Climate, Currents, Collapse: The Perfect Storm Behind the Bloom (Part 2)

This week, in Part 2 of our Toxic Algal Bloom Special Report, we revisit SOUTH AUSTRALIA’s devastated coastlines and coastal communities, where efforts to combat the event continue. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
My Heart Essay. Hi, I'm Jackie Limb with iHeart Essay.
Last week we jumped into the Great Southern Reef to
learn more about the toxic algal bloom that's been plaguing
our seas. This week, in part two of our special report,
we revisit South Australia's devastated coastlines, where efforts to combat
the event continue. Over four hundred and eighty marine species

(00:22):
have been confirmed lost, while authorities face mounting pressure as
the crisis deepens, threatening not just marine ecosystems but the
long term future of coastal tourism.

Speaker 2 (00:31):
One thing that I think we need to show more
than anything else, just beyond monetary support, is ongoing solidarity
with the communities that are being affected. And to this
same every South Australian can play a role. There is
absolutely no reason whatsoever why people can't visit coastal communities
anywhere across the state. We actively encourage people to buy
our amazing South Australian seafood that is on the shelf.

(00:55):
Really simple rule. If it's on the shelf, you can
eat it, and you can do that with absolute confidence
knowing that we have some of the highest quality and
rigorous testing regimes anywhere in the world, so back it in.
I need as much as you possibly can visit a
coastal community and show your support. There's no reason why
you can't. It's fair to say that we're focusing very
much on those people that are most adversely effected at

(01:15):
the moment, and we do want to support the caravan
parks and the beachfront kiosks, fishing tackle shops, the charter operators.
In terms of the tourism operators, we are turning our
mind about how we show support to tourism operators, including
the option of the Tourism without the scheme. We are
putting work into that effort in the event that is
needed as we approach the spring in summer months.

Speaker 1 (01:37):
Premier Pete Malanowski is there. Last week we also heard
from doctor Dominic mcaffee, a marine scientist from Adelaide UNI,
and now he's also shared some thoughts on tourism across
the state and how we should take a leaf out
of the Great Barrier Reefs Monitoring book.

Speaker 3 (01:51):
Everybody knows about the Great Barrier Reef. It's an iconic
part of Australia and a huge part of our tourism.
People aren't quite as familiar with the Great Southern Reef,
which connects seventy percent of Australians, that stretches from Sydney
all the way around the Southern Coast has mainly end
across the Perth, covering about eight thousand kilometers of coastline,

(02:12):
and that's a really significant contributor to our annual economy.
It's worth about twelve billion to the economy. So an
adequate monitoring program is required so we can safeguard that
for the future. Monitoring is not just recording where ecosystems
have been impacted, are they doing well or are they
doing poorly? There the important for informing fisheries management, responsible

(02:36):
management and conservation programs that benefit people and the coast.
So these are really significant marine assets to the Australian
economy and Australians culture. Coastal culture. I believe that deserves
adequate and meaningful funding in the order of tens of
millions of dollars to establish long term world leading monitoring

(02:59):
programs mentioned in.

Speaker 1 (03:00):
Our coastal culture. You know, going down to the beach
or pulling up in Wallaroo on those really expansive sandy
area on Australia day for example. That is Australia in
a nutshell. So going forward, if this sort of thing
isn't controlled or fixed, what's going to happen there? Do
you foresee that we might lose that.

Speaker 3 (03:19):
That's a very good question and an intimidating one to
think about. In certain parts of the world, these blooms
are annual events and they become normalized. But people don't
go to beaches at certain times of the year because
they know it can irritate your eyes or your throat
and it's not going to be pleasant. You certainly can't swim.
We're so lucky in Australia to be able to grow

(03:42):
up near the coast and just have it as a
part of our daily or weekly lives, and I think
it's one of the most iconic parts of being an Australian.
So to lose that would be absolutely devastating. And we
need to value the natural assets that we have not
taken them for granted and recognize that climate change will
affect all ecosystems in complex ways. So to ensure safe, healthy,

(04:07):
happy nation and going forward, we need adequate funding for
conservation science and marine management that starts on land and
continues to the deepotion.

Speaker 1 (04:18):
Definitely hoping for some more rain to kind of wash
this away, and the funding as well, So he's hoping August,
the last month of winter, brings a lot more of
that and this can kind of start shifting.

Speaker 3 (04:30):
Fingers crossed. We're learning a lot quickly, but we've got
a lot more to learn, and it's probably going to
be quite a while before we know the full impacts
and extent of this particular event, but we need to
learn from it immediately so we're better prepared for the future.

Speaker 1 (04:45):
Not the most encouraging of words from doctor mcaffee there,
but elsewhere there might just be a glimmer of hope.
Our jo Jenny Lenman spoke to ecologist Faith Coleman, who
says Mother Nature is remarkably resilient and some algae on
algae action is starting to combat the toxicity for some
areas on the South coast.

