Project 1.4.1 - Condition trends and projected futures of marine species of conservation concern

Project Leader:  Dr Mark Hamann, James Cook University

Project 1.4.1 harnesses the expertise of researchers from James Cook University and Queensland’s Environmental Protection Agency together with Indigenous local experts to enhance the scientific information required to develop effective management strategies for the populations of marine species of conservation concern that occur in the Great Barrier Reef World Heritage Area and Torres Strait. 

Project 1.4.1 involves two focus areas:

• Dugong distribution and abundance:  To estimate the sustainable anthropogenic harvest of dugongs for the northern Great Barrier Reef and Torres Strait, an essential component to the science required to implement the National Approach to Sustainable and Legal Indigenous Harvest of Dugongs in Australia, the development of Traditional Use Marine Resource Agreements in the Great Barrier Reef region and management plans for Indigenous hunting in Torres Strait and the review of the Inshore Finfish Fishery and Dugong Protection Areas.  The project will also obtain information on the spatial distribution of dugongs and sea turtles to inform spatial assessment of risk management options in Project 1.4.2 by conducting aerial surveys of dugongs and sea turtles in the northern Great Barrier Reef and Torres Strait and index blocks in Hervey Bay.

  The proposed surveys will complete an aerial survey census that commenced in 2005 and has already surveyed the eastern Australian coast between the Queensland and New South Wales border and Cooktown in far northern Queensland.  The aerial surveys will be followed by population and spatial modeling of resultant data in context of time series dating from the early 1980s.

• Sea turtle nesting success:  To determine the patterns, rates and causes of sand loss; calculate reproductive parameters for nesting green turtles; determine the factors influencing the nesting success and hatchling survivorship of sea turtles and recruitment of juvenile turtles into the population; and trial remote methods of recording human visitation (illegal foreign fishers) at remote sites of high conservation significance. 

  The research will involve two concurrent trips per year to green turtle nesting sites and one trip per year to a green turtle foraging site and will focus on Raine Island, Moulter Cay (Great Barrier Reef) and Murray Island (Torres Strait).