Australian Oceans Conference Warned of Rising Sea Levels

HOBART, Tasmania, Australia, April 22, 2004 (ENS) - Sea levels in the Australian region are rising at rates which will have a major impact over decades to come, scientists warned participants in a national oceans conference taking place in Hobart this week. Australia's ocean territory, at 14 million square kilometers, is the largest of any nation on Earth.

Speaking at the Coast to Coast 04 conference which concludes today, Dr. John Church, of the government scientific agency CSIRO and the Antarctic Climate and Ecosystems Cooperative Research Centre, said a recent research has confirmed that the North Queensland city of Cairns would be subject to impacts such as flooding, storm surges and severe wave conditions.

"Sea level rise has the potential to affect millions of people living in low lying coastal regions, particularly the inhabitants of mega-cities developing on coasts around the world and those living on deltas of major rivers and small island nations," he said.

"Put extreme storms, king tides and long term sea level rise together and you have a package that the insurance industry recognizes will produce high cost storms and floods in Australia and New Zealand," said Dr. Church, who was a lead author on sea level rise for the Third Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change released in 2000.

He said 20th century warming has contributed significantly to the observed sea level rise through thermal expansion of sea water and widespread loss of land ice.

The Australian government is taking steps to protect the Great Barrier Reef, the world's longest. On March 24, Parliament passed a law establishing the Representative Areas Program, and thus giving the highest possible level of protection to one third of the entire Great Barrier Reef Marine Park. When the law takes effect on July 1, at least one-fifth of all bioregions will be in no-take zones to protect biodiversity.

Natural channels in the Pompey Complex of the Great Barrier Reef (Photo courtesy GBRMPA)

A new atlas of activity in Australia’s marine territory sponsored by the Australian government and launched at Coast to Coast 04 provides for the first time a snapshot of the diverse uses of the ocean.

National Oceans Office Director Max Kitchell said the publication would help quench the thirst for information about Australia’s vast ocean resources and how they are used. Until now, this information was locked away in a variety of data bases in state and Australian government departments, research institutions, industry bodies and businesses.

“The National Marine Atlas has brought this information together in one publication, providing a unique reference document for data as diverse as shipwreck sites and the distribution of threatened marine species," Kitchell said.

Conference participants have ambitious plans to find out more information about Australian oceans and coasts, and some are willing to work with members of the general public.

Hobart scientists are inviting CoastCare members and other community volunteers to monitor shoreline changes around Tasmania to help scientists investigate the likely effects of global climate change and enable better planning of coastal development.

“We expect seas to rise between eight and 80 centimeters (three and 31 inches) over the 21st century due to climate change, said Dr. John Hunter, of the Antarctic Climate and Ecosystems Cooperative Research Centre. "This rise could have a huge impact on our coasts – as a rule of thumb, each centimeter rise causes sandy shorelines to retreat by about one meter (39 inches), not considering the impacts of coastal storms.”

The public can also get involved in finding solutions for the problem of abandoned fishing nets that continue to kill fish as they drift about the ocean.

Bundles of abandoned nets from fishing operations are posing a major environmental threat to sealife around Australia, says resource manager Riki Gunn. The abandoned nets are a major threat to turtles in northern waters, particularly the Gulf of Carpenteria, where the Arafura Sea feeds the gulf area.

Speaking at the Coast to Coast 2004 conference, Gunn said that while most of the nets are of international origin, the problem becomes local when the nets and their dead cargo reach shore.

“A helicopter survey of turtles in the Gulf revealed absolutely enormous bundles of netting every kilometer of coastline traversed – averaging five of these bundles for every one kilometer,” she says. “Recently a net confiscated from an illegal boat in the Arafura sea measured a staggering 16 kilometers long.”

Sea ranger Thomas Amagula displays abandoned netting he found while patrolling the Arafura coast. Almost 80 percent of the Arafura Ecoregion coast is Aboriginal owned. (Photo courtesy WWF Australia)

Gunn is organizing a forum in May to seek solutions, with representatives including all the aboriginal communities surrounding the Gulf, and all three levels of government, including Senator Ian Macdonald.

An ambitious project to visit each of Australia’s 11,011 beaches and develop a standard map of their vital characteristics has concluded, with the results soon to be made available to the public and to other organizations who depend on reliable information about the country’s coastline.

The journey, taken on behalf of a life saving organization for surfers, is the first time the coast of any continent has been documented to such an extent, and will improve Surf Life Saving Australia’s understanding of the country’s coastline and its ability to provide safety services.

