Worth the Risk?
Say no to Gascoyne Gateway industrial port.
Please help us stop the Gascoyne Gateway industrial port and protect Exmouth Gulf, Ningaloo
Exmouth Gulf, Ningaloo’s nursery, is at a turning point. Last year, after a surge of community opposition, Subsea 7 withdrew its pipeline fabrication facility proposal from the Gulf. But the industrial projects keep coming.
Now there’s a threat from an industrial port. This controversial proposal would attract massive ships, including oil and gas vessels, into an important humpback whale nursing and resting area in Exmouth Gulf. Shipping is known to present a serious risk to humpback whales, including from potential ship strike and also disturbance from underwater noise to their crucial resting and nursing behaviour.
The construction of the rock causeway and wharf would smother fragile marine habitat nearly a kilometre out into the Gulf’s waters, an area vital for whales, dugongs, dolphins and turtles. The Gulf is shallow, so dredgers would remove more than one million cubic metres of seafloor to enable the large ships to reach the port. That’s the equivalent of over 34,000 shipping containers.
We can still stop this proposal but we need your help. Please add your name to this letter to the Hon. Amber-Jade Sanderson, WA Minister for Environment, calling for her to stop industrialisation of Exmouth Gulf and protect its environment, wildlife and nature-based economy!
Why Now?
The Minister is considering her formal response to the EPA’s recently released strategic review of Exmouth Gulf which raises concerns about the increasing pressure on the Gulf’s environment and calls for the protection of its important values.