Latest news with #ecological disaster
News.com.au
2 days ago
- Health
- News.com.au
‘Never seen before': Mark Butler speaks about devastating algal bloom
Federal Health Minister Mark Butler has spoken about the devastating toxic algal bloom in his home state of South Australia as new pictures reveal the scale of the disaster. It follows accusations that 'virtually nothing' has been done by the federal government about the bloom. The algal bloom, called Karenia mikimotoi, is a naturally occurring but deadly phenomenon that has killed marine life in the southern state for months. Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young has been pressuring the government to declare the toxic algae a 'national disaster'. 'If this was happening in Bondi, or on the North Shore in Sydney, the Prime Minister would have already been on the beach, talking to concerned locals and the affected industries,' Senator Hanson-Young said on Wednesday. 'But today, we've had virtually nothing from the federal government.' Mr Butler, who represents the Hindmarsh electorate in Adelaide's west, spoke out about the devastation on Sunrise. 'We've never seen a bloom like this, of this scale, of this duration anywhere in Australia,' he said. 'It is incredibly serious. 'I was walking on the beach on the weekend, I saw a dead shark, dead rays – a number of dead rays – dead fish, dead cuttlefish, things I've never seen before in the decades of walking along Adelaide's beaches.' He said the federal government was working closely with the South Australian government to monitor the bloom but insisted that it was a 'huge ecological event' that couldn't be controlled any more 'than we can make it rain during a drought'. 'We have to understand the impact it is having on communities, and it's a huge impact on the Adelaide community, I can tell you, but also on businesses, on commercial enterprises, particularly in the fishing industry,' Mr Butler said. Great Southern Reef Foundation (GRSF) video captures the scale of the disaster, showing dead fish, discoloured water and decaying coral along South Australia's Yorke Peninsula. GRSF co-founder Stefan Andrews said: 'With neon green water, the seabed was littered with dead and dying animals.' Environment Minister Murray Watt previously said the government was 'deeply concerned by the widespread marine species mortalities caused by this extreme event' and he was getting updates from the Malinauskas government. 'We will give careful consideration to any request for assistance we receive from the state government,' he said.
Russia Today
2 days ago
- Politics
- Russia Today
Kiev setting stage for chemical disaster
The Ukrainian military is trying to provoke a major ecological disaster close to the front line and blame it on Russia, Defense Ministry in Moscow warned on Thursday. The accusation came from Maj. Gen. Aleksey Rtishchev, the commander of Russia's Nuclear, Biological and Chemical Protection Troops, who briefed the public about alleged Ukrainian violations of an international treaty prohibiting the use of chemical weapons. Rtishchev disclosed a document obtained by the Russian military, in which the deputy director of Ukrainian state-owned company Ukrkhimtransammiak informed a regional official appointed by Kiev that in late June Ukrainian troops had illegally accessed a site operated by the firm. The Ukrkhimtransammiak executive stressed his concern that the location could be damaged due to the military's involvement, potentially causing the release of up to 566 tons of highly toxic liquified ammonia. The site, an above-ground element of a Soviet-built underground ammonia pipeline operated by Ukrkhimtransammiak, is located roughly 2.5 km north of the village of Novotroitskoye, in the Kiev-controlled portion of Russia's Donetsk People's Republic. Rtishchev claimed the Ukrainian military had placed communication equipment at the location as part of 'barbaric tactics used by the Kiev regime' which involves 'placing toxic chemicals in the areas where Russian troops operate and their subsequent detonation.' 'The intention is to accuse our nation of intentionally causing a technological disaster and damage its reputation,' the general stated. 'The use of hazardous objects for military purposes violates the international humanitarian law.' Rtishchev also reiterated Russian accusations against the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW). Moscow says the international watchdog ignores Russian reports about Ukrainian violations of the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) while taking Kiev's allegations against Russia at face value.
