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?

Update: 170709
T E N endangered penguins killed. Mnly Tweet
Penguin Habitat, Manly Cove

Can Manly afford not to share North Head with Penguins?

Manly is fortunate to still have a population of the endangered Little Penguins. The 30 cm tall flightless seabird only weighs between 1000 and 1200 g . They are very social and like to live in some foreshore shelters, when they are not in the ocean/harbour hunting for fish and squid.

Humans are deciding at the moment whether they should have a right to a home or even a life. Habitat destruction/robbery, polluted water quality and unleashed dogs are the main threats to the existence of these little Fairy Penguins.

Some humans have already built a big building on top of a penguin colony in the National Park. That is not enough, they now would like to make it bigger and bring many more people to the place. They are willing to spend $21 million to turn the nice bush-land into an “eyesore”. There will be more cars, bright lights, noises and dogs – all of which the little fellows get scared of.

Other people think, that they should build the big buildings and roads where there is already infrastructure. They also would like their hunting ground, the water, protected and made into a Marine Reserve. That would mean, no more dirty runoff, noisy stinking boats, throwing fish corpses and plastic debris around, or even turning little penguins into bait. It is a tough struggle to give these unique creatures a right to exist.

Elsewhere the government has realised how these Penguins contribute to the economy and attract many visitors. They decided to invest many million dollars and buy them a big home: foreshore and ocean where they can live happily for a long time. No noisy, yucky building sites or dogs on the loose will threaten them in their new home there.

In such a place they can do what they naturally like doing, stay with their mates (cohorts), walk together in a ‘synchronized parade’, hunt for food and spend most of their time and life in that little in-group. Only disturbance, mostly from humans and dogs, makes them give up their normal social life.
Previous:
North Head Developments, before and after
Penguins or dogs
Leave some of Manly as Penguin Habitat
Links:
Penguin Images
Poisonous plankton blooms killing Fairy Penguins
Video animation: The plight of the Little Penguin, Animation Oz, Act now!
Images: 1. Street art Manly, 2. Sign on gutter, urging not to pour pollutants down the drain, then to the ocean, then to the fish, then in to penguins or humans.

Going to the dogs

It is tolerated that dogs rip off the face of a toddler or even maul them to death. Frequent attacks on adults (Curl Curl Beach) seem to go unnoticed. The 'love' and material interests towards the predatory carnivore also blinds to the mauling of the last endangered penguins. ("…about 35 injured penguins a year.")
Despite a forest of council signs, dogs are allowed to run unleashed and defecate freely on Manly beach (regularly after council knock-off time), hunt along the Marine Reserve and in adjoining National Parks. The lawns of the beach promenade are often used for lawn picnics and toddlers crawl on the grass. Often the heaps are not collected by the owners from this grassy strip. Recently one such owner of a multi-horde was politely asked to remove their dog faeces. The irresponsible owner sprung into direct physical assault mode and then proudly walked off in bright daylight. There are many fouling bullies about in Manly, in full knowledge that there is little enforcement and hardly any prosecutions. Should anyone say anything, 'Just thump em!'.
Beaches elsewhere have become unswimmable, because of dog excrements.
In some European municipalities RFID tagging of dogs is compulsory now.

Preventing 'Red Tides' at Shelly Beach, Manly

Shelly Beach is a small sheltered beach, facing Manly Beach. A coastal walkway, leads along the Cabbage Tree Bay Tree Aquatic Reserve to Shelly, which has one of the few small unbuilt headlands with native vegetation on it. Some of original cabbage tree palms were replanted as they once fringed the watercourses leading to the beach. The headland leading back to Manly beach has been undergoing intense development for years. The beach facilities are also under intense demand.

Dead Fish, how come?
Last week (02 & 03.1008) many dead puffer fish and a moray eel were washed up on Manly beach. We assume, these 'cave dwellers' were from the 'Aquatic Reserve'. On the 051008 the first blooms of an apparent red tide was visible at Shelly Beach. On the 021008 "a mysterious red sludge", believed to be red algae bloom was found on a beach in the Manly area, at Clontarf.(Image)

