Port Phillip Baykeeper » Featured http://www.bay-keeper.com Say g'day to the Bay Thu, 08 Dec 2011 11:14:22 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 Summer by the Sea 2012 – your chance to connect with the coast http://www.bay-keeper.com/2011/12/summer-by-the-sea-2012-your-chance-to-connect-with-the-coast/ http://www.bay-keeper.com/2011/12/summer-by-the-sea-2012-your-chance-to-connect-with-the-coast/#comments Thu, 08 Dec 2011 11:14:22 +0000 BayKeeper http://www.bay-keeper.com/?p=2391 For anyone looking for kids holiday activities and keen to connect with the coast on a low budget, Christmas comes in January… January 2nd to 22nd to be precise. During that 3 weeks an incredible range of fun learning opportunities are available through the Summer by the Sea program brought to you by Coastcare Victoria. You get to have fun and meet some amazing marine and coastal critters and the dedicated community members who can tell you all about them.

Sunrise seen from Altona (pic Julia Muniandy)

Baykeeper can’t wait to get out there for the fourth successive year of seashell safaris at selected beaches around the Bay. Who knows what we might find!!? We’ll also be conducting guided foreshore walks to check out the wilder side of St KIlda! Details of these activities can be found on the events page of this website.

If you get tired of all the action, why not just chill out and enjoy the sights of sun and water at play. As you can see from Julia’s sunrise pic (above) they do amazing things together!

The complete Summer by the Sea 2012 holiday program is available online at :- summer by the sea

]]> http://www.bay-keeper.com/2011/12/summer-by-the-sea-2012-your-chance-to-connect-with-the-coast/feed/ 3 Cart-rut shells alive and well in Brighton http://www.bay-keeper.com/2011/11/cart-rut-shells-alive-and-well-in-brighton/ http://www.bay-keeper.com/2011/11/cart-rut-shells-alive-and-well-in-brighton/#comments Fri, 11 Nov 2011 23:32:25 +0000 BayKeeper http://www.bay-keeper.com/?p=2355 A Baykeeper shoreline shell survey found a large Cart-rut shell (Thais orbita) at Holloway Bend earlier this year, suggesting the species may still live in the area. This species was central to the ban on use of Tributyltin (TBT) as an anti-foulant on vessels less that 25m in Victoria in 1989.

Cart-rut shell: worse for wear but there!

International studies had shown TBT caused female shellfish to grow penises. A high incidence of the condition (known as imposex) had been recorded at Brighton Harbour in the early 1990s, but had reduced after the ban. We were delighted this week to receive photos of several “fist-sized” Cart-rut Shells on a reef offshore of Brighton.

Cart-rut shells on Brighton reef (pic: Steven Putt)

10 years after the ban was introduced, Marine Pollution Bulletin (Volume 42 # 10) reported that the relative penis size index (RPSI) of female Thais orbita in Port Phillip Bay had generally reduced. But the RPSI had increased at Williamstown, indicating that TBT from large vessels, ship maintenance activities, and release from historically contaminated sediments, continued to pollute the area.

The study concluded that while the ban remained, TBT pollution would only threaten ports areas and be unlikely to impact more widely in the Bay. Unfortunately, their study was restricted to a limited number of sites and they didn’t consider the practice of dumping dredged sediments from the Port of Melbourne into the Bay.

]]> http://www.bay-keeper.com/2011/11/cart-rut-shells-alive-and-well-in-brighton/feed/ 4 New designs for stormwater litter traps http://www.bay-keeper.com/2011/10/new-designs-for-stormwater-litter-traps/ http://www.bay-keeper.com/2011/10/new-designs-for-stormwater-litter-traps/#comments Fri, 21 Oct 2011 11:43:37 +0000 BayKeeper http://www.bay-keeper.com/?p=2321 One of the best things in a Baykeeper’s day is meeting people who happily walk the talk. So it was quite a buzz this week to see Ross Headifen install a litter trap which he designed for the stormwater outfall at Albert Park beach.

Ross installing his savvy solution to plastic pollution

Better still, he’d already installed several other traps on City of Port Phillip foreshores; and negotiated with CoPP to have the traps maintained and monitored by the local beach cleaning crew.

A tailor made trap for a Port Melbourne outfall

Ross has designed the traps to be quite robust but economical. While not huge, they are large enough to contain the expected litter load and still allow high stormwater flows to escape rather than blocking up and causing localised flooding upstream. We’ll be working with Ross to see how the traps perform over the coming summer to evaluate the designs and rectify any maintenance issues.

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