The Guardian
4 days ago
- General
- The Guardian
Sheep are destroying precious British habitats – and we taxpayers are footing the bill
Britain's uplands are dying. What should be some of the very best places for nature are the absolute worst. Across vast tracts of some of our most beautiful landscapes, life is rapidly ebbing away. Where once there was purple heather, bilberry and buzzing insect life, there are now over-grazed, sheep-infested ecological disaster zones. For a nation of nature lovers, it's a disgrace. One of the very worst areas is the Dartmoor commons. These exemplify everything that is wrong about England's upland management. In a recent Natural England survey of Dartmoor's protected sites, only 26 out of 22,494 hectares (55,583 acres) were found to be in an ecologically favourable condition – that's 0.1%. All the blanket bogs and all the heathland surveyed are in an appalling state, and in many places these once wonderful habitats are in decline. On Dartmoor's high moor, where there should be a diverse blanket bog, we see huge areas dominated by a single species – purple moor-grass. This hardy plant flourishes in degraded conditions, and is a wretched symptom of the historical extraction, erosion and drainage of the underlying peat, which was compounded by excessive burning and year-round grazing in the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s. This moor grass flourishes at the expense of peat-forming sphagnum mosses – the botanical engineers of healthy bogs. That legacy of intensive farming haunts us with the ghastly spread of impenetrable tussocks of moor grass as far as the rambler can ramble. Meanwhile, livestock – particularly sheep – continue to destroy what little heather moorland is left. This modern-day tragedy of the commons is the result of a land that has been pushed far beyond its ecological limits by the farmers and commoners who have rights over it. But this is also a national scandal – because it is the taxpayer, you and I, who pay for this destruction. Here is a hard, unpopular but simple fact: farming in this place does not make any money. According to a Duchy College Rural Business School report in 2023, each ewe put on the Dartmoor commons loses its owner £16.90. And there are a lot of sheep. The only way these losses are maintained is through public subsidies. From the 1970s to the 1990s, farmers and commoners were paid per head of animal – so the more you grazed, the more cash you got. Some sense prevailed in the late 1990s when the first nature schemes came in and public payments were made to actually reduce the numbers. The problem is that numbers were never reduced enough; the grazing rates ended up being an unscientific compromise. For instance, on the huge Forest of Dartmoor common, the higher-level stewardship scheme allows an average of 0.52 ewes per hectare. In a Natural England 2020 study of 25 years of schemes in the Lake District, the habitat response was universally good only where the stocking rates were below 0.4 ewes per hectare. But here is the greatest scandal. Over the past decade, more than £32m has been paid to Dartmoor commoners through higher-level stewardship schemes – schemes that exist specifically to improve nature on sites that should be protected by law. And guess what? Not one common has improved, and many have got worse. The government's supposed regulator, Natural England, has tried to improve things. Back in 2023 it made a stand, being clear that if it was to agree to schemes being extended, it would need to see changes to those stocking rates. The backlash from the farming fraternity was wild, and a politically driven independent review saw NE make an embarrassing climb-down. Public funds continue to be wasted, and the law is not being enforced. That's why an organisation called Wild Justice has stepped up and secured a judicial review, which is being heard on 15 and 16 July. Our wish is that the Dartmoor Commoners' Council adheres to its legal obligations and acts to reduce stocking rates to ensure the habitat recovers. It's not even as if this land is contributing to food security. Grazing on Dartmoor falls within the least productive 20% of land, which produces less than 3% of the food produced in England. In short, the public is propping up an environmentally destructive, loss-making industry that makes a minimal contribution to the nation's food supply, all while damaging Dartmoor's greatest asset: its nature. It's madness! We are in a planet-threatening climate and nature crisis; we cannot afford not to make positive changes now. We need the government's new land use framework to lend weight to taking this minimally productive land out of any pretence of significant food production, and concentrating instead on its real potential for essential nature restoration. Dartmoor's blanket bogs, for instance, are internationally scarce habitats that, if restored, can store carbon and help regulate the flow of water, thus reducing flood-risk downstream. We need to remove the sheep, restore and rewet the bogs, and then leave them alone. At the very least, the public should not be subsidising sheep grazing on the uplands. There are also some good farmers out there who want to do more to restore nature. If they put nature first, they deserve the public's support to restore our uplands with more suitable animals and more sustainable practices that the local community and our national parks can be proud of. Those farmers who don't want to change should be penalised for causing damage, not rewarded. Their destructive actions should be as illegal as dumping rubbish on protected areas or deliberately setting fires. The time for unjust compromises is over. We have to stop pouring millions into ecological collapse. Dartmoor and our other uplands are failing ecological systems propped up by wasting taxpayers' hard-earned cash. If we truly care about nature, the climate, or even fiscal responsibility, we must stop funding failure and invest in healing: in carbon-binding peat, in wild and wonderful nature, in healthy landscapes that breathe life. Our uplands need a healthy future, and that future starts with change – radical, urgent and unapologetic. Chris Packham is a naturalist, broadcaster and campaigner