Nice Beach as a drain, growing harmful bacteria?
The walkway from Manly beach to Shelly beach along the aquatic reserve is studded with old, often decayed pipes of all sizes, draining the dense sub-urban development on top of the headland, down into the little bay/'reserve'. The mossy green rocks are the sure-sign for 'rich run-off'. The little creek behind the restaurant, has spaghetti-like pipes all leading into it and straight into the beach. Most of the properties, strain to grow water and nutrient intensive foreign vegetation. A large paved car park on top of Shelly, is increasingly denuded, leading to even more run off. Numerous dogs on the beach and unleashed along the walkway help to contribute their untreated feces into the adjacent cabbage bay aquatic reserve. Sydney on the whole “dumps a billion liters of sewage into the ocean every day...” (Maude Barlow, Blue Covenant, 08 p28.) Habitat degradation, generous run off and extreme warming of the atmosphere and the ocean is a guaranteed recipe for 'red tides', then harmful algea (HABs), then hypoxic or 'dead zones'. The beaches become at first unusable, smelly and might irritate the skin and eyes. Later, even just breathing the 'mist' can cause health problems and fish suffocate in the oxygen-deprived sludge, “fish-kill” (video). Marine species have their central nervous systems attacked by the poisons generated by the bacteria and also seek to 'leave the ocean' gasping for oxygen. Marine mammals, such as humpbacks are also poisoned and 'beached'. 'Food-species' can become deadly to fish, shellfish and people. Sea and shorebirds fall out of the sky(pdf). The stench would repel any visitor, closing beaches becomes very costly for the human economy. Rehabilitating the ecology of a 'dead zone' is usually left for the next generations.

Beyond denial - Doing something against the red tide
Elsewhere environmental groups are enforcing measurable standards to prevent the fouling of their beaches."..To set numeric limits on the excess nutrients which trigger harmful blooms of blue-green algae...Blue-green algae - also known as cyanobacteria - produce "dermatoxins" that can create severe dermatitis and are known tumor promoters; "neurotoxins" which interfere with nerve cell function; and "hepatotoxins" which attack the liver. Exposure to blue-green algae toxins through ingestion, skin contact or inhalation can cause rashes, skin and eye irritation, allergic reactions, gastrointestinal upset, serious illness, and even death..."
Their drinking water" is now subject to almost year-round blue-green algae blooms as a result of nutrient pollution"

It is too dear to not act
The red tide algae, Karenia brevis, "costs approximately $20 million per bloom in economic damage off the coast of Florida alone." The beauty of a beach is lost forever.

Ocean Care includes the acknowledgement of eutrophication, it seeks to alter the behaviour of individuals and the authorities bestowed with the stewardship of an biome and urban planning.

Images:
1. Shelly Beach, Google Maps, 2008
2. The walkway from Manly Beach to Shelly beach along the Cabbage Tree Bay Tree Aquatic Reserve on the one hand and the suburb on the other, Google Maps, 2008
3. Shelly Beach looking back onto the walkway with thick streakes of 'red slime' 051008
4. Shelly Beach with 'red slime'', with view to Manly Beach opposite

Update:
Red Tide 11.2010: North Head images, 1 & 2,

Manly Ocean Care Day - Of Albatrosses and Red Tides

As another 'ocean care day festival' is approaching in Manly it is time to focus on the 'care' bit. In the holiday season the beach is specially subjected to a tidal wave of of unwanted 'convenience' packaging and 'recreational' plastic.

Out of the ordinary was a large Shy Albatross (image) (Diomedea cauta cauta, pdf, measuring some 95-100 cm, wingspan 240-260 ) found at the North Steyne end of the beach on 300908. 10 puffer fish were also rolling on the sand. This giant bird is still hunted for 'sports' and chokes on human plastics. As there is no habitat left for it in the Manly region, the next possible place could be just north of Sydney. Five albatrosses and pelicans have been found poisoned at Tuggerah Lakes. "It was believed the sudden outbreak of botulism was caused by rain washing chemicals and fertilisers into the stagnant water of the lake."
If it isn't run-off from human settlements that has killed the birds and polluted the water, then it is also possible, that it is the mix of high temperatures, due to human-caused emissions, as well as the flushing of unwanted wastes into the water bodies. The result is a warm brew encouraging the growth of toxic micro-organisms. Even if no red tide is visible, the toxins (brevetoxins) still lingering, damage the nervous system, just like the botulism bug. Maybe the shy giant made it out to sea and was overcome by the HABs, to finally get washed up at Manly. Does anyone care?

A red tide is at the moment hovering around the corner in Clontarf's Sandy Bay, (Manly Daily, 021008, image). Red tides love warmth + plenty of human caused run off. They then breed toxins which have the ability to kill life in the ocean/bay and on land. Although there is a fine of $ 1 million for dumping baddies into the water-ways, there seems to be none for doing it with a trickle (eutrophication) over time.

