New Research Published Calls for Better Protection for Moreton Bay’s Australian Humpback Dolphin Population
Our newest paper on Australian humpback dolphins (Sousa sahulensis) in Moreton Bay has just been published in Pacific Conservation Biology.
This vulnerable population lives alongside one of Australia’s fastest-growing urban regions and faces multiple overlapping anthropogenic threats.
In this study we identify and rank the level of risk from anthropogenic threats and conduct a cumulative spatial risk assessment for this population. We identified several hotspots of exposure and conservation concern.
Here’s what we found:
• 12 key threats were identified with most ranked high-risk and are present year-round, with increasing trends
• Pathogens, pollution, habitat degradation, climate change, illegal feeding, prey depletion and coastal development were ranked to have the highest-risk
• Areas with the highest risk and threat present directly overlap with areas of core habitat for resident dolphin communities.
• More than 70% of high-exposure areas occur in zones with the lowest level of marine park protection
Strong & targeted protection is required to safeguard this population into the future.
With low reproductive rates and strong site fidelity, this population has limited capacity to recover from decline from unsustainable losses that could be caused by anthropogenic threats.
As coastal pressures intensify globally, this research provides a practical framework to guide targeted and adaptive conservation management — both here in Moreton Bay and for vulnerable coastal dolphin populations worldwide.
Big thank you to all of our partners over the 13 years of this research and special thanks to our volunteers – this research would not have been possible without your generosity. Also thanks to those experts who attended our panel early in the research.
To read full article:
Hawkins, E. R. and Good, J.G. (2026) Threat identification and spatial risk assessment for a vulnerable Australian humpback dolphin (Sousa sahulensis) population in an urban embayment. Pacific Conservation Biology 32, PC25031. https://doi.org/10.1071/PC25031
