Seven Little Penguins killed by a Dog at Manly Beach

Seven endangered Little Penguins (Eudyptula minor) were butchered by one dog in their "protected" habitat in the National Park. (Images). This is the last and only colony in N.S.W.

Dog owner's attitude: ‘what’s one penguin against my dog’s freedom’ Manly Daily 060709

Mnly Blog points to an abundance of dogs being illegally allowed to be on Manly Beach (daily), in penguin habitats, Shelly Beach, North Head NP and the National Parks. There seems to be very little enforcementt and a lot of encouragment of the introduced canine obsession. The unleashed dogs are gaining territory, as wildlife is lacking a sponsoring industry.

Many cafes have dogs INSIDE, and outdoors they have their snouts on the same plates as the customers. Staff fondle the saliva of dogs and then continue to serve human beings.

But then in a society where children are mauled by dogs, people have their face ripped off, little flightless birds only get a few lines, before its back to serious business.

It is a state of poverty to exchange rich biodiversity for a monoculture of dangerous animals mauling people and Australian wildlife.

Questions:
How many convictions (on-the-spot fines) have been served on dog owners for illegal behaviour?
What proportion of resources are being devoted to the protection of wildlife?
What is the ratio of dog sponsorship by council, compared to the effective enforcement of the 'critical habitat' law?
Which tourist/visitor will want to see packs of dogs?

Manly Beach Drift 'wood' - July

A monthly summary of what has washed onto the shore or beach through the winds, tides, waves or human action. Marine debris, flora and fauna, dead or alive:
010709Plovers reclaiming the beach.
Glass, as every day.
Erosion: The southern end of the beach is a building site. Two earth-moving machines and some 11 workers sifting through the rubble. Sandstone, basalt, cement garbage, iron bars, plastic/fibrous mats, that have been dumped there and now have to be hand-picked. Lines of vehicles parked on walking parade.

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Erosion: Southern end of the beach manufacturing: fencing down, rubble largely removed. Diesel machines still pumping on the beach and pedestrian parade.

An unusual amounts of shells along the northern end of the beach. Ocean acidification thinning shells? One look along the beach, it is 4x4s crawling, with the odd rocket pumping CO2.
A large tanker hovering on the horizon. A motorboat racing just meters from the surfies' lineup towards the Cabbage Tree Aquatic Reserve to 'park'.Glass, splinters, broken bottles, as every day. Image displays the average daily crop of sharp health hazards on a beach.

A flock of Sulphur-crested Cockatoos (Cacatua galerita) feeding on the ground seeds of the Norfolk Island pines (Araucaria heterophylla). Two dogs have just been emptied on the same bit of lawn. Usually people: toddlers, bootcamp training clients etc roll on this turf.

Illegal dogs at the Queenscliff end daily. Dogs & motors in summary.

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Erosion: 'Nature' and many labourers hand raked the beach for the last debris/rocks at the southern end.
Daily illegal dog on the beach
A lot of glass collected. All forms of styropore at the northern end of the beach.

The daily ocean-going ship hovering on the horizon. Elsewhere they now have " regulation mandating that all ocean-going vessels within 24 miles of the state's coast must use cleaner burning low-sulfur diesel fuel". Less premature deaths from air pollution/smog. Less acidification of the oceans.
Manly will probably soon give up "choking on noise and fumes of the international combustion engine" and be declared car-free. Breathing at Manly Beach and 'immersive Manly village' will be possible.

Fisheries without fishes, tourism without reefs, beaches and wildlife is not unthinkable. The collapse of the ecosystems would turn the present economic crisis into a hiccup.

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Highlight was a pod of dolphins upstaging the surfies by leaping high out of the surf.

For some 3 million years they were at home in their coastal habitat. Now this aquatic sphere is claimed by our species. 'Flipper' becomes bait, 'bycatch' or it has its habitat degraded by us. Marine infrastructure clutter up the coast, anthropogenic noise pollution from motor boats, toxins, waste and (fishing) garbage degrade the ocean even further. Eating 'our' tuna and squid the 'competitors' are often turned into bait. Many die from entanglement and ingestion of fishing gear which is so often found at Manly beach.

