Management Concern: Moderate    

Adequacy of Information: Low

Summary extracts from Outlook Report 2009

• The region is of major importance to Traditional Owners and traditional use of and caring for their sea country reinforces Traditional Owner culture, protocols and connections to the Great Barrier Reef.
• Increased concentrations of suspended sediments and agricultural chemicals are having significant effects inshore close to agricultural areas. Much continues to be done to improve water quality entering the Great Barrier Reef but it will be decades before the benefits are seen.
  
• A decline in inshore habitats will have social implications for coastal communities.

What do we know?

Relevant pages from Outlook Online include:

• Healthy Country: Healthy People - Indigenous natural and cultural resource management and health
• Cultural significance of marine resources (including dugong and marine turtle) to Aboriginal communities along the Great Barrier Reef
• Cultural significance of dugong to Aboriginal communities in the Great Barrier Reef 
• Spirituality associated with culturally significant species in the Great Barrier Reef
• Spirituality associated with dugong and marine turtle in the Great Barrier Reef 
  
• Recognition of Indigenous occupation of Australia- Native Title Act 1993
• Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Traditional Owner groups with interests in the Great Barrier Reef
• Indigenous cultural heritage in the Great Barrier Reef 
• Indigenous cultural heritage sites in the Great Barrier Reef
• The Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Zoning Plan
• Totems, stories and ceremonies of Traditional Owners in the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park
• Story Place - Information on traditional connections to sea
• Traditional use utilises a range of marine resources
• Aboriginal fish traps and weirs of Queensland
• Fish traps of Hinchinbrook Island
• Marine and intertidal cultural heritage sites in the Great Barrier Reef
• Totems and storylines in the Cardwell – Townsville Region
• Dhui Dhui - Traditional story from Hinchinbrook region
• Diamond stingray dreaming - traditional story from Shelburne Bay region
• Traditional stories from the Cairns region
• Reefs and the mythological system in the northern Great Barrier Reef 
  
• Scientific consensus statement on water quality in the Great Barrier Reef
  
• Reef exposure to river contaminants ecosystem risk index
  
• Catchment influence on the Great Barrier Reef
  
• Development intensification and water quality pressures on the Great Barrier Reef ecosystems
  
• Inshore Reef Health
• Water quality effects on macroalgae
• Water quality effects on hard coral richness
• Water quality effects on richness of phototrophic octocorals
• Water quality effects on richness of hetertrophic octocorals
• Water quality in the Great Barrier Reef - guidelines and current status 
• Ecosystem health - regional coral cover and recruitment 
• Competition between corals and algae on coral reefs
• Rapid smothering of coral reef organisms by muddy marine snow 
• Terrestrial run-off and its effects on reef ecology  
• Nutrient inputs and outbreaks of crown-of-thorns starfish 
• Global contamination by persistent organochlorines and their ecotoxicological impact on marine mammals 
• Heavy metal accumulation in marine mammals
• Organochlorine and heavy metal concentrations in dugong
  
• Role of elevated organic carbon and microbial activity in coral mortality 
• Indirect effects of algae on coral: algae-mediated, microbe-induced coral mortality  
• New polybrominated dimethoxybiphenyls (PBDMBs) in marine mammals 
  
• Herbicides and mangroves 
  
• Responses of seagrass to nutrients in the Great Barrier Reef 

Existing policies and management actions

• Policies and guidelines for managing tourism and recreational use
  
• Water quality guidelines for the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park (2009)
  
• Regional water quality improvement plans
  
• Environmental Impact Management Policy [900KB]
  
• Sewage discharges from marine outfalls to the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park
  
• Reef Rescue Marine Monitoring Program
  
• Eye on the Reef Program
• Improving water quality
• Coastal ecosystem protection
• The Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Zoning Plan

Future management requirements

• Future management requirements in this area are being guided by ongoing assessment of emerging research outcomes and issues identified by the Great Barrier Reef Outlook Report 2009.

Defined research questions

• There are currently no defined research questions for this topic. Research questions will be developed, giving priority to interactions/issues that are of most concern to management.
  

Related information

• Current Research and Monitoring