7. Defence Activities7. Defence Activities

7. Defence Activities

Periodically the Department of Defence may undertake activities that could impact on marine turtles, such as the use of explosives or landing craft on beaches. The impact of Defence activities on marine turtles and their habitat is not known but can be inferred. Explosive ordnance, if not appropriately managed, is known to cause marine turtle deaths (Klima et.al. 1988, Gitschlag and Herczeg 1994) or to modify their behaviour (Lenhardt et.al. 1983).

Defence activities can be conducted in a manner that minimises the risk of ill effects on the surrounding environment. Examples of measures, which can be used to reduce the threats to marine turtles and their habitat, are:

 minimising activities that have a potential impact on turtle rookeries during the nesting season;
 pre-exercise surveys of beaches, sand flats and sea grass beds for marine turtles; and,
 developing environmental management systems for relevant Defence training areas that include site-specific management plans for known and potential marine turtle rookery areas.

Actions to manage any potential impacts are identified in Table 14.

Table 14. Actions to mitigate mortality and monitor marine turtles in relation to Defence activities