Management Concern: Low    

Adequacy of Information: Good

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.
  
• Much of the research activity on the Great Barrier Reef is confined to areas surrounding the six island research stations. With ongoing management, any impacts of research are likely to be small and localised in the immediate area of study.

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

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
• Policy on managing activities that include the direct take of a Protected Species from the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park
  
• Managing research in the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park
• Where does research happen?
  
• Major research and information programs

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