Marine wildlife strandings data
The department maintains a database of marine wildlife strandings and deaths.
The primary focus of this database is to record information on where sick, injured, dying and dead marine cetaceans (whales and dolphins), pinnipeds (seal and sea lions), dugongs and turtles have been found in Queensland and assess causes of injury and death, if possible. Incidental information on sharks, rays, seabirds and other marine animals are also recorded. This information assists the department to identify emerging causes of mortality in marine wildlife.
Where strandings are caused by human activity, this data is valuable in raising community awareness and informs management actions to mitigate these causes. ‘Go-slow’ areas in Moreton Bay and Great Sandy Marine Parks, and dugong protection areas along the eastern Queensland coastline are two changes that were introduced to reduce boat strikes and netting as sources of injury and mortality. These measures were introduced as a direct result of the data recorded in the strandings database.
Strandings data are supplied by staff of the department and the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority, community rescue organisations and wildlife hospitals/rehabilitation facilities. The database also contains mortality records from the Queensland Government’s shark control program.
Reported marine wildlife strandings
The interactive dashboard below displays information about marine wildlife strandings made through the QWildlife app.
If you have submitted a sighting of a stranded marine animal, it may not appear until it has undergone an assessment, and a report has been submitted by a trained marine stranding responder.
It is important to note that the number of strandings does not necessarily represent the total stranding mortalities in a given area and that the location of a stranding does not necessarily represent the location at which the cause of that animals stranding occurred.