​Listen to the dolphins: our shameful record

​Shame Australia, shame. We hold an appalling record number of dolphins with the highest tested levels of forever chemicals in the world.
To protect dolphins and other aquatic animals from forever chemicals, micro-plastics and other waterway pollutants we urgently need a Federal Parliamentary Inquiry.

The inquiry needs to examine how to prevent major environmental and health issues caused directly by our continuing reliance on the outdated technology of ocean outfalls being used as waste dumps. There are 192 waste-water outfalls around Australia’s coastline.

Your call to action is to sign up to Clean Ocean Foundation’s petition. Do it now.

Forever chemicals, including PFAS[1], persist in the environment and bioaccumulate in marine animals and humans. They’ve been linked to human health risks: cancer, liver damage, thyroid disease, obesity, and fertility issues. Imagine the health effects on dolphins.

Finding forever chemicals – widely used in a spread of industrial and consumer products – inside our dolphins is a grim warning: if we really do care about them and other marine creatures – and ourselves as seafood consumers – it's an unavoidable signal to rethink about the ways in which waste-water is dumped daily into our oceans.

By ending human dumping of waste-water into our oceans we give nature a breather. It can recover. It can reduce harmful chemicals from affecting marine life. The prevalence of forever chemicals in dolphins is a major wake-up call: it’s time to end all ocean pollution.

A good starting point is to follow the European Union’s leading example by demanding a higher level of wastewater treatment for all of Australia’s 192 coastal outfalls. This proven treatment removes forever chemicals and other pollutants such as micro-plastics from entering the oceans and rivers via waste-water treatment plants.

Apart from protecting the environment, these high-level treatments safeguard public health and provide clean water for agriculture. They enhance our reputation globally and create obvious long-term economic and health benefits. 


[1] Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are a large, complex group of synthetic chemicals that have been used in consumer products around the world since the 1950s. PFAS molecules have a chain of linked carbon and fluorine atoms. Because the carbon-fluorine bond is one of the strongest, these chemicals do not readily degrade in the marine environment.