Management Concern: Moderate    

Adequacy of Information: Low

Summary extract from Outlook Report 2009

• Numbers of dugongs have declined drastically along the 'urban coast' but may now be stabilising. The remote coast population does not appear to have changed.
  
• Marine mammals are likely to be affected by climate change due to its impact on food resources.
  

What do we know?

Relevant pages from Outlook Online include:

• Historical population estimates for dugongs in the Great Barrier Reef
• Dugong protection areas in the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park
• Prioritising areas for dugong conservation in the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park using a spatially explicit population model
• Dugong mortality in Queensland
• Assessment of risks to dugongs in the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park
• Spatial assessment of risk to dugongs from bycatch
• PBR modelling of dugong populations along the urban coast
• Life history, pattern of breeding and population dynamics of the dugong
• Aerial Surveys for dugongs in the Southern Great Barrier Reef
• Shark control records hindcast serious decline in dugong numbers off the urban coast of Queensland
• Aerial surveys for dugongs in the northern Great Barrier Reef and Torres Strait
• PBR Modelling of dugong populations along the northern Great Barrier Reef and Torres Strait
• Population Viability Analysis (PVA) of Traditional dugong harvest in Torres Strait and Cape York
• Movement heterogeneity of dugongs over large spatial scales 
• Dugong movement in the Townsville-Cardwell Region
• Vulnerability of marine mammals in the Great Barrier Reef to climate change

Existing policies and management actions

• GBRMPA Position Statement on the Conservation of Dugongs in the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park [170KB]
  
• Protected Species in the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park
• The Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Zoning Plan
• Australian Government policy on climate change 
• Queensland Government climate change policies and strategies 
• Climate Change Action Plan 2007-2012

Future management requirements

• Planned review of Dugong Watching Policy
  
• Development of the Commonwealth Dugong Wildlife Conservation Plan
  
• Development of the Queensland Marine Mammal Conservation Plan
  
• Biodiversity strategy

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