Gladstone dugong habitat "to be buried under mud and rock"

Environmental Issues - May 27, 2010

The WWF says a decision taken on 27 May to approve a A$82.5 million port expansion at Fisherman’s Landing in Gladstone, Australia is disastrous for the area’s threatened dugongs and rare inshore dolphins.

Said the WWF: "The Fisherman’s Landing Northern Expansion Project will bury critical sea grass habitat within a designated dugong sanctuary under tonnes of mud and rock, and will have a major impact on the region’s coastal ecosystems. The local dugong population at Gladstone depends entirely on sea grass meadows, a fact that was recognised in the declaration of the Rodd’s Bay Dugong Protected Area in 2002,” said Lydia Gibson, WWF’s Tropical Marine Species Manager.

“This development will smother a large area of these sea grass meadows under a thick layer of mud and rock, and remove this critical habitat forever.”

The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species classifies dugongs as ‘vulnerable to extinction’ at a global scale, and Australian tropical waters are considered one of the species’ last strongholds.

WWF has been urging governments to conduct an overarching Strategic Environmental Assessment under section 146 of the EPBC Act to adequately address cumulative impacts in the Curtis Island Gladstone Port Region. This has not happened.

The area is also home to the rare Indo-Pacific humpback dolphin, which is particularly vulnerable to local threats. The loss of just a few individuals could see this local population disappear.

“There are over 100 major coastal developments proposed for the Queensland region. Without a strategic approach to managing the impacts on wildlife, it will be death by a thousand cuts for marine turtles, inshore dolphins and dugongs,” Ms Gibson said.

“If the Queensland Government is serious about protecting the unique wildlife of Queensland they really have to put a stop to the piece-meal approach to coastal development, adopt a more coordinated approach and designate sanctuaries that protect species from potentially devastating impacts of major coastal developments.”

Today Australia’s dugong population is only three per cent of its size in the 1960s. Because they are long lived and slow to mature, population growth is extremely slow and can only ever increase by five per cent a year. When their habitat quality is reduced (less foraging grounds due to increased coastal development) female dugongs will respond by having less young. There is a substantial sea grass meadow in the area north of Fisherman’s Landing, consisting of Halophila sp and Zostera sp assemblages.

WWF-Australia is extremely concerned that this proposal combined with scenarios outlined in the Western Basin Strategic Dredging and Disposal Project (WBSDD) - which involves further dredging of shipping channels, swing basins, and construction and management of a proposed Fisherman’s Landing dredge material management area - would be extremely significant and damaging to the marine ecology of the area, its biodiversity and to commercial and recreational fishing in the area.

Current proposals associated with the dredging of new shipping channels in the Gladstone Port and reclamation of land north of Fisherman’s Landing could result in the destruction of over 400 ha, or 7.0 per cent of coastal sea grasses in the Western Basin of Gladstone Harbour.

The loss of this habitat - within a designated Dugong Management Area would be of major significance to the coastal ecosystems of the region. On this basis, WWF-Australia strongly believes that this proposal is unnecessary and unwarranted and approval for the reclamation of Fishermen’s Landing should therefore be denied.