NESP MaC Project 4.6 – Developing Traditional Owner community-led dugong monitoring in the Kimberley region 2024-2026 (JCU, ISWAG & DBCA)

Research Project

Researchers: Cleguer, Christopher, Dr (Principal investigator) ,  Lawrey, Eric, Dr. (Point of contact) ,  Mathews, Dean, Mr (collaborator) ,  Oades, Daniel, Mr (collaborator) ,  Raudino, Holly, Dr (collaborator)
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Brief description This record provides an overview of the NESP Marine and Coastal Hub study - Developing Traditional Owner community-led dugong monitoring in the Kimberley region. For specific data outputs from this project, please see child records associated with this metadata. Dugong are a keystone species with considerable ecological and cultural value across northern Australia. In the Kimberley region of Western Australia, dugongs have been identified as one of the top priorities to monitor in an effort to ensure the population is maintained and traditionally harvested in a sustainable manner. This project aims to have Traditional Owners and ranger groups across the Kimberley use cost-effective and culturally appropriate approaches to (1) fill knowledge gaps on the dugong’s population structure and connectivity at a range of spatial and temporal scales and (2) monitor the animals’ presence, density and habitat use in areas that are ecologically and culturally important to the local community and state and federal managers. This program directly addresses the national priorities of conserving, protecting and sustainably managing biodiversity through research and information management. Planned Outputs • dugong distribution and abundance [spatial dataset] • aerial survey outputs [imagery & photogammetry] • genomic sequencing data • code and scripts • Final technical report with analysed data and a short summary of recommendations for policy makers of key findings [written]

Notes Credit
Team members: Christophe Cleguer (JCU), Dean Mathews (ISWAG), Daniel Oades (ISWAG), Holly Raudino (DBCA)

Notes Credit
National Environmental Science Program (NESP) Marine and Coastal Hub

Notes Credit
Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water (DCCEEW), Australian Government

Notes Credit
In addition to NESP (DCCEEW) funding, this project is matched by an equivalent amount of in-kind support and co-investment from project partners and collaborators.

Notes Purpose
- Development of a community-led program to monitor dugongs at the local scale using small drones - Assessment of the dugong population structure and connectivity across the Kimberley - Movement and habitat use of dugongs at the individual level and at a range of spatial and temporal scales in one key location

Data time period: 2024-02-01 to 2026-12-11

-18.33197,86 -13.21766,86

-15.774815160449,90