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Reporting progress

Published 27 February 2023




Implementing the Marine Estate Management Strategy

Progress on implementation of the Marine Estate Management Strategy is published:

  • every four months in a triannual snapshot
  • at the end of each year in an annual report.

Copies of past reports are available below.

In addition, the Marine Integrated Monitoring Program is assessing the effectiveness of the Strategy in reducing priority threats and risks to the NSW marine estate.

A ten-year strategy

The Strategy commenced its fifth year of implementation on 1 July 2022. See the current implementation plan for details about how the Marine Estate Management Strategy is being delivered in 2022-24.

MEM timeline





Highlights of current progress

1 July 2022 to 31 October 2022

Riverbank vegetation improvements Over 120 landholders responded to calls for expressions of interest for Local Land Services to conduct on ground works. Project staff are conducting remote investigations and on-site visits to determine best opportunities for new riparian rehabilitation agreements.  
Marine debris research and management program Release of the Marine Debris Threat and Risk Assessment for stakeholders with accompanying webinar for engagement and communication. 
Intermittently closed and open lakes and lagoons (ICOLL) management Audits of 11 managed ICOLL systems completed during the period, spanning 8 local government areas. 
Estuarine habitat monitoring and threat assessment Macrophyte maps finalised for Merimbula Lake, Pambula Lake and Twofold Bay and publicly available at New estuarine habitat maps go live. 
Sea Country Rangers Sea Country rangers employed, building on the success of the 21/22 Plastic Collective project at Bowraville. Machinery and facilities in place at Bowraville to establish the supply chain for plastic recycling products.

The Miimi Sea Country rangers collect and process recycled oyster drums and other suitable plastics from the Nambucca River and surroundings to make other valuable recycled plastic items such as bollards and park benches. 
Planning to protect marine wildlife Establishment of the new Port Stephens NPWS Large Whale Disentanglement node. 
Harvest strategy development The Trawl Whiting Harvest Strategy and Lobster Harvest Strategy were released on the DPI website in October 2022. The Total Allowable Catch Fishing Committee used the strategies to guide their determination of total allowable catch for the 2022/23 fishing periods for both fisheries and 2023/24 fishing period for Trawl Whiting. 

Call for Expressions of Interest for the Line and Trap Fishery Harvest Strategy Working Group occurred in September and appointments are pending. 
Environmentally friendly moorings Completion of Environmentally friendly moorings (EFM) project Stage 1 and ongoing progress on Stage 2 with recruitment for in-water trial across 3 maritime regions. 
Marine Estate Education Strategy Pilot primary school program of the 'Marine Estate Agents' completed with 228 students participating. Teachers’ feedback provided on the pilot program will be used to inform the final program design. 
Improved marine protected area planning and management University of Wollongong delivered second draft report on social and ecological research on aquatic reserves.  Identification of environmental assets and key threats to those assets for each aquatic reserve.


Reports


2022-23

2021-22

2020-21

Baseline evaluation

Progress reports

Presentations from MEMS local government online forum - July 2021

  1. Introduction (PDF, 3776.63 KB)
  2. Review of the NSW water quality objectives (PDF, 3558.67 KB)
  3. Risk based framework for urban waterway health (PDF, 2270.02 KB)
  4. Risk based framework for regional waterway health (PDF, 2267.9 KB)
  5. Estuarine water quality monitoring (PDF, 2232.12 KB)
  6. Oyster reef restoration (PDF, 4833.15 KB)
  7. Improving roads and tracks (PDF, 4871.89 KB)
  8. Riverbank vegetation improvement  and stabilisation (PDF, 5369.89 KB)
  9. Clean coastal catchments on-ground and research (PDF, 748.11 KB)
  10. Fish friendly workshops for councils (PDF, 2161.73 KB)
  11. Construction sediment management and coastal design guidelines (PDF, 2545.07 KB)
  12. Fish friendly breakwater maintenance (PDF, 2140.58 KB)
  13. Marine vegetation strategies (PDF, 2376.67 KB)
  14. Domestic waterfront structure and estuary bank management strategies (PDF, 5006.01 KB)
  15. Coastal wetland rehabilitation (PDF, 2013.93 KB)
  16. Climate change threats to mangrove and saltmarsh (PDF, 6171.57 KB)
  17. Climate change monitoring (PDF, 2023.4 KB)
  18. Feedback from MEMS Local Government online forum (PDF, 191.25 KB)

2019-20

2018-19