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Rally for Marine Conservation

World Environment Day, 5 June 2008

Town Hall, Hobart 12-30-130pm

Marine Reserves Wanted for Bruny Bioregion (Southeast Tasmania’s own marine bioregion).

See Jon Bryan’s Stunning Underwater Photography

Hosted by Cassy O’Connor (Save Ralphs Bay)

After an extensive R.P.D.C. inquiry, the Tasmanian Government is set to make some big decisions on the future of the Bruny Bioregion. Come along to this meeting to make sure they know how important marine conservation is to Tasmanians. Tell your friends, tell your colleagues, spread the word and be there to make conservation and science come first.

AND BE THERE TO MAKE SURE CONSERVATION AND SCIENCE COME FIRST.

For further information contact Jane MacDonald. Email; janemac1@internode.on.net or phone 0406 993 425.

The Bruny Bioregion extends from Southport in the far south to Hell Fire Bluff in the east. Its waters surround Bruny Island and the Tasman Peninsula. These environments include fully exposed coasts off Bruny Island with extensive offshore reef and roaring surf beaches; the sheltered waters of the D’Entrecasteaux Channel; the deep drowned river valleys of the Huon and Derwent Rivers; towering kelp forests; extensive seagrass beds in Blackman Bay; and the unique tannin waters of the Huon River.

The Bioregion hosts a range of threatened marine species. It is regarded as the most ecologically diverse of Tasmania’s nine marine bioregions. The R.P.D.C. states, “... the Bruny Bioregion stands out as being the most complex and diverse in terms of ecosystems and human activities and uses. This bioregion is unique within the Australian context with respect to the high number of species endemic to such a small area. The only other two Australian bioregions that might have a comparable level of endemism are not nearly as vulnerable to threatening processes.'

Supported by Save Ralphs Bay, Tasmanian Conservation Trust, Tasmanian Marine Naturalists, Environment Tasmania, The Wilderness Society and the Australian Marine Conservation Society.