Port River Dolphin Cruise

Environment   Nov 1, 2015 by wilderness-enettle

Our first excursion involved visiting Port Adelaide, our first stop was at Garden Island; where the Port River Estuary is located, which is the largest natural estuary on the east side of Gulf Saint Vincent in South Australia. Here we walked along the jetty to see the mangroves along the river bank and due to the area being a dolphin century we were fortunate enough to see a group swim past. However sadly at this location we also saw lots of rubbish amongst the mangroves and riverbed. Although there are plenty of rubbish bins in the area it is sad that some people feel the need not to use them. Sadly this rubbish is a major pollutant which affect’s the marine and bird life in the area. This estuary is an extremely important part of our environment and is being majorly affected by climate change. Due to many dolphins living in the area, you would expect their population to be increasing, however due to climate change their population is decreasing due to viruses from the unnaturally high temperature levels in the waters. This temperature increase is somewhat caused from the waters expelled from the surrounding factories. These factories take the water from the river to cool their machinery, expelling the hot water into the river. This water can reach temperatures of up to 43°C when the natural water temperature is around 17°C.

After the short stop at Garden Island, we made our way to the doc, where we would be departing our dolphin cruise. During the cruise the humanization of natural land became obvious, where there should have been natural vegetation, there were: shipping containers, cranes, building, warehouses, large vehicles and many industries situated along the embankments of the river. As we continued the cruise we finally saw some natural environment, it was Torrens Island, an area that has been designated to preserving the natural mangroves, however the area is quite small compared to the amount the land the mangroves used to have. These mangroves are so important; as the water level rises and falls the mangrove follow their movement. This is a natural action however it is the governments plan to put a permanent barrier along the riverbank, which would prevent the mangroves to adapt to the water level, causing them to drown.This is a major issue that must be stopped while it is still possible to save our environment.

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