Greenland et al., 2002:

Dredging

"2001 is the third year the Brisbane Port Authority has reported the incidence of turtle mortality during port dredging operations. There were five reported mortalities due to dredging in 2001 and 7 in 2002.

2001

Three turtles were put into the database as suffering fractures from boat strike/propeller damage. There is the possibility that these turtles were actually killed due to dredging activities, as they washed in dead in the same week and area as five other turtles that were identified as being killed in dredge activities.

• Z4716 Green, adult sized. Dredged Burnett River, Bundaberg, 9 July 2001.
• Z4717 Green turtle, adult sized. Dredged Burnett River, Bundaberg, 9 July 2001.
• Z6204 Loggerhead turtle, adult sized. Dredged Bundaberg Channel, 2 July 2001.
• Z6205 Unidentified turtle, adult sized. Dredged Bundaberg Channel, 17 July 2001.
• Z6206 Green turtle, juvenile. Dredged Bundaberg Channel, 7 July 2001.

2002

• Z5640 Loggerhead turtle. Dredged Gladstone Harbour, 22 May 2002
• Z5641 Unidentified turtle. Dredged Weipa Harbour, 17 June 2002.
• Z5642 Unidentified turtle. Dredged Weipa Harbour, 23 June 2002.
• Z5643 Unidentified turtle. Dredged Weipa Harbour, 24 June 2002.
• Z5644 Unidentified turtle. Dredged Weipa Harbour, 1 July 2002.
• Z5645 Loggerhead turtle, juvenile. Dredged Weipa Harbour, 2 July 2002.
• Z5646 Loggerhead turtle. Dredged Weipa Harbour, 2 July 2002.

While the Brisbane Port Authority is reporting modest numbers of turtle deaths due to dredging operations at various ports around Queensland there has been with each group of deaths, changes to their operations to reduce further mortalities.The extensive injuries to turtles killed in suction dredges have a characteristic appearance. Unfortunately we have no good photographs of this to use in training staff to be able to recognise turtles that have been killed in this way."

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Citation and/or URL

Greenland, J.A., Limpus, C.J., and Currie, K.J. 2002.  Queensland marine wildlife stranding and mortality database annual report 2001-2002 II. Marine Turtles. Queensland Environmental Protection Agency.73pp.  

Spatial Coverage

Queensland coast

Temporal Coverage

2001-2002 

Update Frequency

Annual 

Other Information

None