The body of a minke whale and its calf are dragged onto the whaling ship
The Australian Federal Government says photographs taken by the Customs ship the Oceanic Viking of Japanese whalers killing a whale and its calf will strengthen any legal case against the whalers.
The pictures, released by the Government today, show a slaughtered minke whale and its calf being hauled up the ramp of the Japanese ship, the Yushin Maru.
Customs has also released video of whales being harpooned from the ship.
The Government is extending the duration of its whaling surveillance program and says the Attorney-General is still considering what kind of legal action should be taken and who it should be brought against.
Federal Environment Minister Peter Garrett says the pictures released today support Australia’s position.
‘I think it’s explicitly clear from these images that this is indiscriminate killing of whales, where you have a whale and its calf killed in this way,’ he said.
‘To claim that this is in anyway scientific is to continue the charade that surrounded this issue from day one.’
Gunns’ proposed pulp mill in Tasmania’s Tamar Valley will cost the island’s economy up to $3 billion if something goes wrong, according to a new economic analysis.
The results of the analysis, commissioned by the The Wilderness Society, are in stark contrast to a similar study done for Gunns.
The National Institute of Economic and Industry Research (NIEIR) analysis found the most likely outcome of the mill would be a cost of $300 million to the Tasmanian economy until 2030.
Institute head Dr Peter Brain estimated the mill would boost the economy by $1.3 billion in a best-case scenario and in the worst case, $3 billion.
An Allens Consulting Group analysis — commissioned by Gunns — predicted the most likely impact of the mill would be a gain of $3.3 billion.
Dr Brain took into account factors including the cost of lost tourism and the risk of chemical spillage, Gunns changing ownership, a blow-out in capital costs, deaths and sicknesses from environmental damage and the closure of two other paper mills in northern Tasmania.
Allens Consulting had underestimated the opportunity cost of logs consumed in the pulp mill, which could be exported as high-value timber, and the cost of agricultural land clearing, Dr Brain said.
Two women who were seriously injured in a car accident outside Tasmania’s Mersey Hospital yesterday could not be treated at the Mersey, because the hospital still does not have an intensive care unit (ICU).
The injured women had to be taken to Burnie Hospital for treatment, even though others who were less seriously injured in the accident were treated at the Mersey.
The former Federal Government promised to reinstate the ICU as part of the take over.
Listen to the ABC Radio report here.
John Elder of The Age reports that:
The feral destruction of the Macquarie Island’s native vegetation is akin to Ayers Rock being taken over by 100,000 clowns with jackhammers or the Great Barrier Reef being used as torpedo practice …
… it’s like one of those movies where a team of rough and tough heroes are called upon to save the world. In this case, the survival of one of Australia’s ecological treasures depends on finding a dozen disciplined hunting dogs — and finding them fast.
Since rabbit numbers exploded on the World Heritage-listed Macquarie Island over the past couple of years, massive landslips – caused by overgrazing and tunnelling by the 100,000 bunnies – have sent entire hillsides falling into the Southern Ocean, killing king penguins and wiping out crucial albatross nests. At the same time, a living carpet of rats and mice have been feasting on the eggs in penguin and seabird colonies.
Macquarie is a sub-Antarctic island about 1500 kilometres south of Tasmania and a critical breeding ground for seabirds, including four endangered species of albatross, and delicate plant systems. It also serves as a unique geological snapshot of the world’s evolution, a record of life.
There’s more about Macquarie Island here …
