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Summary

Note: Some of the material contained in this chapter is out of date and currently under review (1/7/2004)

Summary

  • The vast majority of the Great Barrier Reef World Heritage Area is made up of soft-sediment habitats between coral reefs and in the Great Barrier Reef lagoon.
  • While being critically important, these habitats have received only a fraction of the scientific attention devoted to coral reefs and as a result, both the condition and trends are poorly known.
  • The condition of fisheries stocks is difficult to ascertain but declining trends are a cause for concern.
  • The current zoning regime does not provide adequate protection for many of these habitats.
  • Many areas are under considerable pressure from trawling and (to a lesser extent) terrestrial influences. It is likely that the damage to habitats and removal of bycatch are not sustainable in heavily trawled areas.
  • Research has established the adverse effects of intensive trawling on soft sediment habitats.
  • The Trawl Plan and the EPBC Act have introduced measures to reduce trawling effort, the impact on bycatch, and to assess the fishery’s ecological sustainability.
  • The Representative Areas Program will redress the imbalance in the current zoning system to provide adequate protection of the biodiversity, ecosystem function and interconnectivity of  inter-reefal and lagoonal benthos by including them in a network of protected Representative Areas.
  • The Reef Water Quality Protection Plan is currently being developed by both the Commonwealth and Queensland governments to address water quality issues.

Further reading:

Biodiversity and the Great Barrier Reef

About interconnectivity and the Great Barrier Reef

About trawling in the Great Barrier Reef

GBRMPA Trawl Audit

Draft assessment report by the Queensland Fisheries Service

Also see the chapter Management status - Fisheries

About Turtle Excluder Devices (TEDs)

CSIRO study on the effects of trawling in the Great Barrier Reef:

About the Representative Areas Program

Research publications about the Great Barrier Reef are available at:

Bibliography

Burridge, C.Y., Pitcher, C.R., Wassenberg, T.J., Poiner, I.R. and Hill, B.J. 2003, ‘Measurement of the rate of depletion of benthic fauna by prawn (shrimp) otter trawls: an experiment in the Great Barrier Reef, Australia’, Fisheries Research 60: 237-253.

Fabricius, K.E. and Wolanksi, E. 2000, ‘Rapid smothering of coral reef organisms by muddy marine snow’, Estuarine Coastal and Shelf Science 50(1): 115-120.

Gribble, N.A. 1997, ‘Penaeid prawn stocks’, in State of the Great Barrier Reef World Heritage Area Workshop: proceedings of a technical workshop held in Townsville, Queensland, Australia, 27-29 November 1995, eds D. Wachenfeld, J. Oliver and K. Davis, Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority, Townsville, pp. 402-13.

Haynes, D. (ed) 2001, Great Barrier Reef water quality: current issues, Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority, Townsville, viewed 27 June 2003,

http://www.gbrmpa.gov.au/corp_site/key_issues/water_quality/current_issues

Hill, B.J. and Wassenberg, T.J. 2000, ‘The probable fate of discards from prawn trawlers fishing near coral reefs: a study in the northern Great Barrier Reef, Australia’, Fisheries Research 48(3): 277-286.

Pitcher, C.R. 1997, ‘Status of inter-reefal benthos in the Great Barrier Reef World Heritage Area’, in State of the Great Barrier Reef World Heritage Area Workshop: proceedings of a technical workshop held in Townsville, Queensland, Australia, 27-29 November 1995, eds D. Wachenfeld, J. Oliver and K. Davis, Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority, Townsville, pp. 323-34.

Pitcher, C.R., Burridge, C.Y., Wassenberg, T.J. & Poiner, I.R. 1997, ‘The effects of prawn trawl fisheries on Great Barrier reef seabed habitats’, in The Great Barrier Reef, science, use and management: a national conference: proceedings, Volume 1, Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority, Townsville, pp. 107-123.

Poiner, I.R., Glaister, J., Pitcher, C.R., Burridge, C., Wassenberg, T., Gribble, N., Hill, B., Blaber, S.J.M., Milton, D.M., Brewer, D. and Ellis, N. 1998, Final report on effects of prawn trawling in the far northern section of the Great Barrier Reef: 1991-97, CSIRO Division of Marine Research, Cleveland, Qld.

Robins, L.B., Campbell, M.J. and McGilvray, J.G. 1999, ‘Reducing prawn-trawl bycatch in Australia: an overview and an example from Queensland’, Marine Fisheries Review 61(3): 46-55.

Seymore, R.M., and Bradbury, R.H., 1999, ‘Lengthening reef recovery times from crown-of-thorns outbreaks signal systemic degradation of the Great Barrier Reef’, Marine Ecology Progress Series 176: 1-10.

van Woesik, R., Tomascik, T. and Blake, S., 1999, ‘Coral assemblages and physico-chemical characteristics of the Whitsunday Islands: evidence of recent community changes’, Marine and Freshwater Research 50: 427-440.

Wachenfeld, D.R., Oliver, J.K and Morrissey, J.I. (eds) 1998, State of the Great Barrier Reef World Heritage Area 1998, Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority, Townsville.

Williams, L.E. (ed) 1997, Queensland’s fisheries resources current condition and recent trends 1988-1995, Information Series QI97007, Queensland Department of Primary Industries & Fisheries, Brisbane.

Williams, L.E. (ed) 2002, Queensland’s fisheries resources current condition and recent trends 1988-2000, Information Series QI02012, Queensland Department of Primary Industries & Fisheries, Brisbane.

Zeller, B. 2002, Ecological assessment of the Queensland east coast otter trawl fishery: a report to Environment Australia on sustainable management of a multispecies macro-scale fishery ecosystem’, Department of Primary Industries & Fisheries, Brisbane, viewed 27 June 2003, http://erin.gov.au/coasts/fisheries/assessment/qld/eco-trawl/pubs/draft-eco-trawl.pdf

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