Habitat

Torres Strait islands have extensive mangrove margins and several islands (e.g. Saibai, Boigu) are predominantly made up of intertidal swamps (including mangroves, tidal saltpans and salt marsh).  Despite this, there has been no thorough assessment of the diversity, extent and health of mangrove ecosystems there.  Establishing the baseline of mangrove status and condition is important, especially as many islands are low lying and the predictions of sea level rise and increased storm surge frequency mean that mangroves are among the most threatened ecological communities in Torres Strait.

Coral reefs are showing evidence of decline on local, regional and global scales. Historical overfishing, nutrient loading and terrestrial discharge, combined with more recent threats of global warming, coral bleaching, ocean acidification and disease have resulted in long-term losses of abundance, diversity and habitat structure. Since European settlement of the Queensland coastline in the mid-19th century, extensive land use changes in the GBR catchment region have occurred resulting from grazing, agriculture and land clearance.

Marine wildlife are significant components of the Great Barrier Reef World Heritage Area’s biodiversity and are threatened by a variety of anthropogenic pressures. In particular, populations of inshore dolphins are very small and at risk, there are serious concerns for dugong populations along the urban coast (south of Cooktown) and marine turtles are listed as threatened species and are at risk along the Queensland coast due to coastal change.

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