Is WAKSA involved in the Draft Vision for the Shoalwater Islands Marine Park
And if so, what have you done This is such a good and safe kite boarding area, so I hope you’re looking after kite boarders interests there. I've just cut and pasted below from the draft proposal.
Cheers
Andrew
Boat and water sport use
The main concerns regarding boating and water sports are disturbance of flora and fauna and conflict between users. Australian sea lions and little penguins are species of concern within the marine park and physical disturbance through noise, vessel activity and boat strikes, are thought to be a current pressure to the local populations. Disturbance to nesting or roosting seabirds, shorebirds and migratory waders is also a concern. To provide additional protection to these species, it is proposed to restrict:
water skiing/parasailing and high-speed freestyle motorised water sports in the Shoalwater Bay Special Purpose (Wildlife Conservation) Zone. This will include removal of the Shoalwater Bay water ski area;
water skiing/parasailing and high-speed freestyle motorised water sports in sanctuary zones;
vessel speed to 8 knots within the Shoalwater Bay Special Purpose (Wildlife Conservation) Zone and sanctuary zones when within a minimum of 200 metres of island or mainland shores; and
Kite surfers and windsurfers will be encouraged to comply with the above speed restrictions where feasible. Additional spatial controls for commercial and/or recreational kite surfing and windsurfing may be required during the life of the plan.
A review of the boundaries of the Safety Bay water ski area is also proposed. High-speed freestyle motorised water sports is defined as using a personal watercraft in a manner that is characterised by high-speed and erratic or irregular driving such as driving in a circle or other pattern and/or weaving or diverting.
Andrew,
The draft is out for comment, perhaps you should make a submission? I'm planning to but for a different reason, I'm a community member on a Stakeholder group for the Water Corps Ocean Outlet at the Sepia Depression. I'll make sure I mention something about this also.
It would be a good idea if WAKSA made a submission to...
Hi Brooksy, Year I did send them a brief submission... hope WAKSA did too... I just wonder how proactive WAKSA are on the management of kite boarding areas? cheers
Hi Andrew,
Thank you for bringing this to our attention. At present we are not involved in the Draft Vision for the Shoalwater Islands Marine Park.
With a small working committee it is not possible for us to be aware of everything that is happening in WA and therefore we rely on the kiting community to inform us of any issues that may be affecting a particularly area.
We try to encourage local kiters to form users groups to handle these
situations with the support and backing from WAKSA. This has
successfully worked in other areas such as Melville and Pelican Point.
It's important to remember that WAKSA is entirely run by volunteers
and we need the kiting community to support us so that we can support
them.
Becoming a WAKSA member is a good starting point as the more members
we have the more "say" we have at the negotiating table.
WAKSA members are always welcome to come along to any WAKSA meeting and voice their concerns and seek assistance and support.
Cheers
WAKSA.
Hi WAKSA,
Thanks for the reply. Below is a link to the plan.
avantagebet.com/
If WAKSA wants to be up to date with this kind of thing, and not be so reliant on the kiting community, maybe something worth considering is getting one of your committee members in touch with or join Outdoors WA. www.outdoorswa.org
None the less... good on you guys giving up your time as volunteers to run waksa... I don't envy you (I hate politics!)
kind regards
Andrew
