Condition of marine ecosystem health

Key Finding

Queensland’s marine environments vary significantly in condition. Some are in good to very good condition while others do not meet standards for water quality.

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Healthy Land and Water South East Queensland report card
Reef Water Quality report card
Fitzroy Basin report card
Gladstone Harbour report card
Mackay–Whitsunday–Isaac report card
Wet Tropics Waterways report card
Townsville Dry Tropics report card
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Water Quality report card area (select locations to filter information)
(Townsville Dry Tropics boundary is indicative only)

Queensland

Queensland’s marine environments are in varying condition.

Monitoring of marine ecosystem health focuses predominantly on the east coast of Queensland where the majority of Queensland’s population live.

Offshore marine environments are in generally ‘good’ condition as they are less directly influenced by water quality from the catchments. Inshore marine areas closer to the coast are impacted by pollutants that flow from catchments and rivers.

The pollutants result from historic land uses, development and poor land management practices.

Healthy Land and Water South East Queensland report card

The Healthy Land and Water South East Queensland Report Card reports on indicators of marine health across several zones within Moreton Bay, Pumicestone Passage and the Broadwater on the Gold Coast.

All South East Queensland (SEQ) marine areas are in excellent condition except for the southern bay which is rated ‘good’.

Moreton Bay shows positive signs of recovery after the impact of floodwaters from the region’s rivers between 2009 and 2013, and 2017. The amount of mud in the shallower regions of the bay has been slowly redistributed to the deeper areas in the Central Bay or removed from the bay entirely.
The extent of seagrass has increased in Moreton Bay. Seagrass meadows in the southern section of Deception Bay that were lost after floods in 1996 have recovered to pre-loss levels. Seagrass meadows have returned to Bramble Bay, after an absence in this region since the 1950s.
Lower than average rainfall in 2018–2019 has enabled this recovery, with less sediment entering the bay from catchments, and improved water clarity.

Historic and current land management practices have caused substantial erosion in SEQ catchments. Erosion leads to sediment or mud entering waterways. This can smother seagrass and reduce water clarity, affecting animal and plant life.

Overall the report card shows that sediment and the long-term loss of riparian or riverbank vegetation are the major pressures affecting marine condition in SEQ.

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Reef Water Quality report card

Overall inshore marine condition of the Great Barrier Reef was ‘poor’ in 2017–2018, with coral rated ‘moderate’ and seagrass and water quality in ‘poor’ condition. The Cape York region was in ‘good’ condition and the Wet Tropics, Burdekin and Burnett–Mary regions were ‘moderate’. The Mackay–Whitsunday and Fitzroy regions were in ‘poor’ condition.

Inshore seagrass remained in ‘poor’ condition overall. The Burdekin region remained ‘moderate’, and the Burnett Mary region declined from ‘poor’ to ‘very poor’. There were signs of recovery at locations that were relatively free from disturbances, such as cyclones and floods in recent years.

Inshore coral remained in ‘moderate’ condition overall despite being affected by severe cyclones and high sea temperatures in 2016–17. The Wet Tropics and Burdekin regions remained in ‘moderate’ condition, the Mackay–Whitsunday region declined from ‘good’ to ‘moderate’, and the Fitzroy region remained in ‘poor’ condition.

Marine condition takes a long time to respond to changes in land management and is strongly influenced by severe weather, such as tropical cyclones and floods. Water quality improvements are expected in the long-term, provided land management practice reforms continue.

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Fitzroy Basin report card

The Fitzroy Partnership for River Health report card no longer includes a marine zone monitoring component.

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Gladstone Harbour report card

The Gladstone Healthy Harbour Partnership report card outlines the ecosystem health condition of 3 marine zones within the Gladstone Harbour – Inner Harbour, Mid Harbour and Outer Harbour.

Condition is assessed based on indicators related to water and sediment quality, mangrove, seagrass and coral habitat, and fish and mud crabs. The latest Gladstone Harbour report card, released in 2020, covers the 2018–19 reporting period.

Condition ratings for each marine zone are no longer provided in this report card, so aspects of marine ecosystem health are discussed separately below.

Combined water and sediment quality remained ‘very good’ in all the marine zones.

Marine habitat condition assessment changed in 2018 to include mangrove habitat. As such, overall marine habitat condition results are only presented here for 2018 and 2019. Habitat condition was ‘poor’ in all 3 marine zones over the past 2 reporting periods. In terms of trends for individual habitat features, however:

Seagrass condition in the Mid Harbour zone increased from ‘poor’ in 2017 to ‘satisfactory’ in 2019.
Coral condition in the Mid Harbour and Outer Harbour zones declined from ‘poor’ in 2017 to ‘very poor’ in 2019.
Mangrove condition in 2019 was ‘satisfactory’ in the Inner Harbour and Mid Harbour zones and ‘good’ in the Outer Harbour zone.

The way in which fish and mud crab condition is assessed changed for the 2019 report card, so only 2019 results are shown.

