Aussie divers - Dredging 'destroying scallops'

Ally · 02-17-2008, 09:59 AM

Quote:

SEDIMENT from the Port Phillip Bay dredging is wiping out scallop grounds along the Mornington Peninsula, it has been claimed.

Scuba diver Rubens Monaco said he and a colleague dived one kilometre from where the dredge Queen of the Netherlands had just swept through on Saturday, and what they saw "was pretty devastating".

"Basically there was nothing on the bottom," Mr Monaco said yesterday. "Everything has been sucked up."

The sea floor was normally the habitat of seagrass, scallops, invertebrate animals such as sandworms, different fish, small stingrays and octopuses, he said.

At a depth of 15 metres, visibility was down to two metres and at 2pm it was almost dark under water. Mr Monaco said loosened sediment from the dredging could be fatal to scallops because they were filter feeders.

Port of Melbourne chief executive Stephen Bradford said he was not aware of any problems over the dredging and declined to comment on progress made.

http://www.theage.com.au/news/nation...578607536.html