Declared Fish Habitat Area summary - Rodds Harbour
Rodds Harbour declared Fish Habitat Area
Location
Rodds Harbour, Turkey Beach/Tannum Sands and Pancake, Middle and Jenny Lind creeks, 20 km south of Gladstone.
Plan number
Size
11,619 ha
11,432 ha management A area
187 ha management B area
Management level
A and B
Declaration dates
19 November 1983 (original declarations)
19 December 2003 (redeclared to cadastral boundaries and to combine Bustard, Rodds Harbour and Turkey declared FHAs)
Local government
Gladstone Regional Council
Management features
Conservation, protection and management of essential fish habitat; important juvenile fish and prawn habitat; important mud crab recruitment area; important area for research.
Habitat values
Extensive mangrove zones bordering estuaries with mangroves (Avicennia, Aegialitis, Aegiceras, Osbornia and Rhizophora); samphire and claypan; seagrass (Halophila, Zostera and Halodule beds) and fringing rock and coral reef associated with Pancake Creek; island banks; bar zone; channels; deltaic areas.
Fisheries values
Commercial, recreational and Indigenous fishing; barramundi; blue salmon; bream; estuary cod; flathead; grey mackerel; grunter; jewfish; king salmon; mangrove jack; queenfish; sea mullet; school mackerel; whiting; banana, endeavour and tiger prawns; mud crabs; marine aquarium fish.
Unique features
Important protected area and least disturbed marine environment from Tannum Sands to Round Hill Head; Rodds Harbour is one of two estuaries where yellow mangrove (Ceriops tagal occurs; Pancake Creek is only area in region with digging stick tree (Pemphis acidula) and one of two with cotton tree (Hibiscus tileaceus); Jenny Lind Creek is the only locality where orange mangrove (Bruguiera gymnorhiza) is locally common.
Other values
Loggerhead turtle nesting area, land and sea Country important to the Bailai, Gurang, Gooreng Gooreng and Taribelang Bunda Peoples.