This is project will develop a “Indigenous Turtle and Dugong Conservation Comic” project for the Department of Agriculture Fisheries and Forestry that increases the understanding of Indigenous dugong and turtle fishermen about species sustainability and the population impacts if extraction continues at current levels.

The Torres Strait region is characterised by a complex marine ecosystem, which supports globally significant populations of dugong and marine turtles. Torres Strait is the most important dugong habitat in the world and the region has six of the seven species of marine turtles.

Within Torres Strait there are nineteen Indigenous communities distributed across seventeen geographically remote islands stretching to the south-western coast of Papua New Guinea and the northern tip of Cape York Peninsula. These communities are very diverse in terms of their socio-economic, cultural and political characteristics. Each community also has differing priorites, needs and concerns in relation to local issues affecting turtle and dugong.

Story telling is the basis for Indigenous communication. Families prefer messages as stories because they resonate with people's day to day experience and have been the cornerstone of passing on culture and values. Many organisations now understand the value of this form of communication. This project, to develop a series of educational comic books in collaboration with Island youth, is needed to develop grassroots knowledge of conservation and fisheries management, and committment to sustainable practices for harvest of dugong and turtle.

This knowledge and committment is necessary to ensure young Indigenosu school students understand the environemental impacts of traditional harvest of marine turtle and duging, and in turn to ensure the sustainability of traditional hunting practice.

Statistics on Australian fisheries production and trade provides a source of information for a range of purposes. The information can be used to meet the needs of the fishing and aquaculture industry, fisheries managers, policymakers and researchers. It can assist in policy decisions, industry marketing strategies and the allocation of research funding or priorities. The gross value of production for specific fisheries are used for determining the research and development levies collected by government. The neutrality and integrity of GVP estimates is therefore important due to their forming the basis for research levies for each fishery. At the international level, the Department of Agriculture through the Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics and Sciences (ABARES) contributes to a number of international databases. These include databases managed by the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) and the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). Information at the international level can assist in international negotiations on issues such as transboundary fisheries and analysis of trade opportunities.