A tiny southern emu wren, which conservationists fear is under threat from rocket launches in Australia, could be listed as endangered within days.
Planned rocket launches on the Eyre Peninsula in South Australia state pose an extinction-level threat to the wren, one of Australia’s smallest birds, conservationists said.
The subspecies of southern emu wren at the site is listed as endangered under state law, but as vulnerable nationally.
Photo: AP
Australian Minister for the Environment and Water Tanya Plibersek is considering lifting the national status to endangered, which would affect project approvals and funding decisions.
Southern Launch’s rocket facility is on the tip of the Eyre Peninsula at Whalers Way, which is “habitat critical to the survival of the species.”
Southern Launch said that its feral animal eradication programs would have a positive effect on the bird’s habitat.
Meanwhile Plibersek is considering the overall approval of the rocket launch site under the Australian Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act.
The state government would also need to approve it.
The Nature Conservation Society of South Australia said that land clearance, disturbance by humans including noise, vibrations and traffic, as well as an increased risk of bushfires, put the bird at extreme risk.
The society’s Julia Peacock said it was an environmentally sensitive spot for a range of reasons, particularly the wren.
“It’s a beautiful little bird, difficult to see, it makes a beautiful trilling, like a tinkling of glass,” Peacock said. “There are so few of these left. At best 1,000 across previously known sites. It could be as few as 500. The Whalers Way estimate [which is rubbery] is possibly 100 pairs, 200 birds.”
“We’re talking about a subspecies that’s really threatened,” she said. “What it needs is its habitat to be protected.”
Populations of the wren, which have bodies about 6cm long, had previously been lost in bushfires, Peacock said, adding that the site was already high-risk for bushfires even without the launches.
Southern Launch has tested suborbital rocket launches at its inland Koonibba Test Range. The company has a second site at the Whalers Way Orbital Launch Complex, a spaceport on private land that plans to put craft into orbit carrying customers’ satellites.
It has applied for a permanent facility there.
Southern Launch chief executive officer Lloyd Damp said the company had engaged “pre-eminent independent experts” as part of its environmental impact statement and Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act documentation development.
“The outcomes show we will have a very positive effect on their habitat through environmental management such as feral animal eradication programs,” Damp said.
South Australia Legislative Council member Tammy Franks of the Greens Party is pushing for an inquiry into the initial approval of the launch site.
While she supported the establishment of a space industry, the Whalers Way site contains a unique ecosystem and an alternative site should be found, Franks said.
She was concerned about impacts on the surrounding marine park, as well as on endangered species.
The white-bellied sea eagle, eastern osprey and white-bellied whipbird were also at risk, she said.
“While the development of a space industry is welcome, it shouldn’t come at the cost of our environment when there are so many other options not yet considered,” Franks said. “The process has been vague and community questions remain unanswered. It’s clear that we need a comprehensive inquiry into the whole project.”
Damp said that Whalers Way was the right place “for both environmental and commercial reasons.”
Southern Launch’s bushfire plan had been approved by the Country Fire Service and the company would work alongside regulators, he said.
Southern Launch planned to use rockets from 10m to 30m tall to carry small satellites into orbit, eventually launching up to 36 a year along with another six suborbital launches.
It chose the 1,200 hectare site for reasons including its remoteness and the ability to launch rockets over the Great Australian Bight instead of populated land.
A spokesperson for the Australian Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment said the listing for the southern emu wren was still being finalized.
Being “uplisted” from vulnerable to endangered nationally would signal that the wren was closer to extinction.
“Threatened species listed under national environment law are protected as matters of national environmental significance,” the spokesperson said. “Any action requires government approval if the action has, will have, or is likely to have a significant impact on a listed threatened species. The action must be referred to the minister for the environment and undergo an environmental assessment and approval process.”
Over a few hours under gray skies, dozens of combat planes and helicopters roar on and off the flight deck of the USS Nimitz aircraft carrier, in a demonstration of US military power in some of the world’s most hotly contested waters. MH-60 Seahawk helicopters and F/A-18 Hornet jets bearing pilot call signs such as “Fozzie Bear,” “Pig Sweat” and “Bongoo” emit deafening screams as they land in the drizzle on the Nimitz, which is leading a carrier strike group that entered the South China Sea two weeks ago. US Rear Admiral Christopher Sweeney, who is commanding the group, said the tour
RISING RISK: With no communication between nations flying jets closely over the South China Sea, one mistake by a pilot could quickly escalate a situation, an expert said The China Coast Guard (CCG) maintained near-daily patrols at key features across the disputed South China Sea last year, ramping up its presence as tensions over the waterway with Southeast Asian neighbors remain high, new tracking data shows. Patrols in the waters surrounding the Vanguard Bank off Vietnam, an area known for its oil and gas reserves and the site of repeated standoffs between Chinese and Vietnamese vessels, more than doubled to 310 days last year, the Washington-based Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative said. The number of days Chinese ships patrolled near Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗) in the Spratly Islands (Nansha
A court in Thailand sentenced a 27-year-old political activist to 28 years in prison on Thursday for posting messages on Facebook that it said defamed the country’s monarchy, while two young women charged with the same offense continued a hunger strike after being hospitalized. The court in the northern province of Chiang Rai found that Mongkhon Thirakot contravened the lese majeste law in 14 of 27 posts for which he was arrested in August last year. The law covers the king, queen and heirs, and any regent. The lese majeste law carries a prison term of three to 15 years per incident for
‘DISTURBING’: Nearly half of 16 to 21-year-olds assumed that girls either ‘expect’ or ‘enjoy’ sex which involves physical aggression, such as airway restriction One in 10 children have watched pornography by the time they are nine years old, according to “disturbing” new research by the children’s commissioner for England. The report found that one-quarter of pupils in their final year of primary school had already been exposed. It also showed much of the material being consumed by children and young people featured violence. Four out of five (79 percent) of those surveyed had seen pornography involving violence by the age of 18, while one in three young people have actively sought out depictions of sexual violence such as physical aggression, coercion and degradation. The report, by
RSS