Most of the impacts on estuaries result from the land use pattern of their contributing catchments. Understanding the trend and condition of Australia’s estuaries will do much to provide a report card of the aggregate impact of our land use activities across catchments on the natural environment as well as providing a framework for more strategic estuary management.
Estuaries are the subject of systemic failure – for example, the estuary based oyster industry in NSW and southern Queensland has reduced in value in the last 3 years from $50M to $30M – most of which is related to impacts of land use.
Estuaries are key landscapes for recreational use and commercial use, with many fish and prawn species using estuaries for nursery and sometimes maturation phases of their lifecycles. Estuaries are greatly impacted upon by our growing population – with predictions that the next 5M people in Australia will virtually all live around estuaries.
Given the widespread nature of the problem, there is a need to take a national overview of the state of estuaries and identify mechanisms for restoring their health.