出版社：Government of Western Australia / Department of Fisheries
摘要：This report details extensive literature searches for both research and monitoring programs that
have been undertaken in the marine and coastal environments of the Pilbara and Kimberley region
of northern Western Australia. The Pilbara and Kimberley region is remote and difficult to access,
resulting in very little monitoring effort of the marine and coastal environments in that region.
We currently know very little of the condition of marine and coastal natural resources in the
Pilbara and Kimberley, and the purpose of the current literature review is to identify knowledge
gaps for the region to prioritise areas for future research. Compounding our lack of knowledge on
the state of the natural resource condition, is the burgeoning industrial developments that continue
apace, including mineral, oil, and natural gas mining. Some of the largest industrial facilities in
Australia are to be found in coastal and marine environments of the Pilbara and Kimberley.
The knowledge review examined the available literature for the region relating to marine and
coastal research and monitoring. The project required that knowledge gaps be identified from
the categories - general marine*, marine water and sediment quality, marine primary production,
marine vegetation communities*, marine invertebrate communities, marine fish species, marine
reptile species, and marine mammal species. A discussion of each of these categories, for both
the Pilbara and Kimberley regions highlights where research has previously occurred, our state
of knowledge, and issues that currently exist.
This literature review uncovered a paucity in monitoring literature for the Pilbara and Kimberley
region compared to other marine and coastal regions in Australia. A significant finding in both
the research and monitoring literature reviews was the lack of accessability to the majority
of literature in this field. This results from the majority of the research, and most notably,
monitoring studies, being carred out by private enterprises, such as industry and consultancies,
and these reports not being publicly available. The private sector argues that their studies are
publicly available through Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) reports, however, these
reports merely summarise the studies with no further details.
From the monitoring literature that was accessible for this study, it was apparent that most
monitoring studies were in fact initial surveys or taxonomic surveys. Less than one third of the
accessible monitoring literature actually met the requirements of a monitoring study (repeated
surveys of established survey sites using a uniform sampling methodology over time), and of
these, most only rated fair out of a quality rating system that utilised the categories - excellent,
very good, fair, poor, initial survey, taxonomic survey, or inaccessible. From the accessible
monitoring literature, most of the monitoring effort has focussed on marine vegetation
communities, notably mangroves, and to lesser extents, marine invertebrate communities, and
marine fish species.
A total of 46 knowledge gaps were originally identified from the literature review, however,
through the course of this project, one of these gaps was addressed. These knowledge gaps
were either referred to in the literature, or were inferred by their absence from the literature. The
knowledge gaps varied from being highly specific, such as those referring to a particular species,
to more general knowledge gaps, such as those referring to large scale oceanographic features.
Many of the knowledge gaps also impacted across multiple categories mentioned above, as well as
across the Pilbara and Kimberley. The knowledge gaps were categorised into the following themes
* Those categories highlighted with an asterisk are additional to those cited in the project proposal and were added to address the
literature focus more thoroughly.Fisheries Research Report [Western Australia] No. 197, 2009 3
- Endangered/Threatened Habitats, Endangered/Threatened Species, Biodiversity, Ecological/
Oceanographic, and Fisheries/Aquaculture.The most number of identified knowledge gaps
impacting on a particular region and category was that for marine fish species of the Kimberley.
These knowledge gaps were presented to stakeholders in the form of workshops conducted
in Kununurra, Broome and Karratha. The aim of the workshops was to have the stakeholders
prioritise the knowledge gaps for future research in the region. It was encouraging that all
three stakeholder workshops voted for large-scale knowledge gaps, in two instances voting
the same knowledge gap as highest priority, and that they mostly related to those classified as
oceanographic and ecological knowledge gaps. The stakeholders were also concerned about
fisheries and aquaculture related knowledge gaps.
Kimberley stakeholders identified the need for having a long-term biological time series for the
inshore environment of the Kimberley as their highest research priority. Pilbara stakeholders are
concerned that no long term management is in place to monitor resource condition in the marine
environment. The stakeholder workshops also highlight the concerns of the stakeholders with regards
to the knowledge gaps relating to large scale oceanographic features, including oceanic currents and
primary production, and how these processes impact on the marine and coastal environments of
the region. It is also apparent that there is concern over the rapid increase in recreational fishing in
the region. There is concern not only for the impact that the fishers are having on local fish stocks,
but also the damage caused by the fishers to coastal habitats when accessing fishing locations. Also
apparent is the concern stakeholders have with regards to the potential impacts of climate change
and/or environmental degradation to commercial fishing stocks.
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