Final Report Supplementary Synthesis Report: Connectivity and inter-dependencies of values in the northeast Australia seascape Supplementary Report (Part 2) Johanna E. Johnson, David J. Welch, Paul A. Marshall, Jon Day, Nadine Marshall, Craig R. Steinberg, Jessica A. Benthuysen, Chaojiao Sun, Jon Brodie, Helene Marsh, Mark Hamann and Colin Simpfendorfer Supplementary Synthesis Report: Connectivity and inter-dependencies of values in the northeast Australia seascape Supplementary Report (Part 2) Johanna E. Johnson1,2, David J. Welch1,3, Paul A. Marshall4,5, Jon Day6, Nadine Marshall7, Craig R. Steinberg8, Jessica A. Benthuysen8, Chaojiao Sun7, Jon Brodie6, Helene Marsh1, Mark Hamann1 and Colin Simpfendorfer9 1 School of Marine and Tropical Biology, James Cook University 2 C2O Consulting, Cairns, Australia 3 C2O Fisheries, Cairns, Australia 4 The Centre for Biodiversity & Conservation Science, University of Queensland 5 Reef Ecologic, Townsville, Australia 6 ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies, James Cook University 7 CSIRO Oceans and Atmosphere, Crawley, Australia 8 Australian Institute of Marine Science, Townsville, Australia 9 Centre for Sustainable Tropical Fisheries and Aquaculture, James Cook University, Townsville Supported by the Australian Government’s National Environmental Science Program Project 3.3.3 Connectivity and interdependencies of values in the northeast Australian seascape © James Cook University, 2018 Creative Commons Attribution Supplementary Synthesis Report: Connectivity and inter-dependencies of values in the northeast Australia seascape is licensed by James Cook University for use under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Australia licence. For licence conditions see: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ National Library of Australia Cataloguing-in-Publication entry: 978-1-925514-24-7 This report should be cited as: Johnson, J.E., Welch, D.J., Marshall, P.A., Day, J., Marshall, N., Steinberg, C.R., Benthuysen, J.A., Sun, C., Brodie, J., Marsh, H., Hamann, M., Simpfendorfer, C. (2018) Supplementary Synthesis Report: Connectivity and inter-dependencies of values in the northeast Australia seascape. Report to the National Environmental Science Program. Reef and Rainforest Research Centre Limited, Cairns (67 pp.). Published by the Reef and Rainforest Research Centre on behalf of the Australian Government’s National Environmental Science Program (NESP) Tropical Water Quality (TWQ) Hub. The Tropical Water Quality Hub is part of the Australian Government’s National Environmental Science Program and is administered by the Reef and Rainforest Research Centre Limited (RRRC). The NESP TWQ Hub addresses water quality and coastal management in the World Heritage listed Great Barrier Reef, its catchments and other tropical waters, through the generation and transfer of world-class research and shared knowledge. This publication is copyright. The Copyright Act 1968 permits fair dealing for study, research, information or educational purposes subject to inclusion of a sufficient acknowledgement of the source. The views and opinions expressed in this publication are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the Australian Government. While reasonable effort has been made to ensure that the contents of this publication are factually correct, the Commonwealth does not accept responsibility for the accuracy or completeness of the contents, and shall not be liable for any loss or damage that may be occasioned directly or indirectly through the use of, or reliance on, the contents of this publication. Cover photographs: (front) Green turtle, David Welch; (back) Intertidal Whitsundays, Johanna Johnson This report is available for download from the NESP Tropical Water Quality Hub website: http://www.nesptropical.edu.au Connectivity and inter-dependencies of values in the northeast Australia seascape (Part 2) CONTENTS Contents ................................................................................................................................. I List of Tables ......................................................................................................................... II List of Figures ........................................................................................................................ II Acronyms ............................................................................................................................. IV Abbreviations ....................................................................................................................... IV Acknowledgements ............................................................................................................... V 1.0 INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................. 1 1.1 Objectives .................................................................................................................... 3 1.2 Current management linkages ..................................................................................... 3 2.0 CHARACTERISTICS AND STATUS OF VALUES .........................................................12 2.1 Natural Heritage Values ...........................................................................................12 2.2 Indigenous Heritage Values .....................................................................................45 2.3 Social & Historic Heritage Values ................................................................................46 2.4 Economic Values ........................................................................................................46 3.0 PHYSICAL DRIVERS, CONNECTIVITY AND EXCHANGES ........................................48 References .......................................................................................................................51 Appendix 1. Northeast Australian seascape values and attributes characterised ..............61 Appendix 2. Great Barrier Reef 40 non-reef bioregions .....................................................62 Appendix 3. Geomorphic features in the Coral Sea, Torres Strait and Great Sandy Strait 65 i Johnson et al. LIST OF TABLES Table 1: Main legislation applying to the four jurisdictions (Black cells indicate where the legislation isn’t applicable). ....................................................................... 6 Table 2: Examples of management tools for thematic issues and jurisdictions they apply. .............................................................................................................. 8 Table 3: Identified management linkages between the four marine jurisdictions and how collaborative management can be improved. .................................................10 Table 4: Overview of biodiversity of habitats in the Great Barrier Reef (GBRMPA 2013). ......................................................................................................................18 Table 5: Usual presence/absence of selected species of fisheries and conservation interest in the respective marine jurisdictions. Colour codes: permanent common = dark green; permanent uncommon = light green; absent = red. Presence is variable due to movement so understanding connectivity can inform management. ......................................................................................35 Table 6: Bioregion ID (e.g. NA1), Bioregion Name and description/justification of each Bioregion (described in 2000 – updated in 2013). ..........................................62 Table 7: List of previously described geomorphic features on the northeast margin. Features are numbered (left hand column) on Figures A2 and A3. (Adapted from Harris et al. 2005). .................................................................................65 LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1: Map of project area known as the northeast Australia seascape, including the Great Barrier Reef, Torres Strait, Coral Sea, and Great Sandy Strait/ Hervey Bay. ................................................................................................................ 1 Figure 2: Basins with estuaries between Cape York and Fraser Island draining into the Great Barrier Reef and Great Sandy Strait/ Hervey Bay. ...............................14 Figure 3: Satellite imagery of the Fly River estuary during high flow periods, showing the extent of the flood plume and its influence on Torres Strait marine environments. ................................................................................................15 Figure 4: Spatial distribution of seagrass meadows in the northeast Australia seascape; represented in green in the GBR and Great Sandy Strait, and yellow in Torres Strait. Source: eAtlas data (2017). .................................................................17 Figure 5: Key features and defining features of the northern, central and southern Coral Sea. Cross-section profiles adapted from bathymetry data provided by R. Beaman (Source: Ceccarelli et al. 2013) ........................................................23 Figure 6: Dugong relative density in Queensland and Torres Strait waters (Source: Alana Grech). ................................................................................................26 Figure 7: Indicative migration path of flatback and hawksbill turtles through the northeast Australian seascape (Source: www.gbrmpa.gov.au). .....................................28 Figure 8: Example map of connectivity