Conservation of Natural Wilderness Values in the Port Davey Marine and Estuarine Protected Area, South-Western Tasmania
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AQUATIC CONSERVATION: MARINE AND FRESHWATER ECOSYSTEMS Aquatic Conserv: Mar. Freshw. Ecosyst. 20: 297–311 (2010) Published online 3 December 2009 in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com). DOI: 10.1002/aqc.1079 Conservation of natural wilderness values in the Port Davey marine and estuarine protected area, south-western Tasmania GRAHAM J. EDGARa,b,Ã, PETER R. LASTc, NEVILLE S. BARRETTb, KAREN GOWLETT-HOLMESc, MICHAEL DRIESSENd and PETER MOONEYe aAquenal Pty Ltd, GPO Box 828, Hobart, Tasmania, Australia 7001 bTasmanian Aquaculture and Fisheries Institute, University of Tasmania, GPO Box 252-49, Hobart, Tasmania, Australia 7001 cCSIRO Divison of Marine and Atmospheric Research, Castray Esplanade, Hobart, Tasmania, Australia 7000 dDepartment of Primary Industries and Water, Hobart, Tasmania, Australia 7000 eParks and Wildlife Service, Hobart, Tasmania, Australia 7000 ABSTRACT 1. Port Davey and associated Bathurst Harbour in south-western Tasmania represent one of the world’s most anomalous estuarine systems owing to an unusual combination of environmental factors. These include: (i) large uninhabited catchment protected as a National Park; (ii) ria geomorphology but with fjord characteristics that include a shallow entrance and deep 12-km long channel connecting an almost land-locked harbour to the sea; (iii) high rainfall and riverine input that generate strongly-stratified estuarine conditions, with a low-salinity surface layer and marine bottom water; (iv) a deeply tannin-stained surface layer that blocks light penetration to depth; (v) very low levels of nutrients and low aquatic productivity; (vi) weak tidal influences; (vii) marine bottom water with stable temperature throughout the year; (viii) numerous endemic species; (ix) strongly depth-stratified benthic assemblages exhibiting high compositional variability over small spatial scales; (x) deepsea species present at anomalously shallow depths; (xi) no conspicuous introduced taxa; (xii) a predominance of fragile sessile invertebrates, including slow-growing fenestrate bryozoans; and (xiii) sponge spicule- and bryozoan-based sediments that are more characteristic of deep sea and polar environments than those inshore. 2. Although this region has historically been protected by its isolation, seven major anthropogenic stressors now threaten its natural integrity: boating, fishing, dive tourism, nutrient enrichment, introduced species, onshore development, and global climate change. These threats are not randomly distributed but disproportionately affect particular habitat types. 3. For management of environmental risk, the Port Davey–Bathurst Harbour region is subdivided into six biophysical zones, each with different ecological characteristics, values, and types and levels of potential threat. In response to the various threats, the Tasmanian Government has enacted an adaptive management regime that includes a multi-zoned marine protected area and the largest ‘no-take’ estuarine protected area in Australia. Copyright r 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Received 4 February 2009; Revised 20 August 2009; Accepted 25 August 2009 KEY WORDS: benthic invertebrates; climate change; diver impacts; fishes; introduced marine pests; World Heritage Area INTRODUCTION (Roberts and Hawkins, 1999; Jackson et al., 2001; Dulvy et al., 2003; Boyd et al., 2008). Nevertheless, a few remote regions, As a consequence of increasing global pressures on ecosystems, including much of the oceanic, deepsea, polar and subpolar including fishing, dispersal of air- and water-borne pollutants, biomes, approach this condition (Halpern et al., 2008). translocation of invasive species, and climate change, no Within temperate regions, where coastlines are generally marine region is now appropriately regarded as ‘pristine’ heavily-populated and developed, the Port Davey–Bathurst *Correspondence to: G. J. Edgar, Tasmanian Aquaculture and Fisheries Institute, University of Tasmania, GPO Box 252-49, Hobart, Tasmania 7001, Australia. E-mail: [email protected] Copyright r 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. 