Greenpeace report warns
MORE than one coal ship every hour will slice through the Great Barrier Reef by 2020, a Greenpeace report warns.
The report says the Great Barrier Reef World Heritage Area will become a coal ship highway.
It has estimated the number of ships to pass through the reef will increase from about 1,700 to 10,150 by 2020, based on data collated from environmental impact statements of proposed coal projects in Queensland.
“This is the equivalent of more than one ship departing port every hour of every day, 365 days a year,” the report says.
“Every coal-laden vessel departing ports at Gladstone, Hay Point, Abbot Point and Cape York passes through the Great Barrier Reef World Heritage Area.”
This will increase the likelihood of oil and chemical spills and other shipping disasters, it says.
Greenpeace says since 1985 an average of two major shipping collisions or groundings have occurred in the reef each year.
In 2010, a Chinese coal carrier ran aground in a restricted zone of the reef off central Queensland’s coast, spilling about four tonnes of heavy fuel oil and gouging a 3km-long scar into coral.
Dredging, to make way for large ships, will also increase exponentially, leading to widespread impacts on the reef and marine animals.
“If all the approved and proposed dredging goes ahead it equates to removing enough material from the Great Barrier Reef World Heritage Area to fill the MCG 67 times,” the report says.
Greenpeace campaigner John Hepburn says the report is proof that the reef is being turned into a conveyor belt for coal.
He says the Federal Government should withhold any coal port approvals along the reef’s coast ahead of a monitoring mission from the UN educational and cultural arm, UNESCO.
UNESCO will visit Queensland on March 5 over concerns about gas-related port developments and other potential threats to the reef.
Last year it rebuked the Federal Government for failing to tell it about approvals for liquefied natural gas (LNG) projects inside the Great Barrier Reef World Heritage Area.
Mr Hepburn says the Government is set to approve the world’s largest coal port at Abbot Point before UNESCO can finish its investigation.
“We are calling on federal and state authorities to suspend approvals for major new infrastructure during the assessment period,” he said.
“If approvals continue, there is a very real chance that by the time the real risks are understood irreversible damage will have already been done to this fragile eco-system.”
Source: AAP
