Letter published BA 1.4.16
Thanks for your article “Keep Clear of Rigs” in the East Gippsland News (23.3). The most astounding part of this article, which surely should have been front page headlines across all your publications, was on “the recent influx of marlin to waters off Lakes Entrance…”
Little over one month ago in a letter to the Addie (11.2) on the tropical species of leatherjacket discovered and photographed by Don Love off Cape Conran I noted that this was just “another example of species moving into our waters as they warm – a direct result of global warming where our lakes and ocean are warming far more rapidly than the land…” and speculated that to “the leatherjacket can be added a number of new, and as yet unidentified, jellyfish in the lakes and possibly the Black Marlin in our nearby oceans.” Again late last year I forecast in a web article “A Black Marlin Fishery for Gippsland” that the Black Marlin may already be in our waters. It now appears that this speculation has been verified.
The point of this is not to ‘blow my own trumpet’ or say ‘I told you so’ but to emphasize that these or similar predictions could have been made by anyone who stopped for a moment to think about the problem of global warming, and in particular, our rapidly warming oceans. Most importantly it is a call for our representatives at all levels of government to recognise how serious the problem of climate change is and then to act decisively on it guided by the best scientific advice. Whilst Black Marlin fishing may provide a temporary boost to local tourism destructive climate related phenomenon such as heatwaves, bushfires, storms, insect plagues and mosquito born viruses, algal blooms, and increased coastal flooding will not.