- Water pollution weakens corals and seagrasses when they need all the help they can get to cope with climate change and marine heatwaves
- Australia has never hit the Reef-wide water pollution reduction targets and would not have hit the nitrogen pollution reduction target until next century at current trajectory
- Reef needs detailed delivery plan showing how water pollution will be cut – which measures money will be spent on and where in the Reef catchment; what results are expected and when
The Australian and Queensland governments’ Reef 2050 Catchment Water Quality Strategy is an important first step, but it lacks the ambition, adequate funding and the detail needed to make the drastic cuts in water pollution needed to help the Great Barrier Reef survive climate change, the Australian Marine Conservation Society said after the strategy’s release today.
Australia has never hit its own Reef-wide water pollution reduction targets despite extending the deadline to meet those targets three times since they were originally set in 2013. Last year it missed the 2025 targets, and would not have hit the 60% nitrogen reduction target until the next century at current rates. In this new strategy the pollution reduction targets have been completely overhauled – pushed back until 2032 and reset with a new baseline – making it difficult to assess progress when the next report is due this year.
AMCS Great Barrier Reef Water Quality Manager Dr Max Hirschfeld said: “The Great Barrier Reef still has a major water pollution problem. Sediment, fertilisers and pesticides are running into Reef waterways, and impacting coral and seagrasses, and the fish, dugongs, turtles and other marine life that depend on them. These pollutants impact the growth, reproduction and health of corals and seagrasses when they are already under pressure from climate change and the increasingly frequent and severe marine heatwaves, cyclones, storms and floods.
“This Reef water quality strategy lacks the ambition, funding and, importantly, the detail needed to make the drastic cuts in water pollution. The strategy outlines a range of measures, but it does not show how it will deliver the pollution reductions needed to meet water quality targets. It’s like writing a recipe for a cake but only listing ingredients without showing the quantities and steps needed to actually make it.
“Decades of work mean we now have detailed scientific knowledge about the sources, locations and impacts of water pollution – and a better understanding of which measures are effective in cutting pollution at the source.
“Governments must invest in the solutions that work, including restoring wetlands and vegetation along waterways to reduce pollution before it reaches the Reef. Existing land clearing and agricultural pollution laws need to be properly enforced, because voluntary action alone will not deliver the scale of pollution reduction the Reef needs.
“The Great Barrier Reef is an economic powerhouse – it contributes $9 billion to our national economy every year and is Australia’s fifth biggest employer, supporting 77,000 jobs. Despite this only a fraction of the amount needed to protect the Reef from water pollution has been invested over the past two decades.
“Coral reefs are just too important for the world to lose. They comprise just 1% of the ocean area, but are responsible for 25% of marine species. They are the most productive parts of the ocean, like rainforests on land. Australia is custodian of the world’s largest reef – the Great Barrier Reef is bigger than New Zealand. We have the Amazon of the oceans in our backyard and we need to treasure it.”