Publications

5. Regional issues in the marine environment - continued

Western Australia

Population: 1.7 million (72% in the Perth metropolitan area). Coastline: 12,000 km. Major coastal regions are temperate south and south-west, and tropical Gascoyne, Pilbara and Kimberley coasts. Most of the State's vast coastline is arid and uninhabited. Marine issues are largely confined to the more populous and industrialised south-west (SW). Major issues stem from declining water quality, particularly elevated nutrients. Problem areas include: Cockburn Sound, Princess Royal Harbour, and Peel-Harvey system. (6-14),(42-47),(56)

Major State and regional issues include:

• water quality in south-western estuaries (especially nutrients, eutrophication)
• competing uses of coastal zone (SW)
• localised pollution in bays by heavy metals (SW)
• loss of seagrass (SW)
• catchment alteration
• Aboriginal sea rights and fisheries
• protection and preservation of Aboriginal sites of significance
• declining inshore fisheries (SW)
• catch-sharing (conflicts in commercial/ recreational fisheries)
• effects of trawling on sea floor
• environmental risk of petroleum exploration and extraction
• outbreaks of Drupella snails on coral reefs
• general lack of scientific knowledge of marine environment

Western Australia