298 G.J. EDGAR ET AL. Harbour estuarine system ranks as near pristine. It also for stripping of blubber and rendering of oil until the late arguably comprises the world’s most unusual estuary in both a 1890s, when stocks of that species had also become physical and ecological sense. commercially extinct (Luckman and Davies, 1978; Port Davey and Bathurst Harbour, two connected Kostoglou, 1995). embayments located on the south-western coast of Tasmania Towards the end of the 19th century, commercial fishing (Figure 1), form the only large estuarine system in southern developed in the region. The primary resource was native Australia without significant human impact. No roads or river oysters, which were harvested in tens of tonnes from James impoundments are present within the 2000 km2 catchment Kelly Basin and transported to Hobart. Because of area. Vegetation remains uncleared within the catchment other overharvesting and perhaps also disease, stocks of oysters than c.1 km2 of alluvial tin mine workings at Melaleuca, south collapsed around 1890 to negligible levels today. The most of Bathurst Harbour (Figure 1), and small abandoned important fishery resources exploited during the 20th century settlements for timber workers and bay whalers developed in have been abalone and rock lobsters taken by visiting boats the early 19th century, with associated selective logging of and one resident fisher, with minor quantities of finfish also huon pine stands along rivers at that time. The resident captured (Edgar, 1984; Resource Planning & Development population within the catchment during the past century has Commission, 2003). not exceeded 20 persons, and presently comprises two retired Other than minor tourism visits, the only commercial tin miners, supplemented by seasonally-varying numbers of activity additional to fishing undertaken during the past fishers and increasing numbers of tourists, scientists and century has been small-scale mining on claims generally managers. operated by one or two men. The largest mining field in the Because of the unusual nature of the Port Davey region and region, now abandoned, was located just outside the increasing tourism in wild areas, the maintenance of natural catchment of Bathurst Harbour on the southern Tasmanian environmental values constitutes an urgent priority for coast. An associated tin deposit beside Melaleuca Lagoon, a management as well as comprising a major administrative tributary of Bathurst Harbour, was first developed in 1935. challenge. The aims of the present paper are to: (i) summarize Initial operations at this lease involved a team of 19 men but results of unpublished ecological studies that were undertaken activity quickly dwindled, with only one to three miners to improve management in the region; (ii) integrate these working near Melaleuca Lagoon from 1941 to 2007. results with published studies to describe regional biophysical characteristics; (iii) assess threats to the biotic integrity of the History of natural resource management region; (iv) outline current management responses; and (v) provide additional recommendations to safeguard natural Following initial proclamation of a Foreshore Scenic Reserve values. in 1951 and the addition of extra lands in 1962 and 1974, the 925 km2 Port Davey catchment and 1050 km2 Bathurst Harbour catchment were fully included within a national History of natural resource exploitation in the Port Davey 2 region park with one exclusion (Edgar et al., 1999a). A small 18 km corridor permits regulated mining activity within the Bathurst Coastal south-western Tasmania, including the Port Davey Harbour catchment south of Melaleuca Lagoon. The region, has a long history of Aboriginal occupation that Southwest National Park, which includes the two large extends back at least 30 000 years. Aboriginal inhabitants catchments, is recognized as a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve modified the coastal landscape by establishing foot tracks and under the ‘Man and the Biosphere Program’, and was formally by frequent firing of vegetation to maintain moorlands. recognized by UNESCO in 1982 as a core component of the Because of relatively low plant productivity in hinterlands, Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area. With south- much of the Aboriginal diet consisted of marine animals, western New Zealand and southern South America, it forms including periwinkles, abalone, fur seals, rock lobsters, one of only three major temperate wilderness areas in the limpets, oysters, cockles and shearwaters, but apparently not Southern Hemisphere. finfish (Luckman and Davies, 1978). Although the Southwest National Park included marine European history in the region commenced in 1642 with the waters inland from a line drawn across the heads of Port discovery by Abel Tasman of the southern and western Davey (Resource Planning & Development Commission, Tasmanian coastlines. Although several French and English 2003), marine and estuarine organisms were not protected expeditions passed nearby in the late 18th century, Port Davey from fishing or other exploitative activities within this national was not discovered and named until 1815. In that year a boat park until January 2005, when a zoned marine (and estuarine) visited the area in search of stands of huon pine for protected area (MPA) was gazetted. Fishing is now prohibited shipbuilding. Abundant huon pine was found, inaugurating a within Bathurst Channel, Bathurst Harbour, James Kelly timber industry that persisted intermittently