There are many Eora depictions of Bottlenose dolphins engraved into Sydney sandstone. Let's continue to share the ocean with these smart marine mammals!Image: Google Maps: Manly Beach, pipe, North Steyne/Raglan St.

Five Great Cormorants (Phalacrocorax carbo) flying north, leaving bird-unfriendly Manly behind.
A flock of Sulphur-Crested Cockatoos feeding on the lawn under the pines on cones. Only the dogs posed a danger to them.
Two large dead fish at the beach. One a Porcupinefish as so often.

The appearance of the beach seems to be normalising.

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Crested Terns, Crows and Sulphur-crested Cockatoos
Divine cloud formations, sun and rain. Permanent tropics in Sydney?
Again a new lot of plastic junk: Drink bottles, tops and a lot of polystyrene in the shape of orecchiette pasta. At the sandstone wall a small 'run-off' pipe exuded small polystyrene balls with a black discharge on to the beach.

At the horizon, two navy ships hovering. Scary to think that in an event of an oil spill, the 'clean-up' costs could not be recovered as it might "hurt Australia's reputation."

A large noisy (navy) helicopter swooped a couple of times along the beach /surfers. The 'manned scarecrow' chased all birds away. No marine mammals were in sight with that noise. Time to switch to 'unmanned' air vehicles in a regulated airspace.

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Manly Beach going to the dogs...A dog owner took their dog in bright daylight illegally for a walk all along the shoreline of Manly Beach. Black plastic dog feces bags blowing on the dunes. On the walking parade a dog defecated in a puddle. The rain drained all untreated excrement down a pipe onto the beach. One would think, that with an explosion of the dog population, corresponding enforcement services are being made available. There is supposed to be a 'litter guard', where is the canine/feces guard? What is public health?The usual amount of glass on the beach. Maybe there will be less in the future, as premises of alcohol merchants will be regulated. Drinkers will no longer be trusted to handle glass after midnight in some places.

Re the daily ocean-going vessels at the horizon: Elsewhere a Clean Air Act will set standards for engine and fuel to improve the air quality, save lives and the environment.

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Manly Beach is a unique parrot beach: White cockatoos during the day, lorikeets in the afternoon and black cockatoos occasionally. Echos of some 55 million years of a bio-diverse heritage. Locals facilitate captive non-Australian animals.

Junkspace: Plastic in the form of a lot of drink bottles, toys, lighters, caps/lids and 'party balloons'. Differently shaped polystyrene packaging bits today.
The usual crop of freshly cracked glass.
The 'run-off' pipe around Raglan St. has a distinct odour of miasma.

Tourist buses with idling motors spill their customers on to the beach. Photo, litter, off.
Yet again, another motorboat racing along the lineup and then, as they all usually do straight to the Cabbage Tree Bay Aquatic Reserve to 'park'.

Erosion: The southern end of Manly Beach is still fenced off. Rocks and black plastic mats are scattered over the beach.

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Junkspace: An unusual large amount of packaging from a wasteful 'throw away' society. Plastic bottles, styrofoam cups and a very large number of 'disposable' domed plastic lids and foam cups. A large array of 'one-mouthful edibles wrappings'. Carry-out trays are the latest to be dumped at the beach. Maybe the cafes/crèche are too unbearable? If the sale of these wasteful items can not be prohibited or regulated, then it could at least be taxed.
Litter in the sky: A large clump of 'party balloons' released and stuck in + 25 m high pines. The entangled strings pose a hazardous environment for birds/wildlife. What form of 'waste management' will remove the plastic junk: kites, balloons etc out of the 'littered' giant pines?

Sulphur-crested Cockatoos are boldy grazing the pine promenade for seeds, hoping, that all dogs are on a leash.
Daily dog illegally on Manly beach.

See also Driftwood of:
June, May, April, March, February, January, 2009

Sharks, Beach and Fears

Via Save Our Seas Foundation, YouTube channel, more on shark nets here

Manly Beach Erosion 2009

Get the slide show and click here
Or watch it here (select HQ):

Manly Beach Spirit

SUV driver aiming to plough their way across pedestrian strip, despite the pram, three adults and dog. All non-motorised beings had to dodge to survive. Pedestrian crossing, Sth Steyne/Victoria Parade.

Marine Corps style female fitness runner banging into walkers (obstacles) on 'their' gym track and injuring them. 'Fitness Boot Camp': I, me & myself, get out of my track. Shelly Beach Walkway.

Black suv racing , endangering others. Sydney Road, along Ivanhoe Park.

Families mistake the severe beach erosion as an adventure playground: Small children are playing amongst the dislodged rocks, cement chunks, crevasses, debris, fibrous mats, dunes and backwash. The 'stormwater' run off pipes (eutrophication) draining the suburbs, seem to be the highlight of small toddlers. Manly Beach

Pathogen Ecology at Manly Beach

People pass on superbugs to seagulls. "...Wild birds pick up E. coli of human origin, and with human resistance traits, and may accordingly also act as an environmental reservoir and melting pot of bacterial resistance with a potential to re-infect human populations."

Both aggregate at beaches and like to share take-away food. Humans leave the 'throw away wrappings', gulls leave their feces on the beach promenade.

Waste management on the Manly Beach front (images) takes the form of high-pressure hosing, and debris blowers. All are petrol powered, polluting and very noisy. The waste, which as we now know has the potential to contain antibiotics-resistant bacteria is 'dispersed' by the air or water/aerosol pressure. The waste is blown, wet or dry, either in the direction of the beach or towards South Steyne and its outdoor eateries. Beach users, parade walkers and customers of the eateries need assurance that risk factors are being kept to a minimum.

• Silver Gulls (Larus novaehollandiae) are a native and protected species. Enforcing the 'no feeding' rules would limit their spread.
• Eradicate invasive species (Indian Mynahs) and their feces, dog feces on public footpaths. Enforce the law.
• Adopt sustainable waste management not based on petrol and that does not constitute noise pollution.

Via > > Bonnedahl et al. Dissemination of Escherichia coli with CTX-M Type ESBL between Humans and Yellow-Legged Gulls in the South of France. PLoS ONE, 2009; 4 (6): e5958 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0005958

Escherichia coli , antibiotic resistance
Reverse zoonosis
Image: Google Maps, Manly Beach front, parade with eating facilities, South Styne and the eateries opposite.

Manly Beach Drift "wood" - June

A monthly summary of what has washed onto the shore or beach through the winds, tides, waves or human action. Marine debris, flora and fauna, dead or alive:

010609
A large reef fish, bluebottles, coconuts
Willy Wagtails surfing the kelp heaps. A very large Pelican/Gannet feather full of parasites.

JUNKSPACE:
Two people with plastic bags collected things, wood? unseen before.
Fumes at the beach: cars, eateries and smokers
- There are Life Guards for the aquatic zone, but where are they for the terrestrial slow lingering toxins?
Noise: Building sites all along

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Cat fish, bivalves, sponges, shells
Swallows and Willy Wagtails surfing the kelp
Kelp holding the beach in place, if no one interferes

Junk space:
Plastic junk, a lot of bottles and plastic pellets seemed to be accumulating in front of the 'litter free' beach club. More surfing plastic bits.

What can't be 'cleaned' with the aid of petrol at the beach doesn't get done. It is impossible - the blind spot.

Glass, sharp and in all colours and sizes.

Industrialised cleaning of the promenade at prime visitor time repels users. High pressure hosing exposes people nearby to aerosol pollution. It ruins the ambiance for hours.

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Kelp heaped up at the northern end
Sponges of many shapes and sizes, many pink/red
Coconuts, Sea urchins, dead fish

Junk Space:
Plastic, especially bottles. Countless light blue tops
Glass, bumper crop, sharp, many bottlenecks
Food wrappers, the one mouthful type, now also for dogs!
- Can't industry take full life cycle responsibility for their (anti-) products?
Fishing junk: plastic ropes, fishing string all tools to entangle wildlife.
Light pollution in daylight

040609:
Bird scape: Four very agile Gannets (Morus serrator) were busy diving. Willy Wagtails were patrolling the kelp. Large swarms of magpies fight over the tips of pines. Sulphur Crested Cockatoos are still into pine seeds.

Kelp at the northern end is grabbing the sand back, Cunjevoi and Sea tulips mingle with the plastic bottles.

