Document ID: chunk:federal_register_of_legislation:F2017L00641:body:0:p42
Version: federal_register_of_legislation:F2017L00641
Segment Type: other
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Character Range: 126558–129758

raise community awareness. Monitoring and management of marine turtle stocks is undertaken by Commonwealth and state/territory agencies, Indigenous ranger groups, non-government organisations, volunteer groups and community organisations.
State and territory government partnerships also address the protection of marine turtle stocks by improving the knowledge on marine turtles observed within state and territory waters. Some of these include:
       * maintaining stranding databases
       * undertaking and recording tagging and satellite telemetry data
       * promoting data sharing
       * undertaking necropsies and reporting.
Important habitat is protected by Commonwealth and state/territory governments through legislated protected areas and marine protected areas in state/territory waters (see examples in Section 3.3).
The Commonwealth marine bioregional planning process was undertaken to improve decisions made under the EPBC Act. Bioregional plans describe the marine environment and conservation values (protected species/places and key ecological features) and set out broad objectives for maintenance of biodiversity. They identify regional priorities, and outline strategies and actions to achieve these.
In accordance with the EPBC Act, all actions likely to have a significant impact on a matter of national environmental significance must be referred to the Australian Government Department administering the EPBC Act for assessment. This process aims to ensure that proposals are adequately assessed and reviewed and that appropriate measures are in place to mitigate any potential impacts on marine turtles from approved activities. Assessments for offshore activities including seismic surveys in the oil and gas sector are now managed by the National Offshore Petroleum Safety and Environmental Management Authority.
Marine turtles have a broad geographic range in Australia, often occurring in remote areas of northern Australia and on islands. Given this, and the cultural significance of marine turtles to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, much of the on-ground management of marine turtles and their habitats is also undertaken by Indigenous rangers and communities. To support these activities, funding for Indigenous management comes through many sources including Working on Country and Indigenous Protected Areas programmes. For example, most sea country ranger programs across the Northern Territory, the Gulf of Carpentaria, the Torres Strait and western Cape York undertake the regular retrieval and destruction of ghost nets as part of their ongoing work plans[81]. Communities in Queensland and the Torres Strait have also received support through the Nest to Ocean Program to manage pig predation and turtle monitoring.
In the Northern Territory, Sea Ranger groups cover most of the coastline and are involved in management activities, marine turtle monitoring and surveillance. In Western Australia, coastal ranger groups span the coast from Cambridge Gulf to Eighty Mile Beach and have been involved in management and monitoring, including the removal of noxious weeds on beaches and satellite tagging of turtles.
In the Torres Strait, the