Oil Spill Pollutes Most important Tuna Spawning Groundff

Source: ABC News



Professor Meeuwig says the monitoring reports contain little information and lack transparency.

The environmental monitoring program in the wake of last year's oil spill in the Timor Sea has been described as ‘superficial’.

The oil leak from the Montara wellhead platform ran for 10 weeks. A commission of inquiry looking into the disaster has been taking submissions.

The University of Western Australia’s (UWA) submission says the ‘tardy’ response to the spill means it will be hard to detect some of the environmental impacts.

The Centre for Marine Futures at UWA’s professor Jessica Meeuwig says the environmental monitoring reports “lack transparency”.

“If you look at what was actually kicked off from the point in time that the oil spill started, there is almost no work being done,” she said.

“We had situations where four fish were tested for hydrocarbons. I note that’s one of each of four species.

“The water quality monitoring plan - there wasn’t a lot of special coverage and it wasn’t repeated.

“So you end up with information that is inadequate, that to say that there was no effect of the oil spill on the marine environment is impossible.”

Professor Meeuwig supports the Save our Marine Life coalition which is calling for marine sanctuaries to protect life off Australia's south-west coast.

The UWA submission has warned of the Timor Sea leak having long-term impacts on marine life.

The Australian Southern Bluefin Tuna Industry Association has found it difficult to get information about fish stocks in the area of the spill.

But the Association’s CEO, Brian Jeffriess, says it is known that it occurred in the single global spawning ground for southern bluefin tuna.

“The way that that spawn sits in the water column and then moves down the west coast of Western Australia indicates that this could be very damaging to us,” he said.

“What we do know in the two years after the fish spawn then we can start to tell whether there is an impact. But that certainly won’t be for two or three years. It’s not a matter of blaming anybody or seeking compensation or whatever it may be.”

“What we want is... for this to be shown and then taken into account in a scientific assessment for this species.”

Mr. Jeffriess says there has not been a lack of information.

“I think government departments have tried their very hardest,” he said.

“But this is a very remote zone and with this large scale exploration in oceanic areas, the work really has to be done and the consultation taken place. I might say that groups like WWF and others have done an excellent job following this up and identifying the nature of the problem and helping people like ourselves to understand it better.”

Criticism of the environmental monitoring program has been a common feature in submissions to the commission of inquiry.

The Greens Senator Rachel Siewart says the Government should have brought in an extensive monitoring effort soon after the spill happened.

“This is what we were saying at the time. We were desperately calling for the

Government to put in place monitoring plans straight away,” she said.

“The fact is they sent out, begrudgingly sent out one boat for a survey of approximately five days which was supposed to then cover a leak that occurred for 10 weeks.”

The Montara Commission of Inquiry says public hearings could be held late next month.