NESP TWQ Round 1 - Project 3.5 - Assessment of key dugong and turtle seagrass resources in the northern Torres Strait

Region map

This project fills a critical information gap for dugong and turtle habitat management in the Torres Strait. It describes seagrasses in a recently identified data deficient region in northern Torres Strait that contains large dugong and turtle populations and is the subject of a proposed extension of the existing Dugong Sanctuary. The baseline assessments will form the foundation for ongoing monitoring, and provide essential information to the TSRA, Australian and Queensland governments for dugong and turtle management plans, complimenting dugong and turtle research studies in the region and building skills and capacity of Traditional Owners and Rangers.

NESP TWQ Project page

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Datasets

8 November 2021

This dataset summarises benthic surveys of seagrass for Dugong and Turtle habitats in the North-West Torres Strait for November 2015 and January 2016. The Site data describes seagrass at 853 sites; while the Meadow data describes seagrass at 34 individual meadows. The data includes information on seagrass species, biomass, diversity, and BMI and algae percent cover. The dataset is available as shapefiles, GIS layer packages, and/or a CSV file.

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