Marine National Park of the Month - 90 mile beach - Jonathan Stevenson

Anth is still on holiday so Bron is in command of the SS Marinara.

There was a bit of controversy in the studio as Tallman from Radiotherapy stormed in to add to the discussion about banning dogs from the beach at Airley's Inlet. According to the Age the Council is sick of the poo, but Tallman thinks that the biggest problem is dogs knocking kids over, and that is not really an issue.

The weather was back to some sort of normality - windy and bumpy was the considered opinion.

Radio Marinara endorses nothing Tallman says - ever, not after what he did to us !

Ninety mile beach is about 90 miles long - it has a series of old limestone reefs and large sandy areas of seafloor. There were more marine invertebrates found in a 10m2 survey (803 !) than in any similar survey in the world. This is a huge food source at the bottom of the foodchain that just looks like boring sand. Add in the white shark nursery and you have wonderful place that needs preserving.

This makes is a bit hard to interpret and translate to the public.

In the first and third weeks of January there will be beachcombing activities on 90 mile beach to help to introduce the local towns to the parks. For more details head to the Parks Victoria website.

The Barwon Bluff is having its first birthday and giving us all a present - The party starts with a rockpool ramble this morning (better today than yesterday weather wise).

The Bluff has been an icon to the community, and they have taken real pride in the park since it was declared last year. The local ownership seems to have increased in the area, and the response to the website and the free CD - Living on the Edge - has been fantastic.

Lisa Powell became the Godmother of the project (with assistance from Parks Vic) and produced a product that is aimed at Prep to Year 10.

The website starts with a welcome from the traditional owners of the land and the water. It has photo galleries with over 200 images (mostly from local photographers), video footage of a dive along the edge of the reef - showing the colour and sheer beauty.

John can be contacted on (03) 52542626

The aim of Hands Across The Water is to link up kids with a interest and stake in marine sancuaries The idea started with sister sanctuaries - linking specific sanctuaries together to swap ideas and information. Jody then took the idea back to San Diego and the program started to flesh out - linking the kids together from the local schools. And no - they won't be emails, they will be real letters to each other to increase the personal nature of the program.

There have been a few problems getting the US connection to work, but that has finally come together, Beaumoris will be linked with a school in La Hoya, just outside San Diego.

The aim is to get the kids to have a sense of ownership and spread that out to the rest of the community.

Stay tuned to find out out the program goes - we'll be catching up with Jody in 2004.

"Beyond the Reef"

" I will"

"Changui"

Michael Franti and Spearhead

Charlie Hunter Quintet