Impacts on dugongs - The Great Barrier Reef: An Environmental History - page 103

that year, which represented almost all of the available supplies. In 1909, the
scarcity of animals was attributed to a lack of seagrass at the Moreton and Boolong
Banks, and no further dugong fishing was reported in 1910 (Stevens, 1908, p907;
1909, p931; 1910, p928; Welsby, 1907, pp52, 57). A small increase in activity
occurred in Moreton Bay in 1911, with sixteen or seventeen large animals being
caught at Boolong Banks; around that time, another dugong fishery commenced
at Burrum Heads, in Hervey Bay, where dugong fishing was easy because 'the
dugong were plentiful and caught very close to the beach' (Johnson, 1988, p77) . 5
However, Stevens (1911, 1913, 1914) continued to express concerns about
the decline of dugong numbers. His concerns were shared by Banfield (1913,
p162), who reported that dugongs appeared to be less abundant in Hinchinbrook
Channel than in previous years.
A small revival of the commercial dugong fishery took place during the
First World War, prompted by shortages of cod-liver oil, but the revival of the
fishery was short-lived because of the scarcity of dugongs. Limited dugong fishing
continued during the 1920s. In 1923, the Amity Point station still supplied dugong
oil, meat, hides, tusks and bones; by that year, dugong hides were being used
to manufacture high-quality leather, engine belts and carriage brakes (Johnson,
2002, p37; Stevens, 1918, p1665; 1919, p342; Welsby, 1907, pp84-5). In 1923,
however, a publication by the Queensland Government Intelligence and Tourist
Bureau (QGITB, 1923, p23), compiled by the Great Barrier Reef Committee
(GBRC), stated that dugongs were 'too rare to provide meat for the butchering
trade', and expressed uncertainty about the survival of the species. In general,
only intermittent fishing for dugongs took place in Moreton Bay during the
1920s, not only because of the reported scarcity of the animals but also because
general fishing and oyster harvesting had become more lucrative (Stevens, 1920,
p570; Dick, 1930, p40).
Determining dugong abundance was a complex issue. Concerns were
expressed about declining dugong numbers; in 1913, for example, Banfield
(1913) complained of the increasing rarity of dugongs in Hinchinbrook Channel
due to their slaughter by Japanese trochus, bêche-de-mer and pearl-shell fishers.
Nevertheless, dugong fishing continued at Burrum Heads, new operations
commenced at Toogoom and in the Isis River area and anecdotal reports of large
herds of dugongs continued to be made, including a sighting of at least 80 dugongs
in Moreton Bay in 1928 (Allen, 1942, p533; Welsby, 1931, p56) . 6 While some
authors acknowledged that the vast herds once reported in Moreton Bay were
no longer seen, uncertainty existed about the extent of the decline in dugong
numbers: the animals may have become more timid or their herding behaviour
may have altered. Welsby (1931, pp62-3) acknowledged that the distribution
of dugongs corresponded to the distribution of seagrass, since dugongs were seen
feeding even at the extreme edges of seagrass beds that uncovered at low tide.
Dugong tracks could be observed through seagrass beds - even if the animals
themselves could not be seen - and the ability of Indigenous fishers to 'read' the
age of dugong tracks was exploited in setting dugong nets.