Peri Roberts
- Jan 9, 2020
- 4 min read

FIGHT FOR THE BIGHT

“Look for something positive in each day,

even if some days you have to look harder”

Growing up, I’ve shown (and been shown) praise before criticism. Because positivity is always needed to make the day a little brighter.

Besides the obvious natural beauty & purity these images might show you, I’ll let you in on a few cool facts that might not be known:

South Australia. Home to the Great Australian Bight.
85-90% of all South Australian marine plants and animals are found nowhere else such as the Southern Right whale, Bottle Nose dolphin, Great Whites, and Giant Australian Cuttlefish.
The head of the Bight is one of the most significant places for large numbers of Southern Right whales to give birth in the nursery waters, early June until early October to migrate North.

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but the West Coast of South Australia is so stunning that I find it hard to believe anyone would ever want to see this coastline damaged.

So with positivity to criticism; I say:

This is all about to change. Some people clearly can’t see natural beauty over their egotistic, power-hungry, money-thirsty heads. It’s up to us to make sure this beauty survives.

Over the last week I road tripped roughly 1700kms of this coast. Discovering nature in the elements that I’m so fond of: pumping waves and firing wind. Over the last week, I fell in love with South Australia for the first time. Over the last week, its been brought to mine, and many Australians attention that an evil corporation called Equinor, has advanced the next step of their plan.

Their plan to ruin this coastline, for not only us as surfers, kitesurfers and adventure seekers; but for homeowners, traditional owners and for thousands of sea creatures, reefs, and ocean masses.

What is their plan?

For those that don’t know, Equinor is a corporation that operates by drilling oil off the coasts such as Algeria, Angola, Azerbaijan, Brazil, Canada, Libya, Nigeria, Norway, Russia, the UK, the US, and Venezuela to name a few.

Now they’re planning to set up camp right off our shores. With the Governments help, on the 30th of December, Equinor has approved the next stage of their plan.

WE cannot let this happen. WE must FIGHT.

With the tragedy of the current national environmental crisis, that is the Australian Bushfires, we are experiencing the traumatic impacts of climate change. Lives have been lost. Homes decimated. An estimated 480 million + animals perished, and over 12.3 million acres (over 6m hectares) of bushland and flora has been annihilated. This is only the start.

And while all of this unfolds, and will probably continue for weeks or months on end; our next battle is being pursued right under our nose.

Everyone needs to know this and be aware of just how real climate change is. If the devastation of these bushfires is a step closer to hurting our planet- imagine what oil drilling could do.

For those who don’t know, Oil Drilling is done to extract oil reserves under the seafloor, kilometers out from the coast into the ocean. An oil drilling plant looks like this…

An oil drilling accident looks like this…

And the effects of an accident looks like this…

So here are some more facts for you:

Even if an accident was not going to occur- oil is the 2nd biggest consumption leading to the release of fossil fuels into our atmosphere.
Australia is the 3rd biggest exporter of fossil fuels behind Russia
Equinor drilled approximately 2.11 million barrels of oil, per day in 2018

Over the last year, you might have noticed the movement of surfers, kitesurfers, paddlers and swimmers alike in rallies like “Paddle for the Bight” and the #FIGHTFORTHEBIGHT movements. Well, unfortunately, we’re not getting heard. No matter how loud we have yelled and how hard we have fought- the Government is not listening.

We need to unite to be the voice and the change we want to see. We must continue to fight and save this thing we call home, that is oh so worth fighting for.

After only a week, I was reminded of how important this battle is and how important it is that we win. And that’s only me. Imagine the power of more minds, more helping hands and more force if we unite and fight.

If this make you as hot-headed and furious as it does for me, then raise your bloody hand and join the team to help win this battle.

We don’t need prayers, we need action. For us, for our homes, our wildlife, our lungs and our planet.

(On my trip to the West Coast, we visited some top secret wave spots. To show you how serious this matter is: here is a film showing locals giving up their secrets in hopes that it’ll make a difference and create some awareness.

HERE ARE SOME STEPS ON HOW YOU CAN HELP MAKE A DIFFERENCE: