G’day Everyone,

I was asked by the ‘Southern Sandy Straits Marine Environment Group’ to go to Tin Can Bay and take a look at their environmental problem. The developers want to build two marina’s with 600+ berths there. The government could be making their decision on the first development as early as Nov 2010. I’m trying to rally support as there’s not much time to get a ground swell of people together to voice our opposition to the government.

I cannot recommend this campaign highly enough, and urge you to get on board, and spread the word amongst your networks.

The proposed marina will decimate an environmentally sensitive location and the damage that it will cause will be irreparable. The problems are many but the main issues are these -

- The marina location has areas that are only 50cm deep at low tide - so massive amounts of sludge - toxic sludge - will have to be dredged up - and put where???

- Adjacent to the proposed marina and dredging site are sea grass beds which will die with the dredging - even if they survive the dredging they will be damaged and lost by the increased vessel traffic.

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Seagrass beds at Teebar Creek a dugong feeding ground

- These sea grass beds are the food source of the endangered dugongs (as well as a huge variety of sea birds that feed from these beds at low tide.) The Great Sandy Strait has among the world's highest density of dugong, but their populations are still dwindling; they are already extinct in Maldives, Mauritius, and Taiwan.

- The high powered boats that will use this proposed marina will cause propeller strike to both the endangered dugongs and turtles - as already happens to all these species in Moreton Bay.

- The Great Sandy Strait is also home to the Indo Pacific humpback dolphin which is coastal dependent, (i.e. it only lives in the Strait area and never ventures out into the open ocean), and is threatened throughout the world.

- Five out of seven species of turtles found in Australian waters occurs within the Great Sandy Straits; including the endangered loggerhead, and the green and hawksbill turtles.

- The marina development will also destroy the mangroves; an already illegal act that the government will have to give the developers special dispensation to bypass.

- The mangroves are the breeding grounds of 80% of the fish found in this area. (So I feel that the recreational fishermen should also get on board to protect the breeding grounds of their future catches.) The mangroves are where life starts and are the breeding grounds for many Great Barrier Reef fish.

The list goes on - and if you want more info you can find it at www.marina.tincanbaydolphins.com.au Quite a bit of marine scientific research has gone into The Great Sandy Strait recently - and the results can be found on this website.

I urge you to take action and support this very important campaign!

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So, I call on 1 MILLION AUSTRALIANS to 'Click and Save' Tin Can Bay, this magnificent marine wilderness near Fraser Island. We need to reveal to the world the amazing biodiversity and beauty of the Great Sandy Strait and what we’ll be losing, should these marinas go ahead. This is NOT a local issue; if the marina is allowed to go ahead its detrimental effects will be far reaching.

I will fight as long and as hard as necessary to preserve this pristine environment for our future generations.

We have just A SMALL WINDOW OF OPPORTUNITY to urgently stop the marina developments in this area, before a final decision is made by the Environment Minister as early as Nov 2010.

Please join me in protecting this delicate environment, on behalf of all the marine wildlife, including the endangered dugong, that call the Great Sandy Strait ‘home’.

'Click and Save Tin Can Bay' (in just 3 seconds) at www.marina.tincanbaydolphins.com.au.

You can take a look at these newspaper articles –

http://www.gympietimes.com.au/story/2010/10/21/Dugongs-species-may-be-extinct-in-40-years/

http://www.gympietimes.com.au/story/2010/10/12/bob-irwin-act-now-save-Great-Sandy-Straits/?c=114221#addcomment

http://www.gympietimes.com.au/story/2010/10/14/bob-irwin-backs-tin-can-bay-marina-protest/

I know you all are going to extraordinary lengths to care for our wildlife – and I’d like to thank you most sincerely for that! And I know there are environmental problems everywhere – I know because, I’m hearing about them directly from a lot of carers. I would like to be able to help all of you – but time limits me, unfortunately.

I feel that this development will have such a major impact on such a large area and over so many varieties of our marine life – we just have to stop it from going ahead. So I would ask you all to please voice your opinion about this proposed destructive marina and help us stop it, and save this pristine marine environment.

Have your say here -

'Click and Save Tin Can Bay' (in just 3 seconds) at www.marina.tincanbaydolphins.com.au.

I'm also posting a 'blog' on my site this week about this proposed marina so please take a look - www.bobirwinwildlife.com

Last but not least, PLEASE HELP SPREAD THE WORD by forwarding this email to others in your network!

Best wishes,

Bob Irwin

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