The Great Ocean Rescue Tour is Building Community Opposition to Seismic Testing in Victoria

The start of a month long campaign against seismic testing in Victoria’s Otway Basin has kicked off over the weekend with a film festival and rally in Ocean Grove.

The Great Ocean Rescue Tour is touring around Victoria every weekend in January, to bring awareness to and campaign against seismic testing happening near the Great Ocean Road.

The first event happened in Ocean Grove on Friday where around 100 locals turned up to learn about this environmental crisis. There was a film screening of Southern Blast, a documentary produced by Surfrider Foundation, followed by a song and stories by Gunditjmara woman Yaraan Couzens Bundle, founder of the Southern Ocean Protection Embassy Collective.

‘It’s appalling that we would do this level of damage looking for fossil gas that the climate can no longer afford,’ she told the audience.

The following day, campaigner Mitch Pope spoke to the over 300-strong rally crowd.

‘We’re showing these companies that we’re not going away, we’re only going to grow’, he said. The crowd cheered as he said, ‘We can win this’.

Photo thanks to OCEAN

What is the Great Ocean Rescue Tour?

The Great Ocean Rescue Tour is raising awareness of the planned seismic testing of 5.5 million hectares of ocean that includes protected marine park in Victoria’s Otway Basin.

The campaign and tour are being led by Otway Coastal Environment Action Network (OCEAN) and supported by Surfrider Foundation Australia, Southern Ocean Protection Embassy Collective (SOPEC), the Australian Marine Conservation Society, Fight for the Bight, Friends of the Earth Melbourne, and Patagonia.

Each weekend in January, rallies, paddle-outs, and film screenings will be happening in small towns along the Great Ocean Road from Barwon Heads to Portland. Here’s what to expect!

January 13

Event: Film Screening
Location: Wye River SLSCFilm Screening
Time: 7pm

January 14

Event: Rally
Location: Apollo Bay, Mechanics Hall / RALLY
Time: 10:30am start

Event: Film Screening
Location: Apollo Bay community hall, 4 Whelan St
Time: 7pm

January 20

Event: Film Screening
Location: Reardon Theatre, Port Fairy
Time: 7pm

January 21

Event: Paddle Out
Location: Warrnambool Breakwater
Time: 2pm

Event: Film Screening
Location: Mozart Hall, Warrnambool
Time: 7pm

January 27

Event: Film Screening
Location: Portland
Time: TBA

If you’re unable to attend, there are other ways you can support the fight against seismic testing, such as writing a letter to your local member or signing a petition.

What is seismic testing?

Seismic testing is used in offshore oil and gas exploration to locate fossil fuels beneath the seabed. Survey ships tow airguns and receivers along an area of the ocean which release a 250-decibel explosion every ten seconds, 24 hours a day, for months on end. To give you an idea of how loud this is, a music concert doesn’t exceed 120 decibels.

What is the impact of seismic testing?

The impact of this noise over an extended period of time is devastating to marine ecosystems. Seismic blasting is proven to damage and kill zooplankton within a 1.2km radius with every blast. Juvenile stages and larvae of marine species rely on zooplankton as a food source, and so do the endangered Blue whale and Pygmy blue whale, of which the Otway Basin is an important migration route and feeding ground.

Marine biologist Madi O’Brien, spoke at the rally explaining, ‘Temperate marine environments like the Great Southern Reef are particularly crucial, as kelp forests take up and store huge amounts of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, which is so important for reducing the impacts of the climate crisis’.

For more info on the devastating effects of seismic testing, check out Cam Doyle chatting with Lisa Deppler of OCEAN.

Feature image thanks to @jonharris_photography