ABC’s 4 Corners has shed much-needed light on the encroaching industrial developments that are risking the lives of the already threatened turtles, dugongs and dolphins of the Great Barrier Reef.

In recent months there has been an increase in turtle and dugong deaths as well as an outbreak of diseased fish in the Gladstone Harbour. As yet, no satisfactory explanation can be attributed to the outbreak of disease, and actions to safeguard turtles and dugong are insufficient.

“The 1979 ban on oil drilling in the Great Barrier Reef should have reassured Australians that the Reef was protected from mining development, but instead in 2011 the impacts of the mining industry have rarely been more severe,” said Daisy Barham, Marine Campaigner with the Australian Marine Conservation Society (AMCS).

AMCS has been at the forefront of efforts to protect the Great Barrier Reef over the past four decades, including securing a total ban on oil mining and exploration within the Marine Park in 1979.

“With at least six major port developments underway or in the pipeline along the Great Barrier Reef coast, the Australian Government now needs to decide if the resources boom is to spell bust for the marine life that makes our reef the envy of the world. Massive industrial development has no place in a World Heritage Area,” said Ms Barham.

“World Heritage listing brings global responsibility. The Federal and Queensland governments must now step up to the mark and work in the best interests of the future of our living icon, the Great Barrier Reef. There must be a halt to the approval of any new major developments that risk the reef until the strategic assessment of the impacts of those developments has been conducted. The Curtis Island development and associated dredging of Gladstone Harbour must be halted until the UNESCO World Heritage Committee has had the chance to fully scrutinize the threat it poses to the outstanding marine life of the Reef” concluded Ms Barham.

Source: Australian Marine Conservation Society

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