At the Heart of the Industrial Boom Australian Snubfin Dolphins in the Capricorn Coast, Queensland, Need Urgent Conservation Action.docVIP

AttheHeartoftheIndustrialBoom:AustralianSnubfin DolphinsintheCapricornCoast,Queensland,Need UrgentConservationAction DanieleCagnazzi1*,GuidoJ.Parra2,3,ShaneWestley4,PeterL.Harrison1 1MarineEcologyResearchCentre,SchoolofEnvironment,ScienceandEngineering,SouthernCrossUniversity,Lismore,Australia, 2CetaceanEcology, Behaviourand EvolutionLab,SchoolofBiologicalSciences,FlindersUniversity,Adelaide,Australia, 3SouthAustralianResearchandDevelopmentInstitute(SARDI),AquaticSciences, WestBeach,Australia,4FitzroyBasinAssociationInc.Level1,Rockhampton,Australia Abstract The recent industrial boom along the Australian coastline has increased concerns about the long term conservation of snubfin dolphins along the Queensland coast. National assessment of the conservation status and management of the Australiansnubfindolphiniscurrentlyhinderedbythelackofadequatebiologicalandecologicalinformationthroughout mostofitsrange.Inresponsetotheissueofdeterminingtheconservationstatusofspecieswithbroadranges,theIUCN has provided a framework for assessing the threatened status of regional populations. In this study we assessed the conservation status of a small geographically isolated population of snubfin dolphins living in the Fitzroy River region, Queensland, Australia, against the IUCN criteria for regional populations. A review of all available sightings data and strandinginformationindicatesthatthisisthesouthernmostresidentpopulationofsnubfindolphinsinAustralianwaters. TheFitzroyRiversnubfindolphinpopulationiscomposedoflessthan100individuals,witharepresentativerangeandcore areaoflessthan400and300km2 respectively.Theareamostoftenusedbysnubfindolphinswithintherepresentative rangeandcoreareawasestimatedtobeabout292and191km2,respectively.Adecreaseinrepresentativerange,corearea andpreferredhabitatbetween14and25%isprojectedtooccurifaplannedindustrialportdevelopmentweretooccur. Theseresultsarerobusttouncertaintyandconsideringthelowlevelofformalprotectionandfuturethreats,aclass