4.1 What are the Recreational Activities in
Darwin Harbour?
However, amateur fishing is not the only recreational values considered here. Sailing on water is another popular sport in the Darwin marine environment. This city, situated on an approximately 500sq kms harbour, has one of the largest protected waterways in the country. SCUBA diving, water/jet skiing, swimming and boating also hold important places on the recreational activity list for Darwin Harbour because of the marine nature of the region and the water characteristics of the activities. Nevertheless, other activities exist on the foreshores and the harbour littoral, which do not necessarily rely on an acqa-marine environment to exist. These are important to the harbour economy because they bring people here for the aesthetic qualities and values of the surrounds. Picnics, walking/jogging/cycling, outdoor entertainment or festivals and just plain sightseeing/bird-watching are items, which relax many people and bring them to the harbour environs and surrounds. These are some of the activities, which are reliant on the clean, healthy existence of mangrove forests on the intertidal plains, creeks and rivers of the Darwin Harbour wetlands.
4.2 To Determine Areas of Mangroves which are
of Significance for the Recreational Use of Darwin
Harbour:
4.3 To Determine Relationships between the
Mangals and Regional Fauna:
Ever since the Darwin Harbour region was settled by Europeans in the nineteenth century it has enjoyed a continued, if somewhat sporadic, economic progression. The social, economic and cultural standards of the predominantly European society, have been affected by a decidedly 'tyranny of distance' mentality. However, although Darwin is closer to Asian countries than to Australia's capital, Canberra, the present social conditions prevailing do not differ to any degree to that in the rest of Australia. Recreational and leisure pursuits within marine environments in all Australian states are relatively similar. Whilst one of the most popular sporting activities and one which has widespread acclaim is that of amateur fishing. In all of the Australian states/territories, legislation has been enacted to regulate this pastime activity as there are covering commercial fishing operations. The Northern Territory is no different. The fisheries management regulations have been structured to preserve, to maximise the fishstocks in territory waters, to encourage fishing tourism and to regulate the amateur fisherperson's catch.
It is undisputed that Port Darwin is a natural harbour. Although, with the increase in this area's population just how natural should the associated waterways remain. Urbanisation is responsible for the clearing of many mangal areas on Darwin Harbour foreshores. Mangrove forests are found in many parts of the globe and only on shorelines, which are sheltered from the prevailing winds. They very often grow between the low-water tide level and the high-water spring tide mean within the rivers, creeks, estuaries, and tidal wetlands and on offshore islands. The mangroves of Darwin harbour are no exception to this general tendency. Traditionally, mangroves have been considered as wastelands. They are full of insects, mud and are generally referred to as rather unsavoury places. Only occasionally do people venture into mangrove forests. This was only limited to fisherpeople looking for bait and to scientific researchers. Some third world countries even used mangrove timber for firewood, but this is a non-issue here. However, generally the Darwin experience has seen the urbanisation processes having priority over preservation of the mangals. An increasing population demands more recreational faculties and infrastructure. They also demand the construction of accommodation and housing on a scale proportionate to the population increase. These innovations are more often than not being constructed on reclaimed lands requiring the removal of mangroves. Artificial constructs such as marinas, fishing boat ramps and shelters, water front housing estates and high-rise harbour view apartments are now displacing the original, natural harbour foreshore areas.
Mangals are nurseries for marine and aquatic lifeforms. From the smallest organisms in the food chain to large predatory fish, many sea-creatures have life cycles, which begin, within mangrove shallows. Mangrove vegetation also acts as a food source for a wide variety of avifauna, which includes flying foxes. Snakes and other land mammals such as possums also use mangroves as habitats at some stage in their life cycle. Additionally a wide variety of crustaceans, molluscs, insects, protozoans and other micro-organisms, which inhabit mangrove regions and act as a food source for larger organisms. These animals and micro-fauna rely on the ecosystems' life support mechanisms for reproduction and longevity. These natural ecosystems within the Darwin Harbour littoral are maintained presently as a dominance of the mangrove forests with a relative scattering of human population around the north and northeast corner of the harbour. Palmerston and Darwin are the twin major cities areas with an increasing combination population of approximately 120,000. The diversity of the mangal fauna is overwhelming because of the many organisms, which support and in turn are supported by the wetlands. Darwin Harbour mangroves are halophytes, that is they live in saline conditions. Consequently, the fauna which is supported by the mangals are reliant on the overall conditions of the harbour, the surrounding seas and oceans and the general environmental conditions at any particular time period. As the foreshores here are relatively untouched by human occupancy and enterprise, harbour and mangrove food chain can support a healthier, greater and wider population of mangal life, inclusive of avifauna, aquafauna and terrafauna.
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