DECEMBER 1996 NEWSLETTER

ACT LEAVES ALL MARINE FAUNA VULNERABLE

The failure of the State Government to proclaim those sections of the 1992 Nature Conservation Act pertaining to turtles, marine mammals and traditional hunting had left a policy vacuum in Queensland waters, according to CRC Reef Research Centre Ltd Program Leader, Professor Helene Marsh.

And complex jurisdictional issues, involving numerous State and federal agencies with different areas of legislative responsibility, made effective and timely intervention possible.

"There are so many agencies that it is impossible to do anything quickly," she said. "(This is) demonstrated by the current attempts to initiate emergency measures for dugong conservation and recovery in the GBR."

The Nature Conservation Act had not been proclaimed, she said, because the required nature conservation plans had not yet been prepared by the Department of Environment.

"The decline in loggerhead turtles and dugongs and signs of decline in green and hawksbill turtles all suggest the Barrier Reef will not be a global refuge for megafauna under present management regimes," Professor Marsh said.

"Special management measures are clearly required, perhaps along the lines of the United States Marine Mammal Act 1972 which details explicit reporting requirements and time-lines for action."

Professor Marsh said the Reef's megafauna, which included 20 species of whales and dolphins, dugongs and turtles, was threatened by habitat loss, fishing, shark netting, indigenous hunting, military activities and vessel activity, which injured or killed mammals, or disrupted their feeding or breeding cycles.

"The impact of trawling on turtles and marine mammals has received a lot of attention in the press recently, but not a lot of management action," she said. Research results indicate about 1700 turtles were caught in trawlers in the GBR each year and between 29 and 138 are thought to have drowned.

A total of 2140 turtles, 552 dugongs and 216 dolphins have been caught in shark nets in the GBR region since they were introduced in the late 1960s. Only 7 percent of dugongs, and 10 percent of dolphins, were released alive.

Professor Marsh said military activities were a concern in some areas. There were methodological problems in researching the effects of this activity as there were with research the impact of tourism activity, such as whale watching.

Whale watching had become a major industry world-wide. In Australia alone in 1995, more than half a million people went whale watching, which brought in $9.5 million.

"Turtles have also turned out to be an important industry, particularly in the southern Great Barrier Reef. About 25,000 people go to Bundaberg each year to watch turtles and this is worth $2.5 million to the Bundaberg economy," she said.

By Colleen Davis

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