The Editor,

Development is an integral aspect of a thriving economy.

However, without accountability checks such as marine park authorities, business will inevitably place progress before environmental concerns.

Mr Andrew Chapman, the Adelaide developer who wants to build his little marina in Port Augusta articulated this clearly last week when he admitted that he opposes the concept of a marine park incorporating Port Augusta’s waterways, without really knowing why he did. (“The devil is in the detail”).

In the same edition of The Trans, our Marine Talk man (Peter Huxtible) articulated in his own way the kind of concerns that can arise when economic development is out of control, (no doubt he is a supporter of the concept of marine parks).

We don’t want what has happened to the Murray happening to our Gulf do we?

A wise old Indian once said “Only when the last tree is gone, the last river dammed and the last sea polluted will the white man realize that you can’t eat money”.

Our world can no longer afford to ignore these warnings.

It is perhaps ironical, having said these things, to ponder the thought that a marine park authority will, in the long term, provide much greater economic activity than a “big-smoke development” or a multi-national operation in our backyard.

Anthony Legendario

Port Augusta