Fish and mud crab condition was ‘poor’ in the Inner and Mid Harbour marine zones. This was linked to poor bream recruitment and distorted mud crab sex ratios.
Fish and mud crab condition in the Outer Harbour was ‘good’ in 2019.

This report card also provides an overall environment grade for the report card region. However, as this overall score covers both estuarine and marine zones, it is no longer reported under the Estuarine and Marine Ecosystems sub-theme in the Queensland State of the Environment report.

Report card naming in the Queensland State of the Environment report refers to the year of report card release, which may differ from the year given in the report card title or the year data group shown on regional report card partnership websites. Only data for regional report cards released before June 30 2020 are included.

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Mackay–Whitsunday–Isaac report card

The Mackay–Whitsunday–Isaac report card assesses ecosystem health condition in 4 inshore marine zones – North, Whitsundays, Central and Southern — and an offshore marine zone.

Assessment is based on indicators related to water quality, and coral and seagrass habitat (inshore zones only). The latest Mackay–Whitsunday–Isaac report card, released in 2019, covers the 2017–18 reporting period.

Tropical Cyclone Debbie‘s impact is reflected in these results.

Condition of inshore marine zones in this region shifted from ‘moderate’ in 2016 to ‘poor’.

Northern inshore marine zone’s condition decreased from ‘moderate’ to ‘poor’.
Elevated nutrients and low water clarity resulted in a ‘poor’ assessment for the Southern Inshore marine zone. This area features high-value seagrass and inshore coral reef habitats, yet to be monitored.

Seagrass condition in the inshore marine zone was ‘moderate’ to ‘very poor’ in 2018.

This most likely reflects the effects of Tropical Cyclone Debbie.

Coral condition in the inshore marine zones ranged between ‘moderate’ and ‘poor’ in 2018.

There was little evidence of early recovery on inshore reefs.
Low densities of juvenile corals, high cover of macroalgae and historically slow rates of change in coral cover all suggest that recovery of coral communities will be slow.

Offshore marine zone remained in ‘good’ condition.

Condition of offshore corals remained ‘moderate’ for the fifth consecutive year, although the underlying assessment score declined. This result may not reflect the full impact of Tropical Cyclone Debbie:

6 of the 16 reefs monitored in the offshore zone had not been revisited since the cyclone’s passage.

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Wet Tropics Waterways report card

The Wet Tropics Waterways report card assesses ecosystem health condition in 4 inshore zones — Palm Island, South, Central and North — and an offshore zone.

Assessment is based on water quality and coral (all zones) and seagrass habitat (inshore only) characteristics. The latest Wet Tropics Waterways report card, released in 2019, covers the 2017–18 reporting period.

All inshore marine zones were in ‘moderate’ condition in 2019, with the South zone showing improvement from its ‘poor’ condition in the previous year.

Water quality in inshore marine zones ranged from ‘moderate’ to ‘good’ condition.

Coral condition was ‘moderate’.

Inshore coral cover scores increased in all zones.
Overall coral condition scores improved slightly for the North and Central zones.

Overall inshore seagrass condition in the North zone improved from ‘poor’ in 2018 to ‘moderate’ in 2019.

Coastal sites and meadows showed considerable signs of improvement and recovery in recent years, particularly for indicators related to seagrass abundance such as biomass, percent cover and meadow area.

Seagrass in the South Inshore zone, impacted by cyclones and severe flooding between 2009–2011, is not likely to recover.

The offshore zone was in ‘very good’ condition in 2018 and in ‘good’ condition in 2019. Intense and extensive mass coral bleaching events occurred in early 2016 and again in early 2017 due to extended periods of unusually high sea temperatures. These affected reefs in the Wet Tropics offshore marine zone. The 2018 offshore condition results did not fully represent the impacts of this bleaching event partly due to the survey design for offshore coral reefs, which alternates survey sites between years and aggregates results from the most recent survey years. The 2019 condition rating more accurately reflected the impacts of the bleaching events on the offshore coral community as well as the impacts of recent crown-of-thorns starfish outbreaks.

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Townsville Dry Tropics report card

The Townsville Dry Tropics Partnership for Healthy Waters pilot report card in 2019 covers the 2017–18 financial year period.

Ecosystem health condition is not assessed and a rating of overall condition is not provided for any ecosystem or zone. However, condition ratings for aspects that link to ecosystem health for marine ecosystems — seagrass and corals (biodiversity) and water quality (physical-chemical and nutrient indicators) — are provided.

Biodiversity ranged between ‘moderate’ condition in the Halifax Bay Inshore and Cleveland Bay Inshore marine zones to ‘good’ condition in the Offshore marine zone.

Within the inshore marine zone, coral condition in Cleveland Bay was ‘poor’ while coral condition in Halifax Bay was ‘moderate’.

Seagrass was only assessed in Cleveland Bay and was in ‘good’ condition.