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14.1 Background 14.2 Monitoring Programs

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14.1 Background 14.2 Monitoring Programs Alcan Gove Alumina Refinery Expansion Project Section 14 Draft Environmental Impact Statement Marine Habitats 14 Marine Habitats 14.1 Background Alcan Gove’s operations interact with the marine environment principally through the discharge from the refinery outfall, rainfall runoff from the refinery, and through shipping activities that involve both import and export of materials. The latter have little known impact on the marine environment at Gove, but there is a risk to the marine environment through the potential for spills of oil and cargo. 14.2 Monitoring Programs Alcan Gove has commissioned a number of marine habitat monitoring programs, in some cases incorporating repetitive surveys over a number of years, focussing on sites of identified or potential impact. More general surveys of marine habitats and biota have also been undertaken. An overview of the major surveys undertaken is given below. 14.2.1 Refinery Outfall A survey of the marine benthic invertebrates of Gove Harbour in the vicinity of the refinery outfall was undertaken in 1991 (Hanley, 1993) as part a survey of water, sediment and biota undertaken in conjunction with McConchie and Saenger (1993). This survey assessed the diversity and abundance of marine benthic invertebrates both in Gove Harbour and at a number of reference sites. The objective was to identify the marine habitats and benthic (bottom dwelling) biota adjacent to the refinery outfall. Follow-up surveys were undertaken in 2000 and 2002 (URS, 2001a and 2003b) to assess the extent of change to the benthic biota and the effects of the outfall discharge. The results of these surveys are summarised in Section 14.3.2.1. 14.2.2 Northern Beach A survey of the marine and intertidal biota in and adjacent to the beach along the northern side of the refinery was undertaken in 1995 (LDM, 1995) to assess the effects of groundwater seepage in that area. A follow-up survey was undertaken in 2000 (URS, 2001c) approximately five years after the commencement of a groundwater recovery program, to assess the effectiveness of the recovery program. The survey report concluded that there was no significant impact to marine biota in the area. 14.2.3 Drimmie Arm In April 1999, as a result of extremely heavy rainfall, the bund wall was breached to allow the controlled release of stored water from a water treatment storage pond at the Residue Disposal Area (RDA) into Drimmie Arm. Water sediment and biota surveys of the affected area were undertaken to monitor the affects on marine biota (LDM, 2000). A follow-up survey was undertaken by in 2000 (URS, 2001e). The survey found that there had been a recovery of the benthic organisms and that this recovery would continue. 14.2.4 Introduced Marine Species The potential presence of introduced marine species at Gove was investigated in 2001 by a port species baseline survey conducted in accordance with the sampling protocols required by the Australian Quarantine Inspection Service (AQIS) Seaports Program. The study sampled a large number of marine fish and invertebrates occurring in 14-1 Alcan Gove Alumina Refinery Expansion Project Section 14 Draft Environmental Impact Statement Marine Habitats the vicinity of the port, adding significantly to the knowledge of native marine plants and animals occurring at Gove (CRC et al, 2003). 14.2.5 Habitat surveys General marine habitat surveys were undertaken in 1999 (LDM, 1999) as part of the development of a marine oil spill risk assessment and management plan (GOVE PLAN). Surveys of mangrove habitats were undertaken at Macassar Creek to assess areas that may have been affected by the existing RDA pond system (LDM, 2000b), and at No Name Bay to describe mangrove communities prior to the construction of Pond 7 and upgrade of Pond 6 (LDM, 2000c). A more extensive survey of the intertidal and subtidal marine habitats of the Gove Peninsula was undertaken in 2002 as part of the program to acquiring background data for use in this EIS for areas that had not previously been surveyed (URS, 2003a). The results are summarised in Section 14.3.2. 14.3 Existing Environment 14.3.1 Regional Influences and Marine Biogeography 14.3.1.1 Biogeography Melville Bay is situated in the northern Australia tropical zone and is part of the complex coastline within the Groote biogeographic region, which encompasses a myriad of bays, inlets, rivers and islands from Cape Wilberforce to Nyinpinti Point along the north-east Arnhem Land coast (Figure 14.3.1). The biogeographic region is composed of a cluster of interacting ecosystems that occur repeatedly along the coast. It represents a core faunal zone traversed by a large suite of tropical Indo-West Pacific fishes. The climate of the region is described as monsoon tropical (Section 11.1). No major rivers discharge in the region. An internal clockwise current dominates ocean circulation in the Gulf of Carpentaria. Prolonged north-westerly monsoonal winds can reverse this current in the wet season. High turbidity in inshore waters is common due to the presence of fine sediments, strong winds and shallow waters. Tidal range is meso-tidal, with a 2-3 m variation. 