Speaker 4 (05:04):
So what's happening is there's a little thing called a
sea sparkle. It's a noct lute of symphonion. There's the
Latin name, which basically translates to the same thing. At
nighttime it glows. So many people know about bioluminescence and
people take up the photos of it. This is the
little algae that causes that. But it's about point two
of the melimeter across, so it's quite large in the

(05:26):
algae world. And it's eating the kurnia literally because it
doesn't photo synthesize at all. It's new well, it's not
new ague, it's been there forever, but the sea sparkle
doesn't photo synthesize. It literally just eats other algae and bacteria.
The sea sparkles killed by the krenia normally if the
levels are really really high, and so that warm of

(05:46):
water and that hy dissolved organic matter that was in
the water has obviously been consumed to a degree, and
the krena is reducing in density, and it's reducing in
density in some areas new area that's moving into now,
but in some areas it's reduced to the point that
the sea spoke cooking came in and helped start polishing

(06:08):
off their remains.

Speaker 1 (06:08):
We'll have more on essays algill Bloom coming up after
the break My Heart Essay, My Heart Essay. Welcome back
as we take another deep dive into our toxic waters
this week. We're focusing on the human cost, what it
means for local tourism operators, beachside towns and South Australia's

(06:29):
reputation as a clean coastal getaway. Our reporter for the
York Peninsula, Brooks Saychelle, spoke to publican for the Dalrymple
Pub in Stansbury, Rob Rankin, to find out about how
businesses are coping.

Speaker 5 (06:42):
We've seen a reluctance of travelers to come over to Stansbury.
Our tourism base is directly related to people who fish,
and that tourism base travels the whole year round. Since
the bay Or is the buy out, the front of
Stansbury has been closed for fishing and for commercial harvesting
of oysters, and we've seen a real drop off in

(07:03):
the travelers staying in Stanfrey.

Speaker 6 (07:06):
So in comparison to this time last year, what would
the numbers be looking like.

Speaker 5 (07:11):
We're about eighteen percent down on our takings over the
last twelve to thirteen week period since the Alga blooms started.
It was probably most noticeable in the July school holidays,
which are always a nice little earner for us.

Speaker 6 (07:25):
Well, what measures have you had to take since the
algle Bloom started. It's been a few months now, so.

Speaker 5 (07:31):
Unfortunately we've had to cut back on staff during the day.
Where we might have two weight staff in our dining room,
it's been back to one. And we're not cleaning. We're
not having the pub cleaned every morning, whereas we'd normally
employ a cleaner who does two to two and a
half hours work every day. Our weight staff have just
been getting in half an hour earlier, and we've just
had to cut back in a couple of little ways.

(07:52):
If there's no one in the pub, it seems crazy
to pay staff to work when there's no one here.

Speaker 6 (07:57):
So I know the government announced support package last week,
So what's your reaction to this.

Speaker 5 (08:04):
I think it's a fantastic initiative from the government to
look after people who desperately need it, and by that
I mean the fishermen who are unable to fish. But
more importantly to me is the half a dozen oyster
growers who make their livelihood out of Oyster Bay, which
is directly out the front of Stansbury, and they have

(08:26):
quite literally been unable to trade. They haven't had a
lot of business by thirty percent, they've had a lot
of business by one hundred percent, so I applaud the
government for that. My worry is that it perhaps hasn't
gone far enough. Other businesses in town, including my own,
which continue to be affected by this alga bloom, receiving

(08:46):
no support from the government. And my further worry is
where this support package will fall as we approach our
busier times of the year.

Speaker 6 (08:56):
How can we support local businesses like yourself that might
not be able to get the government support during this time.

Speaker 5 (09:02):
It's an ongoing call, I suppose, and it's the same
for every business in a country town in South Australia
and in Australia. I suppose we just want a supporter
for local community. If you can buy your things from us,
go to the supermarket and buy your groceries, don't shop
in Adelaide, come down to the pub for a meal,
or buy your cart and a bier. It might be
a couple of bucks more expensive than you would want

(09:25):
to pay, but these are times when we need to
rally around and support our local community, our local businesses.

Speaker 1 (09:30):
Tourism further up, the golf is also under threat with
the bloom spreading towards Wyala. An emergency meeting regarding the
safety of our beloved cuttlefish migration was called last week
and a subsequent meeting was also held this week. Marine
ecologist and cuttlefish expert, doctor Zoe Doubleday from the University
of Say was in the room for both meetings and
gave me an update on those discussions.

