We are going to loose 100 hectares off cockburn sound to aquaculture

 Fremantle seaweed company Pty Ltd has put in a application for 100 hectare lease to grow seaweed out in a are north of port Coogee area in the shallow water any body any thoughts

People can comment to the revelant authorities by the 26 th October?

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scotto's picture

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wowsers

Wed, 2021-10-13 08:23

 any further deets BlackGen?? link?

 

I wonder if this will be an exclusion zone?

Blackgold's picture

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Aquaculture lease

Wed, 2021-10-13 09:11

Hi have a email but don't know how to download 

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gee thats interesting. im

Wed, 2021-10-13 11:27

gee thats interesting. im definitiely not knowedgeable in this area, but seaweed/seagrass could be great in between when thy harvest it. would think would helpwith water clarity, squid etc?. dont know much about the implications of this type of aquaculture.

davewillo's picture

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Application link

Wed, 2021-10-13 11:53

 Link to the application is http://www.fish.wa.gov.au/Documents/public_comment/2021/Fremantle%20Seaweed%20Pty%20Ltd%20-%20Applications%20for%20an%20Aquaculture%20Licence%20and%20Lease.pdf 

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 PGFC member and lure tragic

Swompa's picture

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Not really sure that part of

Wed, 2021-10-13 12:58

Not really sure that part of Owen Anchorage cops that much use unless you transit inside Fish Rock. The squid grounds seem to be a little bit south of there.

Seaweed will surely be good for water quality. 

 

little johnny's picture

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Doesn’t really effect nothing

Wed, 2021-10-13 17:47

Shit ground

Lefty 44's picture

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Not true

Thu, 2021-10-14 07:46

 Very good squiding along that drop off.

I've pulled many bags of cephs from there over the years. 

Normally bag out on Hezzas too for deep drop baits. 

Great spot for Gummy's at night too. 

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Mixed bag of seaweed

Thu, 2021-10-14 13:15

Thanks Davewillo for the link. The proposal lists a dozen species of seaweed, plus one seaweed family and a genus. I know a few of them and some would be suitable for human food, others for chemicals and some for feedstock additives. In particular the small branching red one Asparagopsis taxiformus is currently a hot topic, as feeding it to cows reduces methane a great deal. Methane is a very powerful greenhouse gas and livestock produce plenty of it, so there is strong interest in scaling it up.  But I would say , looking at the mix of species listed they want to keep the options open for various species with different markets, depending on how production goes.

 

The block looks to be 1.67km on the long side and about 600m wide. I have drifted around there a bit and looked at the seabed, which is a mix of sand and some seagrass mostly. Where the lease is proposed is along the small drop off, so they would have a shallow edge in about 1-5-2m depth along the north, then the sudden dropoff all the way along the lease down to around 7m. There is also a bit of the deeper hole o the same drop off edge just south of fish rock that is mostlt about 12m and about half of that hole sits in the western end of the lease.

 

The fish species I've caught there are mostly smaller mobile ones, like herring, skippy and squid. Given the seaweed will be grown on long lines the farm might act as a bit of a FAD for them. Not sure what might happen with water flow and sand movements though.

sea-kem's picture

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 Be interesting to see how

Thu, 2021-10-14 13:17

 Be interesting to see how they do it, watched a show recently on the impact of COVD in Bali. Most have gone back to seaweed farming as generations had done before. 

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Love the West!

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Back to the basics

Thu, 2021-10-14 15:20

I know some people worked at Nusa Lembongan, across the straits from Benoa Harbour on Bali, which was one of the major seaweed farming places originally.They said the younger generation went into jobs with the tourist industry, as they paid better and had more prestige than being a farm labourer out on the reef. I was there in 2019 and was told the seaweed production had declined as tourism grew, but until the tourists come back the seaweed is at least something, although the village incomes will be much less from just seaweed.

 

Was thinking about the Fremantle Seaweeds longlines and wondering if they'll end up with huge schools of fat buff bream. Some longline seaweed farms in Indo do attract a lot of herbivorous fish.

sea-kem's picture

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 Yeah that's pretty well what

Thu, 2021-10-14 16:38

 Yeah that's pretty well what the show highlighted, there was a young Balinese couple who borrowed from the bank for a small hotel/bar which was bringing them a reasonable income until it all went to shite, so it was basically back to the family seaweed farm. 

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Love the West!

straith's picture

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Do they pay a lease or?

Thu, 2021-10-14 14:49

 Wonder if i could get a leased area where only i could fish lol, burley up one way netting pmsl!!

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 It's a great idea as it

Thu, 2021-10-14 21:00

 It's a great idea as it would increase the biodiversity in the area no doubt increase local jobs etc

little johnny's picture

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Black gold

Thu, 2021-10-14 21:03

Mmmmm. Does this effect you ?

Keenfisher's picture

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Save Our Sound

Wed, 2021-10-20 23:31

 I think if there was any seaweed/seagrass aquaculture to be done in the sound it should be done to replace all the seagrass beds that have been damaged over the years by commercial companies because seagrasses are where the whole of the aquatic system begins so to mantain a healthy marine system in cockburn sound the seagrass beds need to be replenished not artificaly planted and then harvested for more commercial gain. Just saying 

Swompa's picture

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 Seeds for Snapper are

Thu, 2021-10-21 12:59

 Seeds for Snapper are actively involved in that space. I think their annual seed pick up and plant day is coming up this month. 

Mark_M's picture

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Public Comment

Thu, 2021-10-21 19:53

Information regarding public comments is here:

 

http://www.fish.wa.gov.au/About-Us/public-comment/Pages/default.aspx

 

Closes November 3rd, then the docs go to a different page.