14.3.1.2 Regional Habitats The net effect of the patterns of marine biogeography is that species in the Gove area are generally distributed for thousands of kilometres along the northern Australian coastline, and into countries to the north such as Indonesia, Papua New Guinea and the Philippines (Wells, 1990). Some species occur widely across the entire Indo-West Pacific. Relatively few species have restricted ranges, and those that do are on the scale of tens or hundreds of kilometres. Figure 14.3.1 shows the distribution of marine habitats in Melville Bay. The most biologically productive habitats are the mangroves and their associated biota, followed by the coral reefs and the shallow subtidal and low intertidal flats, which support seagrass beds and a rich community of burrowing animals. Compared to the northern part of Melville Bay, the southern part appears to contain a greater proportion of the more biologically productive and fish nursery habitats (i.e. mangrove forests and seagrass beds). 14-2 Alcan Gove Alumina Refinery Expansion Project Section 14 Draft Environmental Impact Statement Marine Habitats 14.3.1.3 Regional Seabird Sites A study of seabird breeding colonies in the Northern Territory recorded regionally important seabird breeding sites on Higginson Islet, a series of small rocky islets 8 km north-east of Bremer Island. It supports breeding colonies of many thousands of Bridled Tern, Crested Tern and Roseate Tern and several hundred Common Noddy. It is considered to be an extremely significant seabird colony and probably the most important in the Northern Territory (Chatto, 2001). This site lies approximately 30 km offshore from Gove and is not affected by the Alcan operations. Two other identified breeding sites, one site within Melville Bay (Granite Islands) and another just north of Melville Bay were not considered to be of regional significance (Chatto, 2001). Important shorebird sites in the north-east Arnhem Land area have been identified in the Cadell Straits, Buckingham Bay, Arnhem Bay and Blue Mud Bay (Chatto 2003). The diversity and abundance of shorebirds (migratory and resident) observed during the November 2002 intertidal survey suggested that Gove Peninsula does not contain any sites that are of particular ecological significance to migratory shorebirds. This conclusion is supported by a study of the distribution and status of shorebirds of the Northern Territory coast (Chatto, 2003). That study did not identify Gove Peninsula or Melville Bay as important areas within the North-East Arnhem Land coastal block. 14.3.2 Southern Melville Bay For descriptive purposes, the marine habitats present in southern Melville Bay in the vicinity of Gove Peninsula have been classified into subtidal and intertidal habitats. A summary description of each of the habitats is described below, while the distribution of habitats is shown in Figures 14.3.2 – 14.3.6. Also discussed below are the threatened and migratory species within southern Melville Bay. 14.3.2.1 Subtidal Habitats The subtidal marine habitats of the Melville Bay study area comprise basin silts, shallow sandy seafloor, seagrass meadows and coral reefs. Soft Seafloor (Basin) Sediments The deeper parts of the subtidal seafloor within Melville Bay largely comprise soft sediments (fine sands, silts and clays) that typically become coarser as the seafloor shallows before grading into the lower intertidal habitats. Rock stacks and small islets punctuate the seabed in a number of locations (e.g. Harbour Islet, Woody Islet and The Granites). South-east of Dundas Point, at the southern end of Melville Bay, the maximum depth is typically less than 10 m. North-west of Dundas Point the seafloor deepens to approximately 20 m. The fauna of the soft sediments comprises predominantly polychaete worms, small holothurians (“sea cucumbers”) and ophiuroids (“brittle stars”). Bivalve molluscs, crabs and amphipods (small crustaceans) were present at some sites sampled around the peninsula. Basin sediments, which comprise the largest habitat area in southern Melville Bay, are generally considered unaffected by human activity, with the exception of an area of approximately 120 ha in northern Gove Harbour centred around the refinery outfall discharge (Section 13.5.1), in the vicinity of the shipping berths, and at the small boat moorings in Inverell Bay. 14-3 Alcan Gove Alumina Refinery Expansion Project Section 14 Draft Environmental Impact Statement Marine Habitats Sandy seabeds Sandy seabed typically occurs in the shallow water immediately below the low tide line, other than where it is replaced by outcropping rocky shore, such as occurs at Wargarpunda Point and Rocky Point. On exposed shorelines, such as occur at Northern Beach, the sediments are comprised of medium to coarse sands.
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