Life or Death: Jurien Bay Marine Rescue boat launch delayed by 20 minutes due to seaweed in the marina

The seaweed issue plaguing Jurien Bay Marina is now delaying the launch of the local Marine Rescue group by 20 minutes and could have life or death consequences. More than 230 Jurien Bay locals signed a petition earlier this year calling for urgent action to improve water quality at the marina, but no funding to upgrade the site was allocated in the State Budget. The community have for years raised concerns about the boat harbour, with many claiming the marina’s poor design has resulted in rotting seaweed and other sediment being trapped and killing fish. Jurien Bay Marine Rescue skipper Michael Cockburn said the seaweed was hindering their response times by 20 minutes. “In a situation where it’s a real emergency, and you could have people in the water with no life jackets, it’s becoming a bit more than just a environmental issue with the fish kills, it’s becoming more of a life and death safety issue if we can’t get out to someone in time because of it,” he said. Mr Cockburn said a normal launch would take the group five to 10 minutes, however, during a recent training day it took them 20 minutes to get through the seaweed. “So the weed was like 100 metres long, we can only drive for like 10 or 15 metres before we get clogged up with weed,” he said. “Then we’ve got to stop the engines, lift them out of the water, take the weed off, drop the engines back in, drive another 10 or 15 metres and do it again.” Mr Cockburn said they would like to see action taken as soon possible to fix the issues in the marina. “There’s a lot of people that use a marina for different things, fishing boats working out of there, we’ve got to do emergency from out of there and little kids that swim in the beaches in the marina because it’s safer for them,” he said. “When the weeds are in there they can’t use the beaches because it turns to like a sulphur smell, that’s hazardous so the kids can’t swim in it, fishing boats have trouble getting in and out and we obviously have trouble as well. “So the quicker they can sort it out . . . the better for everybody really.”