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AQUIS RESORT AT THE GREAT BARRIER REEF PTY LTD ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT STATEMENT VOLUME 6 APPENDIX F AQUATIC BIODIVERSITY Aquis Resort Technical Study: Aquatic Ecology Stage 1 and 2 Reports: Existing Situation, Preliminary Impact Assessment and Mitigation. Prepared for: Flanagan Consulting Group frc environmental PO Box 2363, Wellington Point QLD 4160 Telephone: + 61 3286 3850 Facsimile: + 61 3821 7936 frc reference: 130702 frc environmental Document Control Summary Project No.: 130702 Status: Final Report Project Director: Carol Conacher Project Manager: Craig Chargulaf Title: Aquis Resort Technical Study: Aquatic Ecology Project Team: C. Chargulaf, C. Conacher, C. Dix, A. Lea, J. Thorogood Client: Flanagan Consulting Group Client Contact: David Rivett Date: 4 December 2013 Edition: v Checked by: Carol Conacher Issued by: Craig Chargulaf Distribution Record Flanagan Consulting Group: 1 pdