Document ID: chunk:federal_register_of_legislation:F2017L00641:body:0:p37
Version: federal_register_of_legislation:F2017L00641
Segment Type: other
Provision Reference: 
Character Range: 112818–115928

monitoring camps,  partnerships between research bodies, community/government agreements, state/territory scientists and environmental organisations, can all contribute towards improved stock management by Indigenous custodians. Providing support to Indigenous peoples for governance and management planning that helps to reinstate cultural authority and reassert rules governing sustainable customary harvest rules is a role that government and others can play to support Indigenous peoples to sustainably manage turtle stocks.
There is a strong desire among Indigenous communities for increased responsibility in managing marine resources[173] to ensure that social, spiritual and cultural customs associated with marine species can be maintained. Many Indigenous plans of management not only identify and set (self-imposed) limits on the community regarding the take of turtles and their eggs, but also set frameworks to enable communities to govern and enforce compliance with the plan. As an example, several Indigenous groups have now imposed moratoriums on hunting where they have perceived the stock to be under severe pressure from other disturbances such as extreme weather events. Management is often undertaken through Indigenous ranger programs, or may be achieved through community based education and consensus decision making such as sea country plans.
As foraging grounds generally include individuals from multiple stocks, it is often difficult to attribute stock level impacts of take on foraging turtles. However, there are a couple of studies that have linked trends at foraging grounds to stocks[117, 156]. Conversely, the take of eggs from a nesting beach is more easily attributed to a given stock.

4J Vessel disturbance
Increased commercial and recreational boat traffic results in increased turtle/vessel interactions and disruption to important benthic feeding and internesting behaviours. Impact from vessels can cause serious injury and/or death to individual marine turtles[51]. This is particularly an issue in shallow coastal foraging habitats and internesting areas where there are high numbers of recreational and commercial craft[97, 98], and in areas of marine development[15, 39]. Queensland StrandNet reported that 897 marine turtles died from wounds relating to boat strike between 2000‑2011. This represents 12 per cent of all investigated mortalities over this period. Excluding unknown causes of mortality (69 per cent), boat strike was the most commonly determined cause of marine turtle mortality (disease was second with 6 per cent of mortalities) in Queensland waters over this period[164].
Boat strike is a highly visible threat because it more commonly occurs in highly populated areas. 'Go slow' zones have been implemented in a number of marine turtle foraging habitats within high marine vessel traffic areas (e.g. Marine Park (Moreton Bay) Zoning Plan 2008). Education and awareness campaigns have also been established to encourage recreational and commercial fishers to 'go slow for those below' in seagrass habitats. Although the outcome can be fatal for