The Impacts of Bushfires on Coastal and Marine Environments a Review and Recommendations for Change
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The impacts of bushfires on coastal and marine environments A review and recommendations for change MARINECONSERVATION SOCIETY AUSTRALIA A report for the Australian Marine Conservation Society by Chris Smyth MARINE CONSERVATION SOCIETY AUSTRALIA 1 MARINECONSERVATION SOCIETY AUSTRALIA CONSERVATION SOCIETY AUSTRALIA Contents Executive Summary 4 Key Findings 6 Recommendations 8 The Australian Coast Up in Flames 10 Existing Catchment, Coastal and Marine Research on Bushfire Impacts 14 Current and Future Impacts of the Bushfires on Oceans and Coasts 20 Conclusions and Recommendations 28 MARINECONSERVATION SOCIETY AUSTRALIA References 31 Appendix 1 38 MARINE CONSERVATION SOCIETY AUSTRALIA Tables Australian Marine Conservation Society Table 1 State by state breakdown of fire impacts Table 2 The impacts of major bushfires in Australia’s past Phone: +61 (07) 3846 6777MARINE CONSERVATION SOCIETY AUSTRALIA Freecall: 1800 066 299 Email: [email protected] PO Box 5815 West End QLD 410 Author: Chris Smyth CONSERVATION SOCIETY AUSTRALIA Coordinator: Darren Kindleysides © Australian Marine Conservation Society, February 2020 This report has been prepared for the exclusive use of the Australian Marine Conservation Society (AMCS) by Chris Smyth of Chris Smyth Consulting. The report must only be used by AMCS, or with the explicit permission of AMCS. The matters covered in the report are those agreed to between AMCS and the author. The report does not purport to consider exhaustively all issues related to the impacts of bushfires on coasts and oceans. The author does not accept liability for any loss or damage, including without limitation, compensatory, direct, indirect, or consequential damages and claims of third parties that may be caused directly or indirectly through the use of, reliance upon or interpretation of the contents of the report Cover photo Brothers stand together on the beach during 2019/20 Bushfire Crisis. Forster, New South Wales. © Martin Von Stoll 1. Executive summary When the NSW Rural Fire Season announced environments, in the short and longer term, and rich coastal habitats, and moving away from If the recommendations of this report, and that the 2019–2020 bushfire season was to help with planning for future bushfire events. the use and export of coal, oil and gas. those of other organisations concerned about begin one month early in September 2019, it did bushfire impacts on coastal and marine The increasing scale, frequency and intensity of The Australian, state and territory governments so because of ‘extreme drought conditions, a environments are acted upon by all levels of bushfires in Australia, and the extensive media should also work together to develop an forecast of hot, dry weather’ and fires already government, then Australia can minimise the coverage of the current season, is causing the integrated, comprehensive and consistent burning in August. environmental, cultural, social and economic community to be more aware that coastal and monitoring program for coastal and marine costs and start recovering and restoring the The announcement marked the beginning of a marine environments are also impacted. Ocean environments. It can be used as an early health of our coastal waterways. bushfire season that would be unprecedented. and coastal environments are already struggling warning system for environmental changes that Thousands of fires engulfed all states and against development, pollution, overfishing may occur after bushfires and other pollution This report reviews academic literature, media territories, with some burning down to the and global warming. They now face the added events, and enable swift action to address them. reports and various websites to summarise shorelines of estuaries and beaches. The burden of escalating bushfire impacts. It will also help build a better understanding of what we know, what we don’t know and season was a stark piece of evidence that the bushfire impacts and how they can be avoided what we need to know and do about bushfire Research has shown that when the nutrients, scale, intensity and frequency of Australia’s or minimised. The program should involve impacts on marine and coastal environments. ash, debris, sediments and metals released bushfires were increasing, exacerbated by the government agencies, research institutions, It begins by reviewing existing catchment and by bushfires are washed into waterways, they effects of escalating climate change. citizen scientists and community organisations. coastal research on bushfire impacts, describes can remove the feeding and breeding areas some of the impacts of the current bushfire The immediate bushfire impacts were clear. Lives of aquatic