Incorporating dugong habitats into the marine protected area design for the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park, Queensland, Australia

✍ Scribed by Kirstin Dobbs; Leanne Fernandes; Suzanne Slegers; Belinda Jago; Leanne Thompson; James Hall; Jon Day; Darren Cameron; John Tanzer; Fiona Macdonald; Helene Marsh; Rob Coles

• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 2008
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 333 KB
• Volume: 51
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0964-5691
• DOI: 10.1016/j.ocecoaman.2007.08.001

✦ Synopsis

Dugong habitats were considered in the design for the new zoning network for the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park as part of the Representative Areas Program. One of the specific design guidelines developed as part of the biophysical operational principles recommended that 50% of all high priority dugong habitats should be incorporated in the network of no-take areas. The high priority dugong habitat incorporated in no-take protection increased from 1396 to 3476 km 2 (or 16.9e42.0% of all identified sites). Although this increase in protection fell short of the recommended 50%, overall the level of protection afforded by the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Zoning Plan 2003 increased for all the locations identified.