Bombs, Turtle Soup and the World's Largest Sanctuary
Contributed by DaisyB
The history of our vast continents mountains, deserts, adventurers
and fighters is well known but that of our watery periphery is often
overlooked. Australia’s Coral Sea has a fascinating story and if the
government continues with its current plans it will become one of the
largest safe havens for marine life on the planet.
The Coral Sea extends between
Australia’s Great Barrier Reef, north up to Papua New Guinea, and over
to the Solomon Islands and New Caledonia in the east. Australia’s
jurisdiction includes nearly 1 million square kilometres of clear
tropical waters and is one of the healthiest areas left in our global
But the Coral Sea hasn’t always been the natural icon it is now. It has
a chequered past dotted with countless tales of human ingenuity. When
it was named the ‘Corallian Sea’ by Captain Matthew Flinders he
commented on how few ships passed through the treacherous waters
without encountering a coral reef. As the decades rolled by the Coral
Sea’s islands and cays became an increasingly sought after site for
harvesting guano (or bird poo to most of us) for use as a fertiliser
which was shipped to the mainland.
When the hawksbill and green turtles were hatching on islands in the
Great Barrier Reef in the late 1800s to the mid 20th century they may
have witnessed the fellow turtles being unsustainably killed on the
beaches in their thousands. Their gorgeous shells were taken from their
backs and meat was used for tinned soup.
The Coral Sea is the birthplace of
the Eastern Australian Current and any fans of Finding Nemo can imagine
the thousands of turtles cruising these tropical waters. Throughout the
early 1900s you could even take a ride on a turtles back in many
coastal Queensland towns. What an incredible thought – turtle riding
was a tourist activity!
As the world was drawn ever more into conflict during World War II the
Coral Sea was the site of Australia’s most significant naval battle:
The Battle of the Coral Sea. On the 7th and 8th of May 1942 allied and
Japanese forces fiercely attacked one another’s ships from the air.
This was the first time during WWII that the Japanese were defeated at
a major battle and it turned the tide of the war in the Pacific. 656
allied and 966 Japanese personnel were killed in the tragedies of the
As commercial whaling was transformed with the advent of explosive
harpoons the Coral Sea became a sight of significant slaughter of
humpback and sperm whales reaching its height in the 1950s. Numbers
rapidly dwindled and as time progressed whale watching became a
favourite holiday attraction for Australian’s as we began to value the
best of nature’s playgrounds. But it wasn’t until 1979 that Prime
Minister Fraser finally pulled the pin on Australian whaling.
Today the Coral Sea is hailed as one of the few remaining areas where
large pelagics like tuna, marlin and sharks are still abundant, and
isolated tropical reefs still pulse with the rhythm of nature. Many
divers will know of the Coral Sea’s incredible dive sites like Osprey,
(particularly if you’re interested in shark encounters), Shark, Vema,
Holmes, Marion and Saumarez reefs just to name a few. If you’ve been
then you’ve had a glimpse of some of the best diving the world has to
next chapter in the Coral Sea will be a fascinating one. Late last year
the federal government released a proposal to protect the Coral Sea in
a very large marine park which excludes oil and gas drilling as well as
trawling but leaves over 90% of the reefs unprotected.
As divers we all know that coral reefs are the lifeblood, or the blue
heart of our ocean as Dr. Sylvia Earle so vividly described them. To
leave them unprotected when the chance is there to do something
extraordinary is to miss an opportunity our marine life cannot have
slip by. Please visit www.protectourcoralsea.org.au
to add your voice
to the call and urge the Government to protect all of the Coral Sea’s
reefs, underwater volcanoes, important breeding sites for tuna and
marlin, and critical migration routes for turtles and whales. We’ve got
until Feb 24 to make a submission and turn the tide in favour of our
Underwater legend Valerie Taylor AM has narrated a short clip which
captures the beauty of the Coral Sea.
“I’ve seen the changes that have occurred in our oceans over many
years. Establishing a very large, highly protected marine national park
in the Coral Sea would safeguard this special area just like national
parks do on land” Valerie Taylor AM.
Thank you to Undersea Productions for pro bono filming and production