Uranium and the giant cuttlefish
Have you ever seen the giant cuttlefish? It is the most beautiful animal, of magically changing colours, and ballet-like gracious movement. It is unique to a special part of Spencer Gulf, where the delicate salt balance in the water provides its specialised habitat, the only one in the world.
Some people might think that to stand up for the Giant Cuttlefish, against the Giant BHP BIlliton’s plan for Olumpic Dam uranium mine, – that this is a petty argument, about some odd, unimportant little creature.
Well, think again. Australia’s giant cuttlefish is a special, unique, and iconic toAustralia as is the kangaroo or the koala. It’s a sad time when Australians let the short-term greed of a big corporation destroy our precious environmental heritage.
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of the week – Disrupting War & Militarism in Oceania. Active solidarity. Radical practice.
Antinuclear 
Sepia apama or the Giant Australian Cuttlefish is predominantly a solitary creature that lures a mate to a crevice, hole or pipe for the purposes of mating.
However the Sepia apama that spawn along the 8 kilometre section of the Point Lowly peninsula, in Upper Spencer Gulf, South Australia, Australia are unique for several reasons. The Giant Australian Cuttlefish aggregate in their hundreds of thousands each year to spawn. This is the ONLY know aggregation of its type in the world! The cuttlefish are a sub-species in their own right and do not associate nor breed with their cousins in the southern part of the Spencer Gulf.
The Giant Australian Cuttlefish is iconic to Australia, but more so it is endemic to the 8 kilometre section of coastline that has the most ideal conditions for placement of egg-sacs – the next generation.
The Giant Australian Cuttlefish has several things against it and some of these being:-
* They hatch, live, breed and die within 12 – 18 months
* Their eggs are the next generation of the species
* Their hatchery in the upper Spencer Gulf is dependent on the salinity of the seawater – any increase could spell disaster for the species as we know it
* The cuttlefish is only protected in the waters immediately off the tip of Point Lowly to the end of the Santos Loading wharf and a straight line across False Bay to the OneSteel Wharf – outside of this area is open slather for any fisherman.
* The mining giant BHP Billiton believe that Point Lowly is the BEST place for their desalination plant (the largest in the Southern Hemisphere) that will spew hundreds of millions of litres of hyper-saline brine back into the gulf seawater, everyday for the next 70+ years – the only bedroom/nursery of the Giant Australian Cuttlefish!
I agree with the posting by Christina that the cuttlefish indeed need protecting… to formulate your own opinion about these cuttlefish and view 20 photos, please go to:
http://groups.google.com/group/point-lowly-action
Cheers
aussiecuttlefish
Point Lowly & Whyalla, South Australia, Australia
Home of Sepia apama – the Giant Australian Cuttlefish
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[…] aussiecuttlefish -14 Jan 2010 – excerpt from comment on this site at Uranium and the giant cuttlefish « Antinuclear “…..The Giant Australian Cuttlefish is iconic to Australia, but more so it is endemic […]
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