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2016 SoE Marine Chapter - Pressures - Dumped wastes

Created 23/06/2025

Updated 23/06/2025

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The Marine chapter of the 2016 State of the Environment (SoE) report incorporates multiple expert templates developed from streams of marine data. This metadata record describes the Expert Assessment "Pressures on the marine environment associated with dumped wastes". The full Expert Assessment, including figures and tables (where provided), is attached to this record. Where available, the Data Stream(s) used to generate this Expert Assessment are accessible through the "On-line Resources" section of this record.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PRESSURE Dredging associated with the development or maintenance of port facilities around the coast of Australia is a necessary and unavoidable activity, vital to the continuity of the Australian economy. Disposal of dredged material is mostly commonly by placement on the sea floor in specially designated areas. By volume this is by far the largest pressure on the marine environment due to “dumped waste” and over the period from 2011 to 2016 totalled in the region of 90 million cubic meters of sediment (Ports Australia 2014, 2015). The areas selected as disposal sites and the nature of disposed dredged material at sea are highly regulated to minimise the risk of marine organisms being exposed to toxic materials and that the sites chosen are the most likely to be minimally affected by the application of additional sediment (Ports Australia 2014). Pressures arising from this practice include direct burial of biota as well as less direct impacts arising from resuspension of sediments placed on the sea floor. While the footprint of disposal sites is relatively small on the scale of Australia’s continental shelf, the area affected by remobilised material is potentially larger and less well known (McCook et al 2015). The amount of dredged material disposed of at sea in the 5 year period up to 2016 has increased markedly over that reported up to 2011 (Fig. 1). This is mainly due to two large port developments in north-western Australia’s Pilbara region (Gorgon and Wheatstone). Generally there appears to have been a strong upward trend in volumes in the Pilbara over the past decade and two new project approvals have been granted for a further 34 million cubic meters at Anketell Port and 42 million cubic meters at Port Hedland of dredging and disposal in the region. Given the decline in resource development experienced since 2014, this trend may abate in the short term. DATA STREAM(S) USED IN EXPERT ASSESSMENT Data used in assessment cover the entire continental coastal zone of Australia, and include all major ports. See "On-line resources" section of this record for links to specific data products.

2016 SOE ASSESSMENT SUMMARY [see attached Expert Assessment for full details] • 2016 • Assessment grade: Good Assessment trend: Stable Confidence grade: Adequate high quality evidence and high level of consensus Confidence trend: Adequate high quality evidence and high level of consensus Comparability: Grade and trends are somewhat comparable to the 2011 assessment • 2011 • Assessment grade: Very good Assessment trend: Stable Confidence grade: Limited evidence or limited consensus Confidence trend: Limited evidence or limited consensus

CHANGES SINCE 2011 SOE ASSESSMENT At sea dumping was not included in the 2011 SOE assessment as a separate section, where it is barely mentioned.

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Additional Info

Field Value
Title 2016 SoE Marine Chapter - Pressures - Dumped wastes
Language eng
Licence Not Specified
Landing Page https://data.gov.au/data/dataset/4a3d658c-06f6-4978-b900-e90907d3206c
Contact Point
Australian Ocean Data Network
Russ.Babcock@csiro.au
Reference Period 07/09/2016
Geospatial Coverage
Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors
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}
Data Portal Australian Oceans Data Network

Data Source

This dataset was originally found on Australian Oceans Data Network "2016 SoE Marine Chapter - Pressures - Dumped wastes". Please visit the source to access the original metadata of the dataset:
https://catalogue.aodn.org.au/geonetwork/srv/eng/csw/dataset/2016-soe-marine-chapter-pressures-dumped-wastes