Management Concern: High    

Adequacy of Information: Moderate

Summary extracts from Outlook Report 2009

• Populations of herbivorous fish are healthy and generally not under pressure; however larger herbivores, like dugongs, have declined along the urban coast.
• Fish are the main herbivores on the Great Barrier Reef and, importantly, are not targeted in commercial or recreational fisheries. However, two of the largest herbivores in the Great Barrier Reef ecosystem, dugongs and green turtles, were previously extensively harvested within the Great Barrier Reef region, severely reducing their populations. Today, direct use of the region is still contributing to the cumulative impacts on these populations (e.g. through by-catch in fishing gear, poaching, boat strikes, ingestion of marine debris).
• Almost all Great Barrier Reef species will be affected by climate change, some seriously.

What do we know?

Relevant pages from Outlook Online include:

• Macroalgae, nutrients and phase shifts on coral reefs
  
• Effects of competition and herbivory on interactions between hard coral and a brown alga
  
• Catastrophies, phase shifts and large scale degredation of a Carribean reef
  
• Effects of herbivores and water quality on Sargassum [1.74Mb]
  
• Reef degradation and coral biodiversity in Indonesia: Effects of land-based pollution, destructive fishing practices and changes over time
  
• State of herbivorous fish populations
  
• Not all herbivores eat the same thing: diversity in herbivory is important
  
• Cross-shelf variation in the role of parrotfishes on the Great Barrier Reef
  
• Role of marine turtles in ecological communities
  
• Restoring sea turtles populations to fulfil their ecological roles
• Vulnerability of macroalgae of the Great Barrier Reef to climate change
• Vulnerability of seagrasses in the Great Barrier Reef to climate change
• Vulnerability of fishes of the Great Barrier Reef to climate change
• Vulnerability of marine reptiles in the Great Barrier Reef to climate change
• Vulnerability of marine mammals in the Great Barrier Reef to climate change

Existing policies and management actions

• The Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Zoning Plan
  
• Fisheries: legislative management arrangements
• Fisheries: other management tools
• Fisheries: information systems 
• Implementation of WTO conditions and recommendations from the latest EPBC assessment: progress by fishery
• East coast fin fish fishery independent review
• Queensland Fisheries Strategy 2009-2014 
• Queensland Fisheries policies and legislation
  
• Queensland Fisheries monitoring 
• Queensland Management of Commercial Fisheries
  
• Queensland Management of Recreational Fisheries 
• Australian Government policy on climate change 
• Queensland Government climate change policies and strategies 
• Climate Change Action Plan 2007-2012

Future management requirements

• Planned development of a GBRMPA Position Statement on herbivorous fish
• Biodiversity strategy

Defined research questions

• What will be the interaction dynamics between algae, coral polyps and herbivores under different climate scenarios?

Related information

• Current Research and Monitoring