Media Briefing on Sceale Bay Sea Lions
Submitted by SARFAC Tuesday, 27th November 2002

From: mccnsa@senet.com.au
To: Recipient list suppressed
Sent: Wednesday, November 27, 2002 9:44 AM
Subject: GOOD NEWS FOR SCEALE BAY's SEALS, BUT.......

Media Briefing on Sceale Bay Sea Lions

Tony Flaherty, Marine & Coastal Community Network (SA) Contact mobile 0429 678 869

Tuesday 26 November, 2002

GOOD NEWS FOR SCEALE BAY's SEALS, BUT.......

On November 26th, SA Premier Mike Rann announced moves to protect the Far West coast sea lion colony at Sceale Bay.

A conservation park and aquatic reserve will be created to protect an island off Cape Blanche which is home to the world's fifth largest seal lion colony Australian sea lion, as well as a haul out site for New Zealand fur seals.

Such a move is indeed welcome.

The Premier's media release and subsequent media coverage referred to conservationists being concerned that the fish farms "would have attracted sharks and posed a threat to young pups on the island."

However the real concerns were over the environmental impacts of the fish farms themselves and the risk of marine mammal entanglements and killings. Ignoring the potential for increased seal interactions from moving aquaculture activities closer to significant seal and sea lion habitats is irresponsible. Indeed as Premier Rann said - not to protect the colony would have been reprehensible.

Not only is there significant increase in risk of harm or death to wildlife, there is significant potential for economic losses due to loss of stock from seal attack. Research clearly shows that there is strong correlation to the number if incidents between fish farms and seals increasing with the proximity of those farms to haul out sites.

A major international Insurer Sunderland Marine Mutual Insurance Aquaculture Risk Management Ltd which insures fish farmers in the UK, Ireland, Canada, the US and Australia recognises that environmental factors including seal attacks on stock are becoming a leading cause of aquaculture insurance claims. Seal predation accounted for about 12% of their total claims in 1999.

The Government, which has been promoting the industry, still seems to be ignoring the environment impacts of aquaculture, especially those on marine mammals. Fish farming entanglements are a major human-related cause of death of dolphins in SA.

The resolution of this issue highlights a number of flaws in the way aquaculture proposals are dealt with and the marine environment conserved.

Since the application in early 2001, it has taken a Cabinet decision to resolve the problem posed by aquaculture licences applications just 4 kilometres from the seal colony.

The biggest issue is the apparent absurdity of allowing an aquaculture zone and a proposal so close to major sea lion colony in the first place. Such proposals are the equivalent of putting a sheep farm in dingo reserve.

The matter should have been dealt with promptly by PIRSA in 2001 by refusing tenure and licencing applications as soon as the seal colony was brought to their attention by Sceale Bay residents. There appears to have been no initial detailed assessment of the site prior to the application, and the zoning plan set up in 1996 is totally inadequate.

In original comments on the fish farm proposal, Dr Peter Shaughnessy, CSIRO Sustainable Ecosystems, Canberra said: "Based on the high number of attacks by fur seals at fin-fish farms in southern Tasmania located within 20 km of a fur seal haul-out site and on problems experienced between seals and tuna farms in Port Lincoln, the plan to develop a fin-fish farm 4 km from Cape Blanche Island seems unwise because many interactions can be expected between the seals (New Zealand fur seals and Australian sea lions) and the fin-fish farm. This is especially so because the sea lion is classified by the SA Government as 'Rare'."

There is a need for Government to seriously reassess their aquaculture planning processes - the apparent lack of scientific rigor in assessment - and their apparent tardiness in not listening to the expert advice of Australia's leading marine mammal researchers.

There is also a serious need for review of aqauculture development principles. Under the current Aquaculture Principles of Development Control Aquaculture should not occur within one kilometre of a Reserve proclaimed under the National Parks and Wildlife Act 1972, where the primary objective of the Reserve is the protection of coastal features. The buffer distance is even less for aquatic reserves (250 metres).

These distances are inadequate and should be reviewed and distances increased, particularly where marine wildlife, including Australian Sea Lions, may be impacted by aquaculture activities.

The Government has "assisted" the aquaculture company to find alternative aquaculture sites. The Premier was "delighted to announce that the company has agreed to relocate its licence applications for the Goat Island area near Ceduna."

Goat Island adjacent to St Peter Island Conservation Park has six sea lion colonies within 35 km, the nearest a mere 14 km away. One seal researcher estimates the sea lion population in proximity to this new proposed site is nearly 5 times the size of that at Cape Blanche.

The island also has seabird populations, including short-tailed shearwater and pied cormorants. Use of lighting on offshore leases has the potential to impact on a range of seabirds (particularly storm petrels and shearwaters) through disorientation and collision with structures).

Tony Flaherty
MCCN (SA)
Contact mobile 0429 678 869