Mothers Day
THE BYRON SHIRE Volume 25 #47 Tuesday, May 3, 2011 Mullumbimby 02 6684 1777 Byron Bay 02 6685 5222 Fax 02 6684 1719 editor@echo.net.au adcopy@echo.net.au www.echo.net.au 23,000 copies every week
p23
R O YA L R E P T I L E W E D D I N G - F R E E Z O N E
Marine Park under threat Concerns over future of marine life around Julian Rocks
Ray Moynihan
The state government is set to launch its promised review of the science behind marine parks, as recreational fishers claim local sanctuary zones are certain to be cut back as a result. Currently more than 25 per cent of the Cape Byron Marine Park is sanctuary zone, prohibiting fishing in areas off Lennox Head, Broken Head, and Byron Bay, including around Julian Rocks. Although the scientific review has not yet commenced, the group Ecofishers is confident the government will reduce the size of the sanctuary zone. ‘It will be wound back,’ the group’s chief executive Ken Thurlow told The Echo. Among its first initiatives since the March election, the new coalition government abolished the environment department and transferred control of marine parks to the department of primary industries. And just last week the government lifted fishing restrictions in a key habitat of the critically endangered grey nurse shark, on the mid-north coast,
close to South West Rocks. Environment groups immediately condemned the move, arguing accidental hooking will injure and kill more of the endangered sharks, and raising questions about the political influence of the Shooters and Fishers Party, which now holds the balance of power in the state’s upper house. Ecofishers’ Ken Thurlow says his group was the ‘driving force’ behind the government’s imminent review of marine park science, which he describes as ‘rubbery’.
Marine science ‘rubbery’ Asked about the evidence from more than 150 scientific articles showing marine parks boost marine life and enhance biodiversity, Mr Thurlow said that evidence was ‘not applicable’ to the Byron park. However, a leading scientific authority on marine parks, Queensland University’s Professor Hugh Possingham, said in his view Mr Thurlow’s rejection of the relevance of the global evidence was a ‘bizarre fantasy’. Professor Possingham said in his
opinion it was a bit like demanding proof that gravity existed in each different place on the planet. Moreover, he said evidence from the Great Barrier Reef shows no-take zones have not reduced the enthusiasm for recreational fishing there, as measured by increasing boat registrations.
Drowning out ‘extremies’ Ecofishers says its work is based on ‘sound science’ and that it is proconservation, though a posting on its website from an executive attacks the ‘precautionary principle’ – a key tenet of environmentalism – and dismisses the idea of ‘scientific consensus’ as ‘not science’. The group’s tactics include encouraging fishers to call talkback radio en masse, because it ‘drowns out the extremies’. Local environmentalist and artist Dailan Pugh, at one time a member of the Byron marine park advisory group along with Ken Thurlow, says he’s concerned the sanctuary zone could be wound back around the popular diving spot Julian Rocks, with its hundreds of species of marine life including endangered grey nurse sharks.
Six-day legend fest
MardiGrass lights up for cannabis reform
Photo Jeff ‘My Cigarette Was Spiked, Officer’ Dawson
Nimbin’s streets were again wafting with the smell of social subversion as the annual MardiGrass was held on Saturday. Crowds of 5,000 plus came over the weekend, according to the Hemp Embassy’s Andrew Kavasilas. ‘There was also really good co-operation between crowds and police,’ he told The Echo. ‘Most of the displays, talks and forums highlighted the relaxing of laws in other countries, especially relating to its recreational use, as a food, a medicine and as an industrial fibre.’ Mr Kavasilas also said The Law Enforcement Against Prohibtion group (LEAP) – comprising retired police and law enforcement officers – gave talks about how prohibition laws create more problems than they solve.
Story & photo Eve Jeffery
Punters looked to the skies during the annual 2011 Bluesfest which traditionally brings with it rain-laden clouds. The sparse sprinkles from above were akin to waiting for a sneeze – it’s coming, it’s not. And after five relatively dry days the heavens opened on ah-ah-ahchoo-sday! As ever, the festival delivered an Easter feast for music lovers and this year’s sixth day certainly put a new twist on old faithful. An estimated 110,000 passed through the Bluefest gates. Festival Director Peter Noble said that Bluesfest is proud to be a family event that remains artistically, musically and ethnically diverse. ‘I know we do everything we can each year to
better our festival, but let’s just say, this year will be very hard to beat. We’ve been blessed with good weather, we’ve had a very peaceful and happy event, and we’ve had the planet’s finest artists delivering incredible music for six days and nights straight.’ Festival audiences were swamped with an abundance of excellent acts. Highlights included Elvis Costello, Jethro Tull, Robert Randolph, John Legend and the legendary BB King (pictured). Police praised festival goers saying that it was good to see the crowd focus on the music and not on criminal or anti-social behaviour. They conducted 315 personal searches and 146 drug-dog detections, resulting in 128 cannabis caution notices being issued.
ABN 82 087 650 682
<echowebsection=Local News>