Clontarf / Bantry Bay Estuary Management Planning Process - Data preparation in 0807, (pdf) reveals a lot about the the Sydney Harbour Foreshores and Waterways Area, such as Castle Rock and Bantry Bay and includes parts of the Balgowlah Heights, Clontarf and Seaforth suburbs.
65.5% of the space is for human habitat, 22.0% for their sealed roads and 10.2% for parks and public spaces. The 'storm water drainage network' is visualised in this document. The appropriation of freshwater is also accounted for. Giant lawns and pools spill into the 'bush', which is often cleared to see the marina (image). The foreshore appears transformed into a space for fossil fuel vessel parking. The estuary/bay is slowly looking like a large boat-parking area. Private dinghies clutter up the 'public' reserve. As in Manly, unleashed dogs are emptied of their untreated feces into the bay.

The environment- human interface is summed up as being in conflict:

• "Seawalls for protection of properties versus its damaging impact on natural ecosystem
• Groundwater abstraction and possible saline water intrusion in aquifer
• Beach raking for safety versus its impact on invertebrates
• Dog walking off leash and impact on shore birds
• Powered and sailing boats and their wake impacting on seawalls and beach erosion
• Access to mooring versus their impact on sea grass beds, ability to spread caulerpa taxifolia
• Powered boats and the safety aspects for swimmers and kayakers
• Ad hoc boat storage and its impact on amenity and habitat:
• Ad hoc access ways to foreshore for convenience versus destruction of habitat." (pdf)

The degradation of the environment does not only rob species of a habitat, but it also diminishes life quality for all living and to come. Running out of space and resources in an ever shrinking world is no fun. The diy cocktail of heat, plus draining liquid wastes equals red tides, or dead zones, that are void of life and toxic to ALL. Just breathing the mist is a hazard, eating the contaminated fish/seafood can be deadly. Jelly invasions ( the only creature thriving on this human-made environment ruin the beach- Beach closures, due to toxic blooms or jelly blooms are costly. 'Business as usual' in a risk-society could play it all away in just a generation.

The oceans are getting so hot, acid and degraded by us. Species are either fished out by us or their habitat is ruined. Lobsters, seals, whales, dolphins and crabs etc etc are affected by the red tide toxins and are wishing to leave their habitat, they thereby die.

It would be a sad world which leaves a
red ocean behind
no fish and life in it
no ocean and foreshore birds on the horizon
no beach or bay without a noisy smelly and dangerous motor
no beach or bay without human infrastructure cluttering up the landscape

Let's care!

Images:
1 & 2 Dead Shy Albatross on Manly Beach, 300908
3 Sandy Bay, Clontarf, Google Maps
4 Clontarf/Spit Bridge, Google Maps

Animation: Ocean care day animation, Manly Beach

Links:
Toxic Blooms: Understanding Red Tides, FATHOM
HABs, Harmful Algae and Red Tides, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
Sea Birds affected by red tide toxins, Florida conservation 2006
Entanglement in or ingestion of anthropogenic debris in marine and estuarine environments - key threatening process listing, DECC
Rock Snot, a hazardous algae in Tasmania, has had devastating effects on inland river catchments in New Zealand abc 270808

Update 101008
- The red tide at Clontarf mentioned above has been identified as Noctiluca scintillans (Manly Daily p3, 101008). The same type of algae bloom has also been found at Seaforth, west of the Spit Bridge and Woollloomooloo Bay. NSW Health recommends that people avoid contact with all blooms. This dinoflagellate is also linked to " anthropogenic eutrophication...along the southeast coast of Australia". In India, it has been implicated with "the decline of fisheries". At night Noctiluca glows in a bright blue bioluminescence, as viewed on Manly Beach before.
Suspected blooms should be reported to the Regional Algal Committee during business hours (02 4729 8138), or the Department of Environment and Climate Change’s Environment Line (131 555) after hours. Toll-Free Algal Information Line - 1800 999 457 according the the NSW Department of Water and Energy

Update 231008
- Brush et al. Historical Land Use, Nitrogen, and Coastal Eutrophication: A Paleoecological Perspective. Estuaries and Coasts, 2008; DOI: 10.1007/s12237-008-9106-z "During the past 300 years, many of the wetlands have been drained, and the landscape was converted to agricultural fields and urban and suburban development. Since precolonial time, the mesohaline estuary has become increasingly eutrophic and anoxic."