For the next few months many farmers now have to survive on being paid just 14 cents a litre to make up the difference from being paid 42 cents a litre back to 37 cents.  This has a devastating effect on dairy farming families causing many of them to walk off their farms.  Dairy farmers generally work 365 days a year working extraordinary hours without the benefits most of us receive in employment such as long service leave, annual leave or medical leave. If we don’t support our diary farmers by paying the correct price for milk we will be buying milk from overseas soon.  The milk will be nowhere near the quality of our beautiful Australian dairy farms where the cows can freely roam in paddocks of fresh green grass.

This community has already seen the timber and fishing industry affected so let’s do all we can to support and sustain our local dairy industry. The next time you buy milk, spare a thought for our dairy farmers and buy branded milk.

Rachel Summerell, Verona

Here we go again with political posters put on trees. The Liberal Party have already placed a sign for Peter Hendy at the Mystery Bay Road turn-off. This is absolute pollution, especially on a lovely big tree contrary to council policy. Please have respect for our trees and residents. I trust council will have them removed post haste. By the way, it’s good to know what Dr Hendy looks like.

Barry Wells, Mystery Bay

We welcome the increase in the numbers of sharks this year and hope it is an indication that the species is starting to rebound. But while this summer was encouraging, it will be a long time before we can be confident that the sharks are out of danger. Two recent letters to the Narooma News pushed the opinion that the sharks are not critically endangered. The two letters seem to be based on a complete misunderstanding. “Critically endangered” is a classification used to guide government action as to what to do when the number of a species falls to a point where there are concerns about its survival. Decisions about the classification of sharks are made by the independent NSW Fisheries Scientific Committee, which reviewed the evidence and decided in 2008 that the East Coast Grey Nurse Shark population should be moved from “endangered” status to “critically endangered”, which means “facing an extremely high risk of extinction in the immediate future”. 

There has been debate over the years about just how many Grey Nurse Sharks remain, with earlier estimates that put the number at around 300 subsequently raised to around 1500 – 2000, with a sizeable margin of uncertainty due to the inherent difficulties in counting and estimating. However the fact that the Fisheries Scientific Committee has maintained the critically endangered classification shows their numbers remain far too low. A NSW Fisheries discussion paper of 2011 stated that the sharks are “unlikely to be downgraded from their critically endangered status while the population is below a threshold of 5000 individuals”. No-one disputes that the numbers of Grey Nurse Sharks have fallen dramatically. We continue to see photos showing that they face an ongoing threat from hook injuries. Everyone values the image of the South Coast as a place where the natural environment is still largely undisturbed and where native wildlife is plentiful. This is fundamental to our tourist industry. It would be a positive thing for our region and our community if we had a healthy population of Grey Nurse Sharks.

Jenny Edwards, Nature Coast Marine Group president

Emily Barton’s recent bat article has suggested involvement of the third tier of Government. If this includes Liberal Peter Hendy and Labor Mike Kelly, we will be in trouble. Hendy will be in his element welding his “knife” and Andrew will have “fired up” his chain saw. In a bi-partisan move, Major Mike Kelly and Dr Hendy will barrel bomb much of the electorate with personalized pamphlets, bat contraceptive gas and pellets of NPWS 1080. The initial assault led by GM “Cathy”, wearing a laser-emitting fluorescent skirt, clanging a tambourine and blowing a horn with the “deputy mayor in waiting scuttling behind her. He will be beating a drum and cymbals whilst blowing the bag pipes. 

This will certainly disperse some bats from the Catalina Golf course, the Soldiers Club, the Water Garden and towards Moyura, Turros Heads and Narooma Golf Course. Every bat will be so frightened they will make a low level “long drop” over the Eurobodalla water supply. 

It is believed the mayor and NPWS are fast tracking a joint management plan for a combined brumby and bat shoot. This will involve the mayor, the shooters party and HuntFest. To satisfy the environmental movement, ammunition will be designed to temporarily restrict the flying capacity of the bats and operations will be carried out just before and after milking operations to prevent any damage to the sheds and bats accidentally disabled by stampeding cattle and brumbies. Several squadrons of specially designed highly pitched “drones” will be released. One cannot dismiss the “crisis “has been engineered by the mayor and three of his supporting councilors. 

Peter Bernard, Dalmeny