Our Sea, Our Future
Major findings of the State of the Marine Environment Report for Australia
Compiled by Leon P. Zann
Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority, Townsville Queensland
Department of the Environment, Sport and Territories, Canberra (1995)
ISBN 0 642 17391 5
Population: 5.77 million (80% in coastal zone, most in Sydney/Newcastle/Wollongong). Coastline: 1,900 km. Major features are open coastlines, river estuaries, drowned river valleys on central coast, and large coastal lakes. Major issues stem from declining water quality in urban areas and coastal strip development. Problem areas include Sydney ocean sewage outfall sites (relocated 1990), Homebush Bay, Georges River and Lake Illawarra, Lake Macquarie and Tuggerah Lakes. (6-14),(42-47),(52)
Major State and regional issues include:
- declining water quality from sewage and run-off; elevated nutrients in estuaries and bays
- coastal strip development, catchment disturbances and loss of habitat
- destruction of cultural heritage sites
- modification of estuaries
- eutrophication of coastal lakes
- acidification of estuaries (acid sulphate soil)
- decline of 50% of seagrass (by eutrophication, habitat alteration)
- localised pollution by heavy metals, tributyl tin, chlorinated compounds and oil (especially in Sydney metropolitan area)
- poor bathing water quality (especially Sydney beaches in 1980s)
- decline in coastal fisheries
- large, unmanaged recreational fisheries and catch-sharing
- protection and preservation of Aboriginal sites of significance
- Aboriginal fishing rights and interests
- shoreline fishing
- effects of prawn trawling on sea floor communities
New South Wales
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