Canning Algal Bloom

[Craig_S]

Is this true? I heard a report that it may have been the case but can anyone confirm?

Any indications of spread or severity?

Good thing Ira's got bream in the tank at work, that may the last local snag worth fishing.

[MATTY]

http://www.thewest.com.au/20030618/u...sto101947.html

only whats in todays west craig,was going to fish sunday but now......

[mark savage]

The bloom is not as severe as it has been in previous years. The Canning is probably in as bad shape as the Swan if not worse - blooms have been common occurance in Summer there for the past decade.

BTW how do people like Andrew Cribb's idea for some foreshore reclaimation to wetlands as filters?(eluded to in the article) I'm all for it - not only could it filter nutrients, it supplies valuable habitat for fish larvae, insect life and water fowl. Unfortunately the planning minister doesn't seen too keen

[Geoff R]

I went for a chuck this morning with Davo and Herds, without stealing my own thunder about that story, that's a new thread, there were Boney Herring every where .

[Bear]

And so it should be Mark. Good idea.

Re:

BTW how do people like Andrew Cribb's idea for some foreshore reclaimation to wetlands as filters?(eluded to in the article) I'm all for it - not only could it filter nutrients, it supplies valuable habitat for fish larvae, insect life and water fowl. Unfortunately the planning minister doesn't seen too keen

.

Thoughts are, that everything you say is right - and Andrew Cribbs idea, is sound up to a point.

I would imagine the planning minister doesn't sound too keen for a few reasons, like the expense of having to "buy back / compensate" owners of prime riverfront real estate in a boom realestate market at the moment.

Taking land off people is a little like taking fresh drinking water off someone dying of thirst in the desert.

Back in the ol days of settling the wild west of the USA - the cattle and sheep men used to fight gun battles over land and water .... things haven't changed that much - despit the ~200 years since then!.

It is however a good / worthwhile idea.

Where it falls down a wee bit is that - the filtering process used to happen in a lot of the reclaimed wetlands moreso than the actual river foreshore itself.

The foreshore is a great place to start, but on it's own, likely wouldn't be enough filtration / settlement - but anythings better than nothing so Cribby is to be applauded for his suggestion IMHO.

It's the big swamps that used to do the job - places that we now know as shopping centres, i.e Morley, Dog Swamp et al. Thats where the sedges and tadpoles etc used to do their job....

You have to get up close n personal with a lot of pristine "swamps" to realise just whats been lost - best place to do that IMHO - is the area's alongside the Donnelly Rivers lower reaches, shown on CALM scale maps as "subject to inundation" and drawn with a blue dotted line.

You get into those (along with all the mozzies and tiger snakes etc) and see first hand all the sedge, tea tree, beaufortia's, melaleuca's (paper bark trees) isopogons, leucopogons, boronia's etc etc - you begin to realise what a wetland should look like and what a wonderful function it performs in filtering the nutrients before the runoff gets to the rivers..

Those places on the swan coastal plain within the Perth environs are gone basically - the Perth idea of a wetland seems to be a "lake" surrounded with manicured (read fertilsed) mown grass lawns (that need valuable drinking water & copious amounts of rates $ to maintain).

Swamps in dry times tend to catch fire when near civilisation - kids playin with matches etc...so they also tend to get "developed" to make em like the high value property that surrounds them (housing estates).

Of course no one likes dugites and tiger snakes in the woodpile or chook shed (not to mention mosquitoes) so again swamps, tend to be places that just don't have a "valuable status" to anyone in the metro area...which i guess is why theres so few of them left.

I reckon a LOT of the "drains" that lead to the river in Perth could be revegetated with native plants (including sedges) if the water flow rate were slowed using rock bars to aerate the water & suit these plants requirements...and these drains COULD become more effective biofilters than they currently are.

Look at carparks around Perth - bitumenised every one - and then drained to the river....how much would it help out if every one was scraped of bitumen, and replaced with deep layered blue metal to allow water to drain through to the water table?

Theres heaps COULD be done if "planners" (the ones who design roads, shopping centres) and most major developers had to incorporate amelioration measures for the River into their project development plans.

I have a huge laugh every time I go to Perth (which isn't too often if I can manage it to stay away) because it frustrates me so...

Perth people as a generalisation have a fixation with concrete, brick paving, and bitumen....and then drain it all to the river - like it's the ultimate way to live...

The cost is the death of the Swan River basically.

Examples of this fixation...which being from the bush - I "notice".

Every traffic island is either brick paved or concreted. Why?

I never see ONE that isn't ripped up - moved, altered, shifted redesigned and repaved or re-concreted every 18 months - 2 years or so.

People crossing over at the lights on foot can't stand on blue metal (which drains water thru and into the water table)????

You know - if I took a bobcat and truck to Perth, in the middle of the night and stole every brick paver from traffic islands, I could brick pave the Mowen Road between Nannup & Margaret river - which the state governement have been tellling us they havent got the money to seal for the 15 years I've lived here!!.

Theres no shortage of money for pavers in the city, oh no - we got more pavers than we know what to do with...we put em down for 18 months then dig em up throw em away and replace em with NEW ones!

The freeway, Mandurah to Yanchep basically - how many miles of roadway going both ways?...60 miles? 100 Miles? 200 Miles probably closer of you add up all the actual freeways total lengths all combined - maybe more.

The whole thing has ONE FULL LANE on one side and ONE HALF LANE on the other totally bitumenised...on both sides of the freeway - this is a total of 3 LANES for the whole length - that NEVER GET USED, unless someone breaks down or runs out of petrol...

Again - that bitumen, that never gets used drains water unnecessarily straight to the river - water laden with detergent from oil in cars whats more.

Again - those 200 miles bye 3 lanes could bitumenise / seal roads in the country which are this nations most deadly and cost hundreds of lives needlessly every year.

Why seal all these 'pull off lanes'? So the motorist and RAC Man don't get gravel dust on their doc martens once in a blue moon when they should happen to break down?? Wouldn't some blue metal that drains water thru to the water table do the same job?

Us folks in the bush just laugh when pollies scream they haven't got $ for health or education (or country roads) beause we SEE all the waste in the city when we visit. Sure it's "nice to have" and looks cool - but the COST (in $ terms is horrendous) and in environmental terms is the death of the Citys lifeblood - the Swan River.

Theres LOTS of things folks in the city could DO to positively influence the rivers improved health but I fear many of them are "too close" to the problem to "see" what the problems really are. Sometimes, "fresh eyes" spot things that local eyes mightn't see because they have been too acclimatised to an environment of steel glass concrete brick pavers and bitumen...

For someone from the bush, thats a foreign environment and the "obvious" environmental faults glare at you...because such an environment is foreign.

When folks from the bush try and point out such obvious things, city folks look at you like you just landed from Mars, and discount whats said because it's 'just our country hick couzins' mouthing off (again).

Sad to say it - but MOST of the Swan Rivers health problems emanate from the city - from Folks who've long forgotten what "nature" (root meaning "natural") really looks like.

Start ripping up all the bitumen, reprocess it and we'll gladly have it for much needed "roadworks' in the bush - and at the same time - the Swan rivers magnificent bream might actually be able to breath thru their gills again.

Thats how I see it from the outside lookin in!.

Cheers!