Reef in the Coral Sea (photo: Ken Lech)
The Talisman Saber joint US-Australian war games are the largest military operation outside of a war zone. They take place in the NT and Qld, but much of the activity occurs in the oceans off the coast of Queensland: The Great Barrier Reef and the Coral Sea. The US military regularly use the Coral Sea to the extent that they have named one of their battleships after it. The US nave have a policy of dumping their shipboard waste at sea, as well as the usual ballast, leaks and accidents. The Us and Australian military use active sonar in this area, which is known to cause brain hemorrhages in whales and cetaceans and is a suspected cause of whale beaching. Sonar also disrupts the breeding and swimming behaviours of fish, turtles and other marine animals.
According to the Australian Marine Conservation Society Coral Sea Community Campaigner Daisy Barham, “Australia’s Coral Sea is a staggeringly beautiful place. It is also one of the few marine areas left on the planet where populations of large marine wildlife and healthy, functioning ecosystems can still be found. The world’s oceans have less than one per cent protection, compared to almost 13% of the planet’s land mass. This campaign will put Australia on the global stage as a world leader in marine conservation.”
USS Coral Sea
The AMCS are petitioning the PM to fully protect the Coral Sea as a Heritage Park “that can be protected now and for future generations.”
SIGN NOW!
Ms Barham says, “If you’d like to make your support really show please write a hand-written personal letter to your federal member of parliament urging them to fully protect the Coral Sea in one large no-take marine park.
You can find the contact details of your MP by typing in your postcode here .
When you send your letter please send me an email at daisybarham@amcs.org.au to let me know so that we can see how much support there is for the campaign, better still email me a scanned copy. If you don’t live in Australia please consider writing to our Prime Minister and sending your letter to:
The Hon. Kevin Rudd
PO Box 476
Morningside Qld 4170
Australia
23,000 people have already signed: add your voice!
The Peace Convergence is a bi-annual protest camp established to show opposition to the destruction of the environment and the continued Australian involvement in the US war machine.
It is held in Yeppoon. Rockhampton and Byfield adjoining the Shoalwater Bay Training Area on the beautiful Queensland central coast.
