Anth and Bron are both in the studio and the weather report was nice. If you missed the election last night, it could best be described as a tidal wave - looking like labor controlling both houses. Looking at the policy of Labor there are no specific marine items under environment - probably a bit of fatigue since the Marine Park issue.

Watch out of the water forum on December 6 pulled togther by the 9:45 - 5:00 at Melbourne University. For more infoamtion contact Elisabeth on 9328 4811.

The tanker off Sapin that went down - it has released about 1/3 of the amount of the Exxon Valdez spill. The same amount of oil as was spilled at Exxon Valdez is sitting in two warships in the South Pacific. There are another 1000 or so around the planet after a couple of quality wars.

In NSW if there is a sandy beach and a rocky heads it is worth getting into the water.

Jervis Bay - the highlight is Currarong with swimthroughs and water from 1 to lots of metres.

Nowra is the next big joint moving north, followed by Bass point and then up to Wollongong - which is ugly above water and pretty below. Brett would rather go there than Noosa.

Coalcliff heading north into Sydney is great, and if the wind is right off the northern head of Bondi is great, with 40 m dropoffs in 10 m of the cliff.

While it is on the Equator there is a upwelling of cold water making it a subtropical environment.

Marine iguanas do two interesting things. They defecate in their grazing grounds to fertilize the algae they graze on, and only the big males acually graze underwater - the rest just graze at low tide.

If Darwin was on scuba for his visit, he may not have come to the same conclusion - there isn't a marine equivilant of Darwin's Finches (but there is in New Zealand in the Triple Fin)

For more information, head to the website of the Charles Darwin Research Station

Victoria is the largest container port in Australia, and the idea of the deeping on the channel is similar to the need for a Scorsby freeway on land.

The depth is already an issue, and around 10% of ships now can't load to their full capacity becasue of the channel depth and that is expected to grow to 25% in the near future.

The environmental effects are very important, and the studies to determine the effects are expected to take about a year. The aim is to allow ships that at 1.9 m deeper, and different amounts of materrial will havge to be taken out of different part (up to two MCG's)

The issues are diverse, relating to turbidity, changes in tide levels and marine ecology bay wide (not just at the heads). These investigations may need to look at the 30 year timeframe, and look at what might happen with and without the potential changes.

"Eli Wallach"

"Sweet Divine "

"United"

Darren Haulon

The Prairie Dogs

Ginger Tom

" Looks great but I am going back to bed after a night of red, white and amber ”

Sea: Rye was 17 C Sky: Blue

Snorkling in NSW
Brett Illingworth

Dr Steve Swearer - Scuba at the Galapagos

Lisa Faldon
Victorian Channel Authority
John Arup
Environmental Consultant