Just got handballed this Ben Diggles letter from Rick Huckstepp. Chemicals appear to be causing big problems in the beautiful Noosa River in Qld. There's not many great rivers left on the East Coast that have not been damaged, but I post it here because it demonstrates why we must be prepared to fight to keep our NT rivers clean.

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Please find attached the first public photo of a three headed (and obviously unviable) mullet embryo from broodstock mullet taken from the Noosa River.
The QLD governments veterinary report provided to the hatchery in question stated that the deformity rate of embryos spawned from mullet taken from the Noosa River was 240% higher than in mullet taken from the ocean and all of the embryos from the river mullet subsequently died.
While it is almost impossible to replicate the actual conditions the river mullet were exposed to in order to produce these sorts of deformed embryos, it is very tempting to speculate that the temporal correlation with poor water quality flushed down our rivers during the drought breaking rainfall earlier this year at a time leading up to when the eggs are being formed is a likely suspect.
The link in Fish Vet Matt Landos e-mail below is a must read as it shows how anthropogenic pollutants are having measureable detrimental impacts on water quality in SE QLD and herbicides and nutrients are front line suspects for killing our seagrasses.
The Noosa River has been our cleanest waterway and the still holds some wild Australian bass, of course the natural bass populations in our other dirtier rivers have been all but eliminated.
Unfortunately it looks like Noosa will eventually go the same way unless we get action on the use of some of these chemicals.
The fact that the QLD Govt is in denial that these pollutants (some (but not all) of which are picked up in their healthy waterways programme), are not having significant detrimental affects on recruitment of our inshore fish stocks, but do have adverse effects on the Great Barrier Reef is ridiculous.
Also, why are we blaming the rain for anything ? Rain once bought welcome river flows and life - our fish are instinctively attuned to these flows for spawning runs etc.
Now those same rains (if they ever get down past the dams) bring a potent cocktail of pollutants which are insidious and relentlessly choking the life out of our inshore areas. I say more rain and less nasty chemicals please.

Please forward this to all those who you think may be interested in this information. that link again:
http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/queensland/rain-blamed-as-moreton-bay-pollution-worsens-20091021-h8wr.html

Cheers
Ben Diggles

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Hi Matt,

I've had a fair bit to do with this down here, and the situation has been going on for over a year now. I'm president of the Somerset and Wivenhoe Fish Stocking Association and we've dealt with the hatchery where this has appears for a long time. The first fish affected were Australian Bass fingerlings, which were bred at this hatchery from Noosa River brood stock. It then happened with Mullet. There is currently no proof that the pollutants causing the damage are in the Noosa River, or if the problem is with the Hatchery itself. There are a few different theories going around. The hatchery is located adjacent to a Macadamia Nut farm and this whole thing started with a vidoe of the farmer spraying his trees and the wind blowing residue inot the hatchery. The are accusations of a "cancer cell" around the area caused by chemicals from the farmers, along with numerous other things. I think the only thing they haven't reported are ufo sightings. The Noosa river is one of the very few South East Queensland rivers that does not have any dams or spillways restricting it's flow. The upper reaches are pristine areas where it is possible to catch some of Queenslands last remaining true wild bass. While I'd hate to see anything happen to the waterway, I really think the two headed bass and now the three headed mullet stories are overdone. I'm not saying they don't exist, but not enough research has yet been done to prove why it is happening. I have a lot of respect for Ben Diggles, and hopefully he will be able to find out exactly what is causing this.

There is no doubt that chemical run-off causes big problems in waterways, even if it is not proven in this case.

I have just come back from Tassie where I did quite a bit of research into the waterways and the trout fishery - there are documented cases of forestry chemicals poisoning people and fish.

The lethal nature of insecticides to aquatic life is well documented - one can only imagine how many fish larvae never make it because of the stuff being washed into our rivers and estuaries.

I would rather have the benefit of any doubt. Bulk containers of insecticides are freely sold in the NT, I think this should be stopped, with large quantities sold only to commercial users who are trained and licenced. The stuff has the potential to do far more damage than gill nets and greedy anglers combined.

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...........at least your trebles would get a good workout!

Here's some cases of foresty chemicals causing strife in Tassie ... it is relevant because we have one of the big forestry companies operating in the NT.

http://www.geocities.com/rosserbj/widespread_contam.html#DCA

Great Southern operates plantations on the formerly pristine Tiwi Islands. I don't know if they use similar chemicals as have been used in Tassie. Great Southern went broke this year, so it appears a lot of pristine environment has been wrecked for little if any economic return.

And before anyone says anything about paper pulp, NTMAG now uses paper from certified sustainable forests, with the Feb 2010 edition going to fully recycled paper.

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And more ....

http://www.wrm.org.uy/bulletin/97/Australia.html

http://www.ec.gc.ca/eds/fact/broch_e.htm

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