animals, clog the gills of fish, and Finally, the declining health of estuaries needs to season, and considers a number of restoration were lost, homes and infrastructure destroyed, undermine the breathing of filter feeding animals be reversed by governments supporting existing projects that can help bushfire recovery. The access into and out of towns cut, smoke and such as mussels. The contaminated sediment restoration programs and the development of report ends with a comprehensive listing of ash turning day into night, power blackouts and slug can slowly work its way downstream to the new ones. This will help mitigate the impacts references and an appendix that describes the food and water shortages. Images emerged of coast, harming aquatic life along the way. of bushfires and also maintain nature based scale of the 2019–2020 bushfire season. dead, dying and injured wildlife, blackened and tourism and commercial and recreational Metals such as copper, zinc, lead and mercury, charred coastal dunes and cliffs, and suffocating fisheries and the economic and social benefits and other contaminants released by the fish in rivers and estuaries. they bring to coastal communities. bushfire, could change the physiology and The economic costs of the bushfire season behaviours of marine animals and work their can be measured in terms of insurance claims way up the food chain. Harmful algal blooms and lost income to businesses and tourism, caused by nutrient enrichment can kill fish and Figure 1: Sea water turned black by ash from wildfires laps onto a beach the social costs, sadly, in terms of lost lives and contaminate oyster farms. near Eden, NSW in January, 2020. damaged communities. The destruction of Coastal and marine habitats, such as seagrass terrestrial habitats can be measured in terms meadows and mangroves, are already under of the habitat area burned and the number of considerable stress, and the water quality animals killed and injured. However, the costs of major estuaries has been in accelerating for marine and coastal environments are far decline, the impacts of bushfires are adding more difficult to estimate due to limited data further pressure. This will likely worsen as the on coastal and marine plants, animals and scale, intensity and frequency of bushfires habitats, and the small amount of research on increase as a result of global warming. how they are impacted by bushfires. To mitigate the impacts of bushfires, which are This report is the first to focus on bushfire impacts an increasing problem in many parts of the on coastal and marine environments. In its world, all governments, including Australia, preparation, the available marine and coastal must work together to cut carbon emissions to research has been reviewed, along with a net zero quickly and effectively. The pathways larger body of research into bushfire impacts in to achieve this are well known and include catchments away from the coast. In combination, replacing the use of fossil fuels by renewable these two sources of data provide an insight energy sources, electrifying transport, stopping into what bushfire impacts can be expected deforestation, regenerating forests and carbon- in estuaries and other coastal and marine © Mark Graham/Bloomberg via Getty Images 4 5 Key findings Intensifying bushfires The sediment and nutrient slugs formed by Economic, social and cultural impacts of Recovery and restoration programs bushfire debris can move many kilometres bushfires on coastal and marine users The 2019–2020 bushfire season is The pollutants, ash and debris washed into downstream, impacting aquatic life along the way. unprecedented in Australian bushfire history, When ash and debris enter estuaries and waterways during and after bushfires has put at fuelled by record-breaking hot and dry Smoke and ash from fires contain contaminants other coastal waterways, they reduce water risk the survival of many threatened freshwater conditions exacerbated by global warming. such as copper, zinc, lead and mercury that quality and can harm seagrass meadows and fish species. could change the physiology and behaviours of mangroves, threatening the future of commercial The scale, frequency and intensity of Australian Rescue, recovery and restoration programs will marine animals and work their way up aquatic and recreational fishing (and related tourism) bushfires is increasing and, as leading scientists, be essential to minimise bushfires impacts on and terrestrial food chains. and aquaculture. Damage to these habitats meteorologists and fire and rescue chiefs threatened species and coastal and marine habitats. would also reduce their potential for storing blue agree, the changes are directly linked to global The ash and debris entering waterways during carbon, with implications for global warming. The restoration of estuaries,