Coastal, Estuarine and Marine
Priority Issues:

• Habitat loss and modification
  Introduced pest plants and animals
• Degraded estuarine, coastal and marine water quality.
• Reduction in environmental flows
• Overfishing
  

Habitat loss and modification is caused by:

• Pressures including tourism, recreational, residential and industrial use and development.
• Vegetation clearing, alteration of drainage and fire regimes, weed/pest invasions, nutrient and sediment pollution in run-off, and climate change impacts
• Introduced pest plants and animals threaten coastal and marine environments through predation, habitat modification and displacement of native species. They can also contribute to a decrease in land and marine economic productivity.
  

Degraded estuarine, coastal and marine water quality is caused by:

• Elevated nutrient, pollutant and sediment loads from a range of sources in their catchments including agricultural, urban and industrial activities
• Marine pollution, especially from land based sources

Reduction in environmental flows from upper catchments is caused by:

• The removal of water upstream for irrigation and domestic purposes
• The lack of an integrated approach to coastal and marine management has at times resulted in lack of action and inconsistent and/or ill-informed decision-making. This, combined with low levels of understanding and awareness about the condition of the asset and associated issues, exacerbates the deterioration of estuarine, coastal and marine environments.