Sometimes I think that Australians forget the asset on their door step. Dugong numbers appear to have been stable over the last decade in the Great Barrier Reef Region north of Cape Bedford, however, on the urban coast south of Cooktown, dugong numbers have declined by approximately 50 per cent over the past eight years,' said Professor Marsh. As a result of this decline, Indigenous groups have decided not to hunt along the urban coast of the region and there is now no permitted traditional hunting of dugongs south of Cooktown. Fishers have agreed to support an Endangered Species Education Program and the Queensland shark control program is being reviewed with a view to reducing by-catch. It will be necessary to introduce additional measures to decrease the incidental capture of dugongs in gill nets.
Habitat deterioration remains a major unresolved threat to dugongs in the Great Barrier Reef Region.
Dugong Protection Areas have been introduced in a number of significant areas along the Queensland coast in the hope of halting, and possibly eventually reversing, this decline. But dugong are not the only marine mammals needing protection in the Great Barrier Reef. Australia is one of the very few countries where the Indo-Pacific humpback dolphin and the Irrawaddy River dolphin are found that does have an effective marine wildlife management program. It is unlikely that these species will survive into the next century outside of Australia. In the Great Barrier Reef region management is focusing on dealing with the physical threats from gill netting and shark netting, and the reduced availability of food from over-fishing, pollution and habitat destruction affecting fish nursery areas such as seagrass and mangroves.