Most of the 'drift'wood is of anthropogenic origin, sawn-off and dumped. A lot of garden rejects.

JUNK SPACE:
Fishing Junk: Floaters, long nylon strings, plastic ropes, a car tyre with intricate entangled ropes tied to plastic container.
The plastic pellets still linger, especially in front of the 'litter free' Surf Club/beach. There seems to be an unusual amount of plastic bottles, tops and fast food wrappers/cutlery of a throw-away society.
Glass, not much today.
Odor scape: Fumes from idling diesel tourist buses and unpleasant fat from some eateries at the beach.

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Dead fish, nice large sponges,

At the Sth Steyne end the pine roots are exposed on the beach by the erosion, caused by the climate- change accelerating behaviour of fossil fools.

Junk space:
A record amount of broken glass, all over the beach. Post-event glass.
Black plastic bags for dog feces blowing along the beach.
Garbage: Take away packaging and drink tins.
The Pigface (Carpobrotus glaucescens) planted around the base of the pines squashed into pulp by a stampede of feet. Post event damage.

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Styropore in all shapes and sizes along all of Manly Beach. The petroleum product, used for some many fast food throwaway items, does leach into the products. Everlasting plastic rubbish.

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A great variety of shells and coral pieces all along the beach.
Two Pelicans flying towards the polluted Manly Lagoon

Junk space:
Glass, a huge crop of all colours and sizes. All freshly cracked scattered all over Manly Beach. Let's call it the post-weekend crop.


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Kelp all roots up is doing its best to hold the sand.

Bird Audiospace:
A couple of Gannets (Morus serrator) dive directly at Manly Beach, Sth Steyne, neatly between the flags.

35+ Sulphur-crested Cockatoo, (Cacatua galerita) travel through the pine arcade. Both at rest and in flight emitting their distinctive raucous call. Feeding together on the pine cones, trimming the odd branches, hanging upside down.

The dogaholics walking their packs underneath seem to be blind to such an event. How could anyone think of confining such a powerful social bird in a cage? Why are so many inviting them with junkfood to their balconies in Manly, culturing dependence and inviting the demolition of their houses? In many places they still shoot and poison the protected animal.

Two Masked Lapwings (Vanellus miles) fly over at the Queenscliff end emitting their characteristic day and night call during flight. The Plovers' habitat is reduced to dirty puddles near roads where they are killed by cars, dogs and cats. Some sub-urban birds have given up breeding all together and leave it all up to the human species and their canines.

A White-faced Heron (Egretta novaehollandiae) was seeking refuge on top of a tall building, as the wet slopes of Queenscliff were crowded with dogs. Engraved into local sandstone rocks by the indigenous people of Manly, the birds lived in this area for eons.

A Pied Currawong (Strepera graculina) hunted in the lower levels of the pines, filling its 'larder'.

190609
A very large spiky Porcupinefish together with a toxic looking spray can. Is the zoo imitating toxic 'reality'?

Plastic lighters, 'party' baloons with long entanglement ribbons for wildlife. Dog feces plastic bags, that claim to be 'biodegradable'.
Glass, a lot of it, especially in front of 'Manly's litter-free beach'.

220609
A fresh delivery of plastic pellets. Shredded styropore. Rejected broken surfboards. Many plastic 'throw-away' lighters.
The smell of miasma in front of the 'litter-free' beach club, emanating from the 'run-off' pipe.
The horizon cluttered by a cruise liner billowing pollution into the blue sky and Pacific.
Unusual severe beach erosion all along the beach.

230609
Severe erosion of Manly beach. Even if all autoholics kicked the habit, a 25 m sea level rise is a "can do" for coming generations.

A new large amount of plastic resin pellets (nurdles, mermaid tears) along the southern 'run-off' pipe. This is the raw material for the plastic industry to make the many plastic goods. "Over 250 billion pounds of nurdles are shipped around the world to plastic processing factories every year." A lot gets lost due to inefficiencies and ends up on beaches and in wildlife. All the other plastic junk at the beach, drink bottles, tops, lighters etc are made from these pellets. Today there were some extra large pellets, all mingling with styropore.

School group launching various 'message in a bottle'. Hope they took the glass.