Speaker 7 (09:52):
So the first meeting was, right, Okay, this might happen,
that our whole events might hit to cuttlefish, and then okay,
what's the impact that will have? And we were missing
a few bits of information and one of my jobs
is one of the cepha pod expert was to go
away and review the science and see what's out there.
And then that's where we left it last week. Then

(10:15):
we met this week and we looked at the science
and there was risk assessments done and then discussing what
can be done, if anything, to help save the cut
offish if the worst case scenario happened.

Speaker 1 (10:27):
So, as far as you know, the numbers were released
I think late last week and all of that with
monitoring as as they always do. The numbers and the
population still looks fairly strong, so we wanted that to
remain the case. So what were the suggestions.

Speaker 7 (10:41):
There was discussions, as it was going to mentioned in
the media the week before about removing eggs to potentially
collect insurance population that is looking less likely now because
of the sheer numbers of eggs that would have to
be collected to make a meaningful impact. You know, most
marine animals, when they produce young a large proportioned dye,

(11:05):
only a small proportion make it to adulthood. So sort
of doing some of those calculations, and then there's always
the uncertainty of the very hard to keep alive as hatchling,
so you keep them alive as eggs, and then once
they hash, where do you put them, particularly when there's
unknown reasons associated with the bloom. But I think it's

(11:25):
such sheer logistics of egg numbers.

Speaker 1 (11:28):
So what would be an alternative then.

Speaker 7 (11:30):
So some different alternatives have been discussed, so we're all
like it was definitely as serious and rather sober meeting
and also being aware of the urgency and the time
that we have met. So I won't go into details
of all the different ideas that are swirling around because
they are ideas and it's a very dynamic situation on

(11:55):
the modeling show.

Speaker 1 (11:56):
For when the bloom might reach them, though have you
looked into that.

Speaker 7 (12:00):
Sort of odd it's like one to two weeks wow,
And it could be that the bloom might not go
in all the different pockets where the eggs are. We
don't know because it sort of goes around the point
a little bit. For the worst case scenario that.

Speaker 3 (12:16):
The bloom would.

Speaker 7 (12:17):
Go in sufficient densities in all the nooks and crannies
that the eggs are currently at. So we're not worried
about the adults. They're sort of coming to the end
of their breeding season, so the eggs is our key concern.
And then obviously the hatchlings. The eggs might have a
bit of protection because they have it like an eggshell
or a capsule that protects them somewhat for the environment,

(12:39):
but that eggshell and capsule gets sinner and thinner as
their babies grow.

Speaker 1 (12:43):
Are other species that interact with our cuttlefish also being
affected and will that potentially impact them as well? So
you know, predators or prey.

Speaker 7 (12:53):
Yeah, So obviously if we know some of the predators
and sort of bigger fish, maybe potentially the marine mammals
as well, but they're for some of the larger fish
obviously that sort of bad thing for the cuttlefish if
their predators decrease, not a good thing for the environment
in general. But the key thing would be that pracece,

(13:15):
so the babies need to eat a lot the little
crustaceans when they hatch. If it's not about direct contact
with the bloom and mortality of death results of that,
it's also having pockets of environment that hasn't been covered
by the bloom where there's that food sauce still alive.

Speaker 1 (13:35):
And as far as tourism goes as well, because of
course we know that this is affecting our marine life,
but it is also affecting those on the beach. You know,
people are avoiding areas where this bloom is arriving. So
if it were to reach this area of the Gulf,
and it were to reach the cuttlefish, whilea's main tourism

(13:56):
draw is in a little bit of strife.

Speaker 7 (13:59):
Cuttle yes, is the cuttlefish another hope if with the
cephalopods is and we saw that in twenty thirteen when
the population really declined down, so they did bounce back
from that, and because they have such short lifespans an
incredible growth rate in nature, they can go through boom

(14:20):
and bust, and they can boom after the bust. So
what we're really hoping is you've got enough individuals left
to allow that recovery.

Speaker 1 (14:31):
Yeah, now I remember it coming back strong, and you know,
the exclusion zone for fishing and all of those sorts
of things being introduced. So they've had a bit of
an up and down roller coaster of a time over
the last decade or so.

Speaker 7 (14:42):
Definitely, we are really working hard. And yeah, no one
in that room, you know, wants to see the cuttlefish
go or be severely impacted. So there are other as
I said, oh, there are other things being discussed.

Speaker 1 (14:57):
Yeah, well that to be made public when when you're
allowed to or.

Speaker 7 (15:01):
Yeah, we'll see. As said, I'm not a decision maker
in the room, I'm an advisor, so if something I'm sure,
if something is further decided, it will be made available.

Speaker 1 (15:13):
That's it for this week. Don't forget. You can hear
iHeart Essay in the iHeart app or wherever you get
your podcasts. I'm Jackie Loomb. Join us again next time
for more of the stories you want to hear I
Heart Essay. The Voice of South Australia as