The director of the project and the only man to have visited every beach in Australia, Professor Andrew Short from the University of Sydney, says the program began in 1987 when Surf Life Saving NSW contacted the state government with a proposal to document each of the 721 beaches in that state.

“Since then I have visited 1,488 beaches in the Northern Territory, 1,719 in Queensland, 1,788 in South Australia, 1,114 in Tasmania, 692 in Victoria and 3,489 in Western Australia, so I have seen the best and worst of them,” he said.

The organization's CEO, Greg Nance, said the Australian Beach Safety and Management Program which was undertaken in conjunction with Sydney University’s Coastal Studies Unit, is one of a number of research projects currently underway which will make Australian beaches safer.

“The sheer scope of the task to visit each beach in the country and document everything from its distance to the nearest town to its sand type has been quite daunting, however the information now forms the basic building block for delivery of improved beach safety services,” he said.

The coast and its beaches are feeling the effects of rapid urban sprawl, said scientists and planners at Coast to Coast 2004. They spoke of the social, economic and environmental impacts of continued loss of coastal habitats, spiralling property prices, threat of marine pests, loss of coastal wetlands, and pollution from urban, agriculture and industrial sources entering rivers, estuaries, wetlands and the ocean.

“We need to improve the way we value and plan to use our coastal resources,” says Dr. Rob Fearon, CEO of Australia’s Coastal Cooperative Research Centre. The Coastal CRC is a national research partnership of universities, government agencies and industry to improve the condition of Australia’s coastal zone, estuaries and waterways.

The Queensland coastal city of Cairns (Photo courtesy Historical Society Cairns)

“All require attention as we struggle to protect environmental values that we cherish about our coasts, estuaries and beaches. We need to develop clear policies, legislative and scientific frameworks to overcome the sectoralism and ad-hoc systems which have existed in coastal management for many decades,” sais Dr. Fearon.

“With four million people living close to the beach, and nearly 80 percent of all Australians living in the coastal zone, we must do whatever we can to protect coastal resources that support our livelihoods and lifestyle."

Scientists from Geoscience Australia now are mapping and gathering information about Australia’s near-pristine estuaries as part of a Coastal Cooperative Research Centre project.

“Near-pristine estuaries are those which have had little or no impact from urbanization, agriculture, or industry, said environmental scientist Emma Murray, who will use the estuary information as an environmental benchmark against which to assess changes to Australia’s estuaries since European settlement and into the future.

“The results of the study will assist with the management and conservation of Australia’s estuarine environments," Murray said. “Australia is currently in a good position to carry out this work, as roughly half, about 470 out of 974, of its estuaries are in near-pristine condition,” she said.

The New South Wales Department of Environment and Conservation has launched a new guide to help the state's coastal councils monitor beach water quality and report the results to the community.

The Monitoring and Reporting Coastal Recreational Water Quality Manual is based on the government’s successful Beachwatch program, which monitors and reports on beach water quality in Sydney, Wollongong and Newcastle.

The manual provides a step by step guide for coastal councils to monitor their local waterways and let the community know the condition of their beaches. There is advice on how to take water samples and identify pollution, what to do if an algal bloom hits, and ways to involve the community in the health of local waterways.

Fourteen coastal councils have already successfully piloted the program over the last 18 months. The guide now means all councils can adopt the same approach.

Water quality data will be collated and made available to the public at www.soedirect.com.au For more information go to Beachwatch online at: www.environment.nsw.gov.au/beach/

Federal Environment Minister Dr. David Kemp formally opened the Clean Marinas-Australia program at the Coast to Coast 04 conference.

Clean Marinas-Australia is a national voluntary accreditation system for marinas, slips and boat yards. It has been developed by the Marina Association of Australia, with funding provided by Environment Australia. Participants include EPA organizations across Australia, state and federal environment and heritage agencies, capital city councils and environmental consultants, together with marina and boat yard operators in every state of Australia and the Northern Territory.

And for the future, Parks Victoria announced the world's first International Marine Protected Areas Congress to be held in Geelong, Victoria in October 2005.

Ian Walker, a Parks Victoria Senior Manager, said, "The opportunity to provide the international community with a forum to discuss marine protected areas and their management was very exciting and the co-hosts Parks Victoria, the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority and the World Commission on Protected Areas are delighted and proud that Australia has been selected as the venue."