The Bondi Beach Report

With many climate issues facing the world we live in today, Bondi Beach is not an exception. Bondi Beach is located down along the coast of New South Wales. Bondi has many uses including leisure activities, industrial purposes, and supplying employment opportunities to many locals around the area each year. Bondi Beach has much to do for all types of people, consisting of built in pools for those who do not wish to swim in the ocean, cafes and restaurants located all around the beach to lounge and grab a bite to eat. The beach also includes a grass area above to sit down and eat or simply just sit and relax, read a book, or spend time with friends and family. Located on the eastern side of Australia, Bondi Beach is also only between a twenty and thirty minute drive away from the main Sydney city by car. To conclude the attractions and points of interest within Bondi Beach, you can clearly see there is much to do and much to see while still being close to the core city.

Causes

There are two types of change occurring both around the world and in Bondi beach; natural change and man-made change. To begin with, one of the human created changes taking place include sudden increases of population, which then lead to pollution in the water and area surrounding due to people not cleaning up after their personal rubbish. The build up of many people leaving their garbage on Bondi Beach and the surrounding attractions can and will cause serious damage to the ecosystems attempting to survive with the wave of new residents and visitors. Not only do locals and regulars leave their rubbish lying around waiting to be picked up, so does the constant wave of tourists. Another example of issues that humans have created on Bondi Beach involve their businesses and homes being built nearby or on the coastline which ends up causing coastal erosion. There are also shark nets infesting the ocean and therefore leading to the endangerment and almost inevitable extinction of multiple species of sharks. The pollution left behind humans also affects marine wildlife, such as; Octopi, Salmon, Tuna, Squid, and Kingfish. Lastly, tourists who decide to dive may accidentally hurt marine wildlife causing them to suffer from tears, breakage, and stress. This doesn’t even begin to scratch the surface, as noise pollution is also one of the major issues brought upon Bondi Beach by increased human settlement along the Bondi Beach coastline. Some natural changes taking place in Bondi Beach in current times include the current issue of climate change. With the sea levels rising all across the world, Bondi Beach is included in the list of many iconic Australian beaches in danger due to the rising sea levels up to a meter more than usual in the upcoming century.

Consequences and Extent

With all of these issues plaguing Bondi Beach, it is clear to all that it is being affected greatly by these sudden changes both in climate and human interaction with the beach. Some ways to see the damage is to more closely examine the changes in water quality within the coastline of Bondi Beach and that part of the Pacific Ocean. With all the rubbish floating about in the water, whether you can see it or not and close to the coast or not, the water has become a lot dirtier, cluttered, and much less enjoyable to swim in. Some short term effects to humans due to these catastrophic yet silent changes occurring include potential fire hazards (due to lit cigarettes being littered), lower amount of tourists due to bad first impressions, specifically with the rubbish lying around in most areas, and lack of community pride in the area as not many people are jumping at the chance to clean it up and save what is still left of the spectacular Bondi Beach. Long term effects towards humans include lower quality of water, struggling ecosystems of marine wildlife leading to less food to be fished along the beach coast, and attracting more crime since it may seem like a “lower level” area with all the pollution and rubbish on the ground and in the water. To move along, these same issues can be applied to the main wildlife struggling to survive in Bondi Beach. For example, shark nets have been specifically detrimental to multiple species of shark in the area. Since 2008, 54 Great White sharks and 13 Grey Nurse sharks (which are now critically endangered) were killed. This is just one of the many examples of how animals have been impacted by the changes. As littering is one of the biggest issues regarding Bondi Beach, it also kills 100,000 turtles and 1 million seabirds, dolphins, whales, and seals per year.

Management

The state of New South Wales has the main responsibility of Bondi Beach and so does the Bondi council. In 2001 certain laws were set into place including littering in the range of offences that officers from councils and other enforcement agencies can issue out. If one were to litter a small item like a bottle cap it would be a $60 fine, a $200 fine could be issued for littering in general and for littering from vehicles, and a $375 fine for littering something which directly threatens the safety of the public or environment, which includes things like intentionally breaking glass. There are many ideas on how to reduce the issues taking course. Some of which include adding more garbage bins around the area for people to dispose their rubbish in, and this has already begun to take shape within the beach. Another is removing the shark nets completely, or to get better shark nets that don’t endanger the sharks and do a better job, as they seem to do much more harm than good. To support this, you can see that in a review by the New South Wales government regarding the effectiveness of shark nets showed that the yearly number of shark attacks was still the same as before the nets went up. Besides the ideas and ground one basics of solving these issues, there seems to be not much yet done besides talk of how to fix the problem. Hopefully for all of us and those who love Bondi Beach, these initiatives will be put in place and further enforced to save a part of nature and tourism that surely all of us would hate to lose.

Conclusion

In conclusion, there are many reasons to be concerned for Bondi Beach and its well-being, with little progress to be made and issues arising at any given moment. As you can see, these issues include over-population, coastal erosion, damage to marine wildlife, poor water quality, littering issues and rubbish lying all around the beach, climate change itself, and just an overall combination of bad situations all lining up together. These changes have caused the surrounding community to have lost pride of their once beautiful and well maintained beach, many different species of animals to die and or become endangered, smaller amounts of food to be gathered from the ocean and more. While the councils of New South Wales attempts to come up with solutions to solve the ongoing issues and nature conservation organisations doing the same. As of now, all we can do is hope for Bondi Beach to be saved, pick up the litter we see along the sides, and further research ways to help.

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