QueenslandQueensland

Queensland

Queensland legislation prohibits the taking of marine turtles for commercial purposes. The Queensland Nature Conservation Act 1992 provides protection for marine turtles, listing them as endangered and vulnerable species. Most significant rookeries for all species in eastern Queensland have been declared protected habitat under this Act. State marine parks such as Woongarra Marine Park and the Moreton Bay Marine Park contribute significantly to turtle conservation. Table 5 identifies the proportion of nesting habitat protected in Queensland (Limpus in litt.).

Table 5. Proportion of marine turtle nesting habitat protected in Queensland

Queensland Environment Protection Agency (QEPA) has a well-developed monitoring program for marine turtles with some data sets dating from the late 1960s.

The major elements of the QEPA marine turtle research, monitoring and management program are:

 monitoring
– tagging census, and
– stranding database;
 research
– demographic studies at nesting beaches and feeding areas,
– population genetics studies,
– migration studies,
– incubation/embryological research,
– El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO) regulation of green turtle breeding rate,
– nutritional studies,
– health studies, and
– population modelling;
 management
– fox baiting to improve loggerhead breeding success, and



– environmental education programs.

Otter trawling in the Queensland East Coast Trawl Fishery (ECTF) has a level of marine turtle bycatch and is also captured by the compulsion of the successful key threatening process nomination under the EPBC Act to deal with that bycatch. A management plan for the ECTF now requires TEDs throughout the fishery. In the deepwater net area TEDs will be required by 31 December 2001. Legislative closures (both permanent and seasonal) provide limited protection for nesting and/or feeding ground turtle populations including shallow inshore seagrass areas.