Tasmania’s Journal of Discovery

Launching the ABE from Southern Surveyor. Image credit – CSIRO

Scientists aboard the research vessel, Southern Surveyor, return to Hobart today with a collection of coral samples and photographs taken in the Southern Ocean at greater depths than ever before.

Using a remotely operated submersible vehicle the international research team captured images of life found on deep-sea pinnacles and valleys up to three kilometres beneath the Ocean’s surface.

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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.

Posted by Dave Walsh, onboard the Esperanza

It’s been an intense morning here on the Esperanza - after eleven days preventing the Japanese whaling fleet from killing whales, this morning we blocked the Nisshin Maru from refuelling in Antarctic waters from the dodgy Panamanian-registered vessel Oriental Bluebird.

As part of a dramatic non-violent protest against the whaling fleet’s activities in the Southern Ocean, Jetske and Heath placed their inflatable boat between the factory ship and refueling vessel, as the massive two ships tried to come alongside to refuel.

However, despite radio calls explaining our protest and plan, the vessels continued to close in on each other — and after half an hour, the inflable was forced out, with Jetske nearly getting caught by a cable. Only then did the refuelling begin.

Tasmania’s very own royal, Crown Princess Mary of Denmark has enrolled in the Danish Home Guard.

The Crown Princess will learn how to handle and fire a weapon, first aid, marching drills, signal training, fire-fighting and rescue skills while she attends elementary training at the Home Guard training centre.

When she finishes her training, Princess Mary will be attached to the Home Guard ‘total defence’ region in Copenhagen.

She continues a long line of family tradition by joining the Home Guard.

Her mother-in-law, Queen Margrethe, reached the rank of Major in the Home Guard Women’s Flying Corps.

Tim Dub photograph

Scientists have been shocked to find high levels of potentially carcinogenic flame retardant chemicals in Tasmanian devils, a discovery certain to fuel a global campaign to ban their use, according to Matthew Denholm, writing today in The Australian.

The Australian has obtained, under Freedom of Information, preliminary results of tests ordered by the Tasmanian Government on chemicals found in fat tissue from 16 devils.

They show surprisingly high concentrations of toxic chemicals used in flame retardants commonly found in computers, white goods, carpets and foam in bedding and furniture.

Scientists yesterday said more research was needed to establish if the chemicals helped trigger devil facial tumour disease, a rare communicable cancer that threatens to drive the carnivore to extinction.

The International Persistent Organic Pollutants Elimination Network said the findings also raised concerns for human health.

IPEN co-ordinator Mariann Lloyd-Smith said the findings added weight to “a global push to ban flame retardants, some of which have been linked to reproductive disorders and cancers in animals and humans.”

Amazing footage of synchronised swimming from a pod of killer whales determined to make a meal of a lonely seal adrift on an ice floe.

(Via Zooillogix )

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.

Jelly would have to be one of the luckiest cats alive.

Nine-year-old Jelly spent some time yesterday walking around with a deadly Lowland Copperhead snake wrapped around her neck.

Owner Wendy Wallis said Jelly wandered back in to their property, which borders the creek at Sorell, about 11.30am yesterday carrying the snake with her.

She called wildlife rescuers who removed the snake.

‘Both the cat and the snake seemed quite happy,’ Ms Wallis said.

‘She didn’t show any signs of a bite last night, but this morning she was almost paralysed.

‘She’s at the Montrose vet at the moment being pumped full of anti-venom, but the vet says she’ll recover fully.’

Ms Wallis said she snapped the picture through a glass door, but didn’t dare open the door as the cat would have walked inside.”

(Via The Mercury)

Our long, slow growing season ensures not only plump, vibrant and glossy berries, but true to type taste and perfume … the whole package! However, beware of the blackberries that line our country lanes. Classified as a noxious weed, they have probably been sprayed.

Raspberries, members of the rose family, had been traditionally grown for processing, but as with many of our berries, the demand is now well and truly for fresh table fruit, due to their exceptional eating qualities. The exception to this are red and black currants, which are grown predominantly under contract for processing.

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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 …