Sharks dine on sensors
ONE of the leaders of the Townsville Port’s $ 193 million channel capacity upgrade has warned swimmers about Cleveland Bay after some of the port’s environmental monitoring instruments have been taken by sharks.
Kim Gebers, the port’s general manager for infrastructure, addressed the State Government’s Townsville Industry Breakfast this week, telling potential suppliers about opportunities for work.
But he also noted the project’s huge emphasis on minimising environmental impacts as well as the problems posed by sharks.
Sensors are used to collect data like water turbidity, temperature and salinity.
Mr Gebers said they lost two sensors from buoys recently at the port’s dredge placement area.
“Both of those disappeared. There were big bite marks on the cables,” Mr Gebers said.
The sensors were replaced and the housing for the equipment strengthened.
Mr Gebers said more sensors, towed on a line behind a vessel for project geophysical seismic surveys, went missing this week.
The port’s board approved environmental studies for the channel upgrade this week.
Environmental work is to include studies on dolphins, seagrass and water quality, while an independent technical advisory committee is being formed to advise on environmental outcomes.
The committee is due to gather for its inaugural meeting next week.
“There’s nearly $ 9 million worth of ( environmental) work so there’s a fair emphasis on the environmental aspects of the project,” Mr Gebers said.
The port’s channel is being widened to allow for the access of ships up to about 300m.
About a million tonnes of rock will be sourced from quarries to form the walls for a 63ha reclamation pond off the port’s existing eastern wall where some 3.9 million tonnes of dredge spoil will be dumped.
Mr Gebers said “every teaspoon of material that gets dredged in the channel is coming ashore”.
Site preparation has begun and the import of rock is due to start early next year with rock wall construction to start in the second quarter.