Declared Fish Habitat Area summary - Tin Can Inlet

Waterway of Tin Can Inlet declared Fish Habitat Area

Waterway of Tin Can Inlet declared Fish Habitat Area

Location

Parts of upper reaches of Tin Can Inlet, 25 km south-east of Maryborough.

Plan number

FHA-064 (PDF, 671.6KB)  

Size

1,516 ha

Management level

A

Declaration dates

24 January 1976 (original declaration)
28 March 2008 (redeclared to cadastral boundaries)

Local government

Gympie Regional Council

Management features

Conservation of commercial net fishing grounds; fish and crustacean nursery areas.

Habitat values

Extensive inshore seagrass meadows; intertidal flats; upper inlet contains brackish waters associated with wallum heath; extensive mangrove zones and saltmarsh along estuary with Avicennia, Ceriops and Aegialitis recorded; mosaics of mangrove, seagrass and coral reefs provide habitat for high diversity of fish.

Fisheries values

Tin Can Bay supports at least 39 fisheries species of commercial, recreational or Indigenous importance; contains both tropical and temperate fish species; bream; estuary cod; flathead; garfish; grunter; luderick; mangrove jack; sea mullet; tailor; whiting; mud crabs; eastern king and greasyback prawns.

Unique features

The southern distributional limit of mangrove species Aegialitis annulata, Xylocarpus granatum and Osbornia octodonta.

Other values

Habitat for dugong; coral reefs in the area support scribbled angelfish Chaetodontoplus duboulayi and Müllers butterflyfish Chelmon mulleri at the southern end of their range; areas of hard and soft coral.

Further references

Beumer, J & Halliday, I 1994, Effects of habitat disturbance on coastal fisheries resources of Tin Can Bay/Great Sandy Strait, Report to the Fisheries Research and Development Corporation.

Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry (in prep), Enhanced management of Ramsar site wetlands within the Great Sandy Strait catchments, Final project report, Queensland Wetlands Program, Brisbane, Queensland.

Kirkwood, J M & Hooper, J N A 2004, Technical paper: Burnett Mary regional assessment coastal & marine biodiversity, Burnett Mary Regional Group for Natural Resource Management.

Lee Long, W J & O’Reilly, W K 2007, Ecological character description for the Great Sandy Strait RAMSAR site July 2007, Report for the Queensland Environmental Protection Agency.

McKenzie, L J 2000, Seagrass communities of Hervey Bay and the Great Sandy Strait December 1998, Queensland Department of Primary Industries Information Series.