2021-05-12
The Greens have called for action following the death of two whales which have been "dislodged" from the bottom of a Royal Australian Navy ship as it berthed in the US.
Greens spokesperson for Healthy Oceans, Peter Whish-Wilson:
“The Australian Navy are understandably disheartened by this tragic event.
“This is a timely reminder to all of us of our direct and indirect impacts on the oceans and precious marine life.
“Ships traverse our oceans all day, every day and it’s not just collisions that put our marine life at risk, it’s also anthropogenic noise and pollution.
“There is evidence that whales face multiple threats and an understanding that ship strikes often go unreported and undetected. While this area is being actively researched and investigated, the significant knowledge gap should give our government pause to delist species like humpback whales from the threatened species list.
“I support a Naval investigation into this sad encounter - including what mitigation methods are used to avoid these encounters - and trust we can learn from this so we’re better informed to prevent such devastating events from happening in the future.”
Australian Greens Peace and Disarmament spokesperson, Jordon Steele-John:
“We will be urgently seeking a briefing from the Defence Minister in order to understand what happened and to make sure that strategies are in place to stop it from happening again.
“The HMAS Sydney has advanced radar and sonar capabilities and there is a need to understand in more detail the role that these technologies did, or did not, play in this tragic incident.”