A cleaner Tin Can Inlet is in sight
One aim of the project is to bring back more fish, and more locals like this hawksbill turtle – Images by Josh Jensen, Undersea Productions
Cooloola Coastcare has received a Gympie Regional Council Environmental Levy Grant to commence Tin Can Inlet Rehabilitation Stage 2.
This is part of a long-term project that started in 2017 with the Cooloola Underwater Biodiversity Assessment and has continued every year, edging closer to addressing one of the main culprits for sediment and loss of sea life in Tin Can Inlet.
Based on the scientific report by the marine biologist, a group of 16 key stakeholders from state government, council, community groups, fishing industry, recreational fishers and boaters and the public identified the first step should be changing the moorings for Environmentally Friendly Moorings.
Murky water filled with sediment is detrimental to underwater biodiversity, especially affecting seagrass, the foundation of the food web in Tin Can Inlet.
Cooloola Coastcare is working with Healthy Land and Water to implement the plan to replace the moorings over time.
They are working to secure state government funding for this process, in the way Moreton Marine Park and the Gold Coast have done to replace damaging block and chain moorings.
Trevally Street anchorage – Image by Josh Jensen, Undersea Productions
Research in these and other locations along the east coast of Australia have demonstrated the success of restoring habitats by the removal of the chains dragging crop circles on the seafloor.
The goal is to create a cleaner Tin Can Inlet with thriving fish stocks and a healthy dugong population who depend on the seagrass for food.
Volunteers are needed over the next few months to assist in building a specially designed sled with cameras for mapping the seagrass and deploying it in the Inlet from a boat around the nine mooring fields.
Find out more: cooloolacoastcare.org.au or phone 0478 039 322.
