Having just returned on Sunday from an extended dive trip up at Coral Bay I
have been busy catching up reading private emails, what's been going on in
tech diver, scuba-se, shark-l, rec.scuba, work emails and back into the
grindstone of camera club meets, etc.  Time for a breather I say so here I
go on scuba-se (Scuba - Sydney & Elsewhere ;-))

Some of you may recall previous posts of mine commenting about a huge
resort complex that was being pushed through by money hungry developers at
a place called Mauds Landing just around the corner from Coral Bay. Not
only am I worried about the impact on the wildlife I am seriously worried
the tax payer will be left holding the baby when the developers hand it
over to the shire & tax payers after 5 years. Maintaining water, power &
sewerage facilities is going to be the most expensive thing to run in this
area :-(  This thing is going to be larger than Mindarie Keys .. which is
in the Perth metro area .. and went broke at the beginning ... so we fear
worse up north :-(

Phase I of the campaign went well. On a local (state) level we had more
than 5,000 submissions sent in during the public comment period  at the
beginning of 2001 .. the majority against this inappropriate resort
development. Now the process has moved to the next phase where a Federal
environmental assessment is underway .. but unfortunately the comment
deadline is January 11 .... which would be January 10 for those in the US,
etc.

If any of you know of other divers who have every visited this area
(snorkeling with the mantas/whalesharks, diving inside & outside the reef
system, on a whale watching cruise, sunning themselves on the beach, etc)
who would like add their comments to the automated letter that is set up to
go out to the appropriate Federal Ministers please check out this site.
http://www.saveningaloo.org/

I recalled a comment John Hauer posted on his web page about Coral Bay that
I thought was quite appropriate to include in my personal comments at the
end of the automated letter. I also commented that the new development was
going to drop around another 3,000 people on this pristine coral fringing
reef. Concerns were already being voiced by the various groups, including
businesses in Coral Bay, that with 2,000 people during peak holiday period
there were serious concerns where all the extra boats were going to berth,
the damage from their anchors on the coral, over-fishing outside the
sanctuary zones, vehicles driving along the sand dunes disturbing the
turtle & seabird nesting areas, jet ski noise scaring away the mantas &
dugongs, and too many folk wanting to take their private boats out for
whale watching (minkie, southern right) and disturbing the paths of whale
sharks. Currently the later is controlled by only 2 boats being issued with
offical whale shark licences to ensure snorkeler numbers are controlled and
that no one harrasses them by jumping on their heads or grabbing their
tails... and whale watching licences to ensure the boats don't hinder the
path of whales.

We are not against development in the area ... we just want something lower
key as this is not Queensland.
Viv - rant mode off now