ABC News
12-07-2025
- Science
- ABC News
Algal bloom fears grow as video shows dead fish in 'neon green' waters near Ardrossan
New vision of South Australia's toxic algal bloom shows scores of dead fish lying in "dark neon green" waters, highlighting the extent of the ecological disaster unfolding underwater. Warning: Readers are advised this article includes content some may find confronting. Marine scientist and filmmaker Stefan Andrews, who captured the footage near the Ardrossan jetty on SA's Yorke Peninsula, said he saw "hundreds, if not thousands" of fish — mostly garfish — strewn across the seabed. Mr Andrews filmed the vision on Wednesday after marine life began washing up on the Yorke Peninsula coast around two weeks earlier. He said among the dead were wobbegong sharks and stingrays. "As soon as I put my head in the water and got a couple of metres from the bottom, I could see dead fish everywhere," Mr Andrews said. "We've seen so many stingrays washing up on the shore, but we just don't really have any idea how many of these stingrays are just laying on the bottom decomposing away. "So within relatively short distance there were hundreds of marine mortalities down there, which is pretty disturbing." Mr Andrews said the waters around Ardrossan had turned "deep dark neon green" despite being "relatively clear" up until recently. He said that while there was a large concentration of marine mortalities clustered around the Ardrossan jetty, fishers have reported garfish deaths 10 kilometres up the coast. The underwater footage shows fish gasping for oxygen, a brittle star with a hole pierced through its body, dead stingrays, dying abalone and garfish in pieces. Regarding the cuts observed on some fish, Mr Andrews said the leading theory locally is that birds were feeding on the dying garfish. 'What this may be is fish that were dying and birds were smashing them and maybe that's what led to them being bit in half," he said. "I'm just speculating here, but we've seen so many bizarre, strange things in our oceans at the moment." A spokesperson for SA's Department of Primary Industries and Regions (PIRSA) said it tested the waters around Ardrossan following reports of the garfish deaths. That testing, PIRSA said, confirmed the presence of Karenia mikimotoi, the species responsible for the toxic algal bloom that has been choking the state's coastlines since March. "Based on the available information it is currently determined that [Thursday's] fish kill event is likely the result of the harmful algal bloom," the spokesperson said in a statement. The scenes of ravaged marine life off the Yorke Peninsula are the latest in what Mr Andrews described as a "catastrophic event that's occurring over such a huge part of the state's coastal waters". Mr Andrews, founder of an education and research not-for-profit called Great Southern Reef Foundation, wanted the algal bloom to be declared a "national emergency". The toxic bloom was first detected in March off the Fleurieu Peninsula and has since grown to a size comparable with Kangaroo Island. Authorities estimate it has caused tens of thousands of individual animals to wash up dead on the state's beaches. The bloom has been detected along the Spencer Gulf, Kangaroo Island, the Coorong's North Lagoon and along the coastline from Victor Harbor to Robe. It's also been picked up at Troubridge Point on Yorke Peninsula, more than 80km south of the Ardrossan jetty. Earlier this month, the bloom was detected in metropolitan Adelaide at West Lakes and the Port River. The bloom is considered non-toxic to humans, but can cause skin, eye and lung irritation. The Ardrossan footage was published online amid growing concerns about the impact of the bloom on SA's fishing industry. Calamari stocks along the Yorke Peninsula have been decimated ahead of breeding season, according to Michael Pennington, a commercial fisher based in Ardrossan. Mr Pennington said he has not been able to fish for a month while other commercial fishers have been out of action for up to three months. "It's pretty hard sitting at home on flat calm days where you should be at work and catching a few fish to put food on the table," he said. Citing catch records filed with authorities, Mr Pennington said only 7 kilograms of calamari has been fished from Gulf St Vincent over the last four weeks. In a normal year, this four-week period would typically yield between 9 and 12 tonnes, he said. "So, next season, that's just a complete write off. "I honestly do not know how many years this could take to get a calamari fishery back in Gulf St Vincent — it's pretty well non-existent now." Mr Pennington said he wants the bloom to be declared a national disaster "before it's too late". "Tourism and fishing go hand in hand over here … that's why people come to the Yorke Peninsula. "We've got no help … and it's getting to the point where we will see businesses shutting doors very shortly." The state government on Tuesday announced a $500,000 initial relief package for fishers affected by the algal bloom, allowing them to have certain licence and audit fees waived. Acting SA Premier Susan Close has left the door open to increasing the state government's relief package. "This is an unfolding challenge, so we've stepped in and offered immediate relief," she said on Saturday. "But we recognise that depending on how this bloom goes, we may well have to look at further assistance."
