Dredging Port Phillip Bay
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Dredging of Port Phillip Bay to deepen the existing shipping channels began on 8 February 2008.
The Office of the Environmental Monitor brings an added layer of scrutiny to the Port Phillip Bay Channel Deepening Project. The Office provides an around-the-clock, independent and transparent view of the environmental performance of the dredging project to the regulators and the Victorian community.
Led by the Environmental Monitor, Mick Bourke, the Office uses a wide range of information and monitoring data to assess whether or not the project has followed the rules set by the Environmental Management Plan.
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Data from more than 20 monitoring programs operating across Port Phillip Bay is routinely examined by the Office to detect any changes to its health.
The results from these programs are made available to the community on this website, which aims to be a one-stop-shop for all data, information, reports and advice on the project.
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Missing anchovy mystery solved
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 | Photo: Fisheries Victoria researcher measures anchovies for the study.
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| Ground breaking science has revealed Port Phillip Bay has healthy numbers of anchovies, including juveniles and older fish, putting to rest concerns that an entire year class of anchovy may have been missing from the Bay’s fishery.
The results confirm researchers’ expectation that anchovies younger than one year were present in the Bay all along.
The 2009 trawl sampled more than 360,000 anchovies, mainly from the centre and east of the Bay. Using technology not previously used on anchovy in Victoria, Fisheries Victoria researchers aged a sub-sample of the 2009 fish and identified four separate year classes, from fish in their first year of life to three year old fish.
Read more
| Read the report.
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Routine maintenance dredging starts
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| The Port of Melbourne Corporation began routine maintenance dredging in Hobsons Bay and the Yarra and Maribyrnong Rivers on 17 November 2009.
The works are separate to the Channel Deepening Project and over the next 34 weeks approximately 300,000 cubic metres of uncontaminated and contaminated sediment will be dredged.
Read more.
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Blue blubbers bother bay bathers
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| Warmer weather and coastal winds have seen large numbers of blue blubbers (jellyfish) wash up on Port Phillip Bay beaches this week.
Their presence on our beaches is a natural phenomenon and not caused by dredging.
While the species is not poisonous, it can leave an irritating itch on the skin if handled, even after it has died. If Bay users get stung they should treat the itch by washing it with salt water. Avoid washing it with fresh water as it will make it worse.
| Read more.
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View future monitoring reports with new calendar tool
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| Monitoring of Port Phillip Bay’s health and its recovery from dredging works will continue until the end of 2011. The Office of the Environmental Monitor has launched a handy tool that allows you to view when monitoring program reports are scheduled for public release in 2010 and 2011.
Visitors can click on individual months or select from a list of monitoring programs to filter the results.
Environmental Monitor Mick Bourke said, “the calendar helps illustrate the large number of monitoring reports yet to be scrutinised by the Office and released to the community.”
| Go to the calendar.
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