Marsh et al. 2006:

The urban coast of Queensland Australia extends from Cooktown (15° 29’S, 145° 15’E) to the Queensland-NSW border (28° 10’S; 145° 44’E) and encompasses an area of 37,163km².  Marsh and Lawler (2006) estimated the size of the dugong population on the urban coast in 2005 in the 11 Great Barrier Reef blocks and transects (which had been surveyed in all years of the time series) was 2580 +/- 271.

Marsh and Lawler (2006) reported that comparison of the results of the 2005 survey with the corresponding results from the previous surveys of various parts of the urban coast of Queensland since the 1980s suggests that dugong numbers are now stable at the scale of the whole urban coast and over a time frame of two decades. Nonetheless, dugong populations fluctuate at the level of individual bays and over shorter time periods, probably largely due to changes in seagrass habitats.

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Citation and/or URL

Marsh, H. & Lawler, I.R. 2006, Dugong distribution and abundance on the urban coast of Queensland: a  basis for management: final report to Marine and Tropical Research  Sciences Facility Interim Projects 2005-6, James Cook University, Townsville.

Spatial Coverage

 Cooktown south to Queensland/NSW Border

Temporal Coverage

 1986 - 2005

Update Frequency

 Surveys conducted every five years

Other Information

 Grech, A. & Marsh, H. 2007. 'Prioritising areas for dugong conservation in a marine protected area using a spatially explicit population model'. Applied GIS 3(2): 1-14.