Boat Owners Association of NSW seek to forbid anchors being dropped on seagrass meadows
BOAT owners and Sydney’s seaplane operators have vowed to sink a ban on dropping anchor over seagrass meadows in the city’s waterways, describing it as “anti-man”.
NSW
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BOAT owners and Sydney’s seaplane operators have vowed to sink a ban on dropping anchor over seagrass meadows in the city’s waterways, describing it as “anti-man”.
The Boat Owners Association of NSW say Primary Industries Minister Niall Blair is bowing to green groups by seeking to forbid the use of anchors in parts of Sydney Harbour, and in Pittwater near Palm Beach, where the flowering marine plant grows.
Mr Blair has suggested anchoring bans as part of compromises to the state government’s planned Sydney marine park, after an angler uproar led to proposed widespread no-fishing zones being dumped.
The boating industry supported the anglers’ campaign to dump the no-fishing zones, but The Boat Owners Association of NSW’s rejection of restrictions on anchoring in seagrass areas opens a division between them and fishers who generally support seagrass protection.
Seagrass is a vital marine habitat and described as a “nursery for sea life” by green groups. Anchors and their connected anchor chains can damage meadows by ripping up the plants.
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“There’s room to be pro-fish and pro-habitat without being anti-man,” BOANSW president Andrew McKinnon said in its submission to the proposed Sydney marine park, obtained exclusively by The Sunday Telegraph.
The group says the impact of anchoring is exaggerated.
“All of the nicest sheltered anchorages … have seagrass,” Mr McKinnon said.
“If we ban anchoring over seagrass, we impose a massive change on how we use the harbour.
“Those of us who like to anchor close to shore so the kids can swim safely to the beach will no longer be able to do so.”
There are seagrass meadows in North Harbour, Manly, Chowder Bay, Rose Bay, Camp Cove and Nielsen Park.
Steve Krug, who operates a seaplane service between Rose Bay and Barrenjoey, also opposes the ban.
“If I need to throw an anchor out I will; I’m not going to ask permission,” he said.
A study published this year found Sydney Harbour lost 40 per cent of its seagrass meadows between 2009 and 2014. Academics described it as an “alarming decline”.