ABC
News 27 December
2015:
A stocktake of
waterbirds in eastern Australia has shown the lowest breeding level on record.
The annual aerial
survey, conducted by the Centre for Ecosystem Science at the University of NSW,
confirmed a dramatic long-term decline in the number of waterbirds.
Director Richard
Kingsford said that over 33 years of counting, average numbers had fallen more
than 60 per cent.
The trend continued in
2015 with a further drop compared to the previous three-to-five-year period.
"This is the second
lowest number of waterbirds we've seen in that 33-year period and it's
symptomatic of the real impacts of this drought that's occurring across the
eastern half of the continent," Professor Kingsford said.
The survey covered all
the major rivers, lakes and wetlands from Queensland down through New South
Wales, Victoria and South Australia, including the Murray-Darling Basin and the
Riverina.
The team found the
Macquarie Marshes and Lowbidgee wetlands were only partially filled, most
rivers in the Murray-Darling Basin were also relatively dry, with little
wetland habitat on their floodplains, and all the large lakes in the Menindee
system were dry.
The Lake Eyre and Cooper
Creek wetlands were mostly dry except for a small area to their east, while
important wetlands in the Lake Eyre Basin including Lakes Galilee, Yamma Yamma,
Torquinnie and Mumbleberry were dry.
Waterbirds were
concentrated in relatively few important sites, with only four wetland systems
holding more than 5,000 birds: Lake Killapaninna, Lake Allallina, Paroo
overflow Lakes and Coolmunda Dam.
Most alarmingly, the
total breeding index of all 50 species combined was the lowest on record and
well below the long-term average……
Professor Kingsford said
climate change also needed to be taken into account.
"For these
wetlands, they rely on that water staying around so animals and plants can go
through their life cycles, but if you've got less of the water actually coming
in at the top end and when it gets to the wetland there's a high evaporation
rate then it's really challenging in the long term as well," he said.
"So a whole series
of targets have been set and the big challenge is: did we get enough water for
the environment over the next 15 to 20 years?"
He warned that if the
regulators did not find the right balance, the wider community would pay a
hefty price.
"We know in the
millennium drought, for example, when there wasn't enough water for the Lower
Lakes and the Coorong, governments had to put their hands in their pockets to
spend $2 billion to actually rescue that system," Professor Kingsford
said.
"We currently have
a dredge parked in the mouth of the River Murray which is trying to keep it
open — a service that the environment used to do for nothing, and that's
costing taxpayers up to $100,000 a week."
He said the birds were a
barometer, indicating declining health of the whole ecosystem.
University of
NSW, Centre for Ecosystem Science, Aerial
Survey of Wetland Birds in Eastern Australia - October 2014 Annual Summary
Report
Blogging the 2015
Aerial Survey.
Click on the survey route to read a blog post or the arrow button on the top lefthand side to access the list of blogs.
Click on the survey route to read a blog post or the arrow button on the top lefthand side to access the list of blogs.
