in place to keep an eye on all shipping activities within the Reef waters.

REEFVTS is like air traffic control but for the waters. If it was not for this service the coal ship mentioned in the article above could very well have run aground on the reef. This is proof that the monitoring system is working well.  

Ship groundings have substantially decreased since REEFVTS has been in operation,

Everyone probably remembers that in 2010 the Shen Neng 1 ran aground in an area that was not covered by the REEFVTS.  After that incident the tracking area was increased to cover the whole of the Great Barrier Reef marine waters. The map below shows the area now covered by REEFVTS.

For more information about REEFVTS please check out the links below:

Qld Government

AMSA

AN OPEN LETTER TO ALL CONCERNED

HELP SUPPORT INDUSTRY AND FUTURE JOB PROSPECTS

We are asking for all Australian residents who are concerned for their future job prospects and the future of our economy to please take the time to look and see what is happening in our area right now!!

THE BATTLE OF GALILEE 

By building a high profile public campaign to disrupt and delay the Galilee Basin coal mines, anti coal activists are trying to significantly increase investor uncertainty while undermining political support. 

This in turn may result in less Government subsidies for the projects, and/or stricter approval conditions, by further driving up costs and increasing risks. Extensive delays may also make the projects run foul of a changing global coal investment environment.

If you have not seen this document before, please take the time to read it.

Stopping the Australian Coal Export Boom - Funding proposal for the Australian anti-coal movement.

Stopping the Australian Coal Export Boom

The coal port at Abbot Point is located not far from the World Heritage listed Great Barrier Reef, the anti coal activists have used this opportunity for alliance building with scientists and the tourism and fishing industries. These groups have been used to show their concern for the dredging project.

They have also used the reef as an emotional lever with the general public by making claims of ‘dredging on the reef’ and ‘dumping on the reef’. Which ofcourse is not true!!  The reef is nowhere near  where the dredging will take place.

In September, 2014 the then Queensland Government delivered a new proposal that included onshore disposal of dredged spoil.  Due to the close proximity of the Caley Valley Wetlands to the port land.  The new catch cry was "don't dump on the wetlands".

Unfortunately, beautiful photos of either the Nulla Creek approximately 5kms from the disposal site or aerial views of Stewarts Creek which is in the opposite direction have been splashed all over social media. Neither of these places would have had dredge spoil “dumped” there.

Instead, dredged spoil would have been pumped into carefully constructed ponds which would have been built on less than 3% of the wetlands area. The wetlands would have been protected from future development by way of legislation known as the Nature Conservation Act. 

We were hoping that the new incoming Labor Government would continue to support the port and wetlands proposal as well.  Unfortunately, they decided against the LNP plan and have now gone with a new disposal site within the port limits. We are still waiting on approval for this site.

If you support these projects please join the residents of North Queensland by fighting back against this anti coal campaign.

If you would like to help us, please join the facebook group, Bowen and Surrounds Needs and Wants the Abbot Point Expansion.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/AbbotPointExpansionSupporters/      

For more information regarding the Abbot Point Expansion and associated rail and mine infrastructure please check out our facts pages.
https://www.facebook.com/AbbotPointDredgingMythsandFacts

https://www.facebook.com/AbbotPointExpansionFactsPage
https://www.facebook.com/AbbotPointAction

Regards,

Members of The Abbot Point Expansion Supporters Group

Whether you love coal or hate it, the fact is, it will be around for along time yet.  Until, a better , cleaner , cheaper form of energy is found to compete with coal, we will continue to use it to give energy to countries who are crying out just to be able to flick a switch!!

It is also vital that we keep coal going in this country as it is one of our biggest export earners. Without it, Australia would be in dire straights!!  

We don't have another export earner that could replace coal, not now or in the future.  Just think about this - the anti coal activist organizations want to kill the coal industry and keep all coal in the ground so we would have to go to so-called renewable energy.  We don't export wind or solar out of the country, so, how can that industry carry on from coal with export earnings??  There would be millions of export dollars lost and thousands and thousands of jobs lost.

Don't let the anti coal activist organizations win with their deceitful lies.  They have no answers for the future.