- The Guardian
- Issue #2199
Australia has pledged a policy of “No New Extinctions” and committed to international biodiversity targets. Yet one of the world’s most unique species may be disappearing in real time.
The Maugean skate, an ancient ray species found nowhere else on Earth, survives only in Tasmania’s Macquarie Harbour. Scientists have warned the population has declined dramatically, with estimates suggesting only around 1,000 individuals remain. If the species disappears, it could become the first shark or ray species extinction linked to industrial aquaculture.
The question at the centre of the story is simple: If Australia knows a species is at risk and has committed to preventing extinctions, what happens when that species continues toward extinction anyway?
This question drives the new documentary Love Letter to the Unseen, premiering at the Melbourne Documentary Film Festival on 18 July 2026.
The film follows youth conservationist Spencer Hitchen as he investigates the skate’s decline and explores a larger question about responsibility, leadership, and the future young Australians will inherit.
Unlike many environmental stories, Love Letter to the Unseen is not driven by doom – it is driven by hope.
At the centre is Spencer Hitchen, a young conservationist who has become an emerging voice for biodiversity protection across Australia. Spencer represents a generation increasingly asking whether governments, industries, and communities are prepared to leave a living planet behind for those who come next.
The film asks audiences to imagine a future where species recovery – not extinction – is the legacy we choose.
PARASITE OF THE WEEK: is fossil fuels polluter Woodside. Greenpeace Australia Pacific has condemned Woodside’s legal pursuit of concerned community members for their 2023 climate protest, calling it an attempt to silence and intimidate growing opposition to plans to drill for oil and gas at Scott Reef.
Woodside has revived litigation against Western Australian community members in the Supreme Court of Western Australia relating to a three-year-old protest to bring attention to the harmful effects of Woodside’s gas expansion on climate and cultural heritage.
It comes as public opposition to Woodside’s plans to drill over 50 gas wells at Scott Reef continues to mount.
David Ritter, CEO at Greenpeace Australia Pacific, said: “In the face of growing opposition to Woodside’s plans to drill over 50 gas wells at Scott Reef, this smacks of Woodside trying to intimidate and bully everyday Australians into submission.
“But the community won’t be silenced on this. Woodside’s plan to drill for gas at the pristine, magnificent Scott Reef, risking precious marine wildlife like turtles and whales, oceans, and the climate, is a disaster waiting to happen.
“This SLAPP* suit is part of an alarming global trend of corporate bullies using bad-faith legal tactics to intimidate and silence people exercising their democratic right to protest. Companies like Woodside should not be allowed to use the courts to suppress public participation.
“WA has a proud history of civil protest to establish many of the rights, freedoms, and benefits that we now celebrate. The whales that West Australians now love so much would not have been saved without protest. This kind of action by Woodside is intended to silence such protest. A healthy democracy depends on everyday people being free to speak out without fear of corporate intimidation.”
* SLAPP stands for ‘Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation’. It is a legal tactic used by powerful corporations, particularly within the fossil fuel industry, to censor, intimidate, and silence critics by burdening them with the high costs of a legal defence until they abandon their environmental advocacy or protests.
