Workshop anchors on safe ground
Stakeholders representing the commercial shipping industry have met to share information with a project team investigating the effects on seafloor habitats of large ships anchoring off the Wollongong coast.
The project team, led by DPI Fisheries research scientists and the University of Wollongong, invited organisations and government agencies with responsibility for managing commercial shipping operations to discuss issues related to offshore anchoring.
Senior DPI Fisheries Research Scientist, Dr Nathan Knott, said the group had a productive exchange of information across a wide range of topics, including:
- preliminary findings from a study on the effects of offshore anchoring on seafloor biodiversity
- seafloor maps showing the deep-sea habitats offshore from Port Kembla
- an overview of relevant legislation
- shipping operations and anchoring practice
- safety, logistics and social considerations of large vessels anchoring offshore.
Dr Knott said the workshop had helped the project team continue to fill knowledge gaps on issues related to offshore anchoring and collaborate to exchange information to help the implementation of the project.
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