240609
Erosion gnawing at beachfront. Rocks at North Steyne Beach now exposed as well. Manly Beach is fenced off at the parade end. The beach is closed. Earth-moving equipment at work to manufacture a beach at high costs. Sisyphus rolling boulders in the anthropocene?

A new delivery of plastic pellets, together with a lot of minced plastic junk. It has the appearance of a cost-effective tip rather than a beach.

On the invisible side of ocean dumping: All the dumping of e-waste at the kerbside, containing "toxic chemicals, including lead, mercury, cadmium, beryllium, polyvinyl chloride (PVC), chromium, arsenic, antimony and bromide" will no longer be possible by 2010.

A brown haze lingering at the horizon.

250609
A Little Pied Cormorant (Phalacrocorax melanoleucos) out of a habitat, searching for a spot to dry its wings.

Erosion. Human labour and earth-moving equipment rolling rocks at the beach. Daily, more and more rocks and fibrous matting is being exposed. Beach and promenade are fenced off.
Despite a forest of signs, families are magically attracted to the sand cliffs and 'rockeries'. One carer by-passed the fence at the beach and swung his toddler at the edge of a 1.7 m sandcliff, rocks underneath. Hungry for adventure.

A very large amount of sharp glass all along the beach.
The usual plastic mince, car tyres more often lately.

Dogs, like every day at Queenscliff beach. Was there ever one conviction?

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A large assortment of shells, corals and sponges all along Manly Beach.

Again, an unusual amount of freshly cracked glass of all colours.

The erosion of the beach, especially at the southern end reveals a lot of junkspace: Cement rubble with rusty iron bars jarring out of the ground. Large amounts of fibrous white sheets that used to cover up the 'foundation rocks'.
Council's fences and barriers get broken by the public forcing their 'right to access'. Families seem to be drawn to the rubble as a funfair. Sandy beaches never seem to attract that many minors. Check out the detailed 'erosion' slideshow here.

See also Driftwood of:
May, April, March, February, January, 2009

Less Fig Trees at Manly Beach

Large old endemic fig trees are dying mysteriously along Marine Parade. In the first image, the circled tree has been dropping its leaves for a long time now. The one around the corner at the sandstone sculpture (image 2, below) has just recently decided to shed most of its leaves and immature figs (image 3).
It appears that the cliff face is becoming increasingly tree-free. Instead weeds are spilling down and Indian Mynas are replacing the native dragons. Changes!
More on Fig trees in Manly
Trees on Council Land
Images: Google Maps

Plastic Pellets and Erosion at Manly Beach

Wild weather events have brought forth two unusual phenomena at Manly Beach: erosion and plastic pellet pollution.

Erosion: At the south end , especially near the Life Saving Club the sand has dropped by 110 cm. Large chunks of cement, rusty iron pipes and sandstone are exposed. The stairs' foundations and the old infrastructural stumps have been exposed.

Plastic Pellets: Nurdle (pre-production plastic pellet or plastic resin pellet) are approximately 5mm in diameter, white or discoloured. All of it 'gets lost' in the industrial production and transportation of plastic products. Once in the ocean they become 'mermaid tears'. Many animals at the ocean become sick or die from them. In the end they enter the entire food chain. Additionally they leach plasticizers. They are also a transport medium of toxic chemicals (PCBs, DDE) in the marine environment. In the Great Pacific Garbage Patch giant amounts are in a vortex till the next gyre hurls them in any direction.

The plastic pellets have in the memory of Manly blog never been seen on the beach. There is also a lot of general plastic debris as well all along the beach.

Is there a marine science body responsible to monitor such occurences, or is it all up to the expertise of life savers?
Links:
International Pellet Watch, Global Monitoring of Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs) using Beached Plastic Resin Pellets.
Plastic Debris, Manly Beach
Coasts eroding, tag, abc

Herbicide Use in Manly

Herbicides kill unwanted plants

Biocides "have been designed to disrupt biological systems, causing death to target organisms, such as insects or plants"

They have been used in warfare to make the leaves fall off the trees in the rainforest(Agent Orange). The damage was great on all life and some victims fought a class action lawsuit about the poisoning.

These chemicals are not just used in warfare for eradicating life, they can also be put to use as chemical weapons to remove unwanted plants for example.
Once a place industrialises, that is it relies on fossil fuel machinery and chemicals for 'vegetation control' then the costly “rapid knockdown ability” of these toxins saves the labourer from bending down and picking up a weed.

Lately there have been many signs of the use of such substances in public areas that are highly frequented by people, pets and wildlife.

At the end of Bower St at the Shelly Headland Loookout where some Bitou weed (Chrysanthemoides monilifera*ssp) needed to be 'managed' a whole swath of native plants are dead or dying: Mangrove Boobialla (Myoporum ssp.), NZ spinach (Tetragonia tetragonioides) and Saltbush (Enchylaena). All of the endemic flora provided habitat for native marsupials and birds. It appears to be a very inefficient 'by-kill'. The location is on the cliff's edge so runoff is an issue. Why the remaining woody shrubs and trees are butchered is another question.

Around immersive Manly Town many poles have that iconic Australian 'one grass' sprouting at the bottom. The same signs of herbicide death. Even at the beach, the vegetation at the sandstone wall also shows the same signs. A sign of surface runoff?

Who knows what the turf along the pines contains which children and dogs are rolling in. Both toddlers and dogs are low to the ground and stand to be in closer contact.

Council's website was last updated in 2007 on the matter and reads:

"The aim of this plan is to meet the community’s general right to know about pesticide applications made to outdoor public places that are owned or controlled by Manly Council. The plan allows members of the community to take action to avoid contact with pesticides if they wish. Manly Council aims to ensure that pesticides are applied to public places in a safe, responsible and humane manner, minimising harm to the community and the environment."

In a more current document council mentions that "70 litres or less of herbicide is to be used annually".

• How is the public informed?
• How is information made available?
• How can residents/visitors/pets reduce exposure to land or beach where hazardous chemicals have been applied or have run to?
• Why aren' t there any signs?

A community of users might have certainty at the moment, but history has taught that the Precautionary Principle is always a good guide. The impacts on peoples' health, the well-being of pets or the environmental impacts will, as usual come years later.

Images:
1 & 2, Poles with dead grass in Manly town, close to Manly Beach
3 Dead vegetation at the beach stairs. Run off?
4 Various Mangrove Boobialla at Shelly Headland Loookout dying.

Links
Endocrine Disruptors
Some Reasons to not use Herbicides
Glyphosate

Update:
040509
North Head , Lady Fairfax walk and lookouts also seem to be befallen by the great 'browning'. Weeds especially along the fences are doing well. Endemic plants are hit. Eutrophication down the cliff from the lookout.

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" Weed killer kills human cell... Used in yards, farms and parks throughout the world, Roundup has long been a top-selling weed killer. But now researchers have found that one of Roundup’s inert ingredients can kill human cells, particularly embryonic, placental and umbilical cord cells." Environmental Health News, 220609

Nora Benachour and Gilles-Eric Sralini, Glyphosate Formulations Induce Apoptosis and Necrosis in Human Umbilical, Embryonic, and Placental Cells, Chem. Res. Toxicol., 2009, 22 (1), pp 97–105 DOI: 10.1021/tx800218n Publication Date (Web): December 23, 2008

Roadkill at Ivanhoe Park, Manly

Parks or public green spaces are under constant pressure as they are seen as Terra nullius to be 'developed'. Ivanhoe Park is squeezed by two large roads (Sydney/Raglan), giant sports arenas, a large pub and other commercial facilities. The squeeze continues on this little island of flora and fauna.

We have stopped counting the road kill on both roads of native birds and marsupials. Today another Ringtail possum was smeared by racing drivers across Sydney Road. There seems to be a kill every day now... going unnoticed.
Image: Google Maps

Fishing (hooks) and Albatrosses - Manly Beach

Another dead Shy Albatross found at the beach. This time it was an obvious victim of 'fishing-by-kill'. The fishing hook was lodged in its eye and the nylon string entangled especially the young bird's legs.
Create more Marine Reserves, eradicate the ineffective and wasteful fishing industry and ban ' recreational' wasting of biodiversity.

More 'recretional fishing' victims at Manly Beach here