2016 SoE Marine Chapter - Case Study - Shipping

Brief description

The Marine chapter of the 2016 State of the Environment (SoE) report incorporates multiple expert templates developed from streams of marine data. This metadata record describes the Case Study "Pressures on the marine environment associated with shipping". The full Case Study, including figures and tables (where provided), is attached to this record. Where available, the Data Stream(s) used to generate this Case Study are accessible through the "On-line Resources" section of this record.

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DESCRIPTION OF THE FOCUS OF THE CASE STUDY
Australia as an island relies heavily on shipping for transportation of its imports and exports. In 2013–14, approximately 1274 million tonnes of cargo were loaded and 151 million tonnes discharged at Australian wharves by 5499 vessels that made 28 714 port calls (BITRE 2015).
As this shipping traverses Australian waters there is potential for adverse interactions with the marine environment across all regions (see Figure 1 in full case study attached).

PRESSURES/ISSUES OF IMPORTANCE
There is a risk of environmental damage from collision or grounding of vessels, and ship strike, which is a significant cause of anthropogenic mortality to whales worldwide. In addition, small recreational vessels regularly injure dugongs, turtles, and dolphins.
Known Australian ship strike incidents in recent times have predominately involved humpback whales and based on behaviour and distribution there is potential for mother-calf pairs to be particularly susceptible. There have also been reported incidents with southern right whales, sperm whales and pygmy blue whales. Given the speed and size of modern shipping, collisions with whales have a high probability of being fatal.

DATA STREAM(S) USED IN CASE STUDY
Ship strike reports derived from the Australian Marine Mammal Centre National Marine Mammal Database, Vessel tracking data (AIS records).

Lineage

Statement: QUALITY OF DATA USED IN THE CASE STUDY
Ship strike reports verified to the extent possible, AIS data is of high quality.

Notes

Purpose
To describe the Case Study "Pressures on the marine environment associated with shipping" for use in the Marine chapter of the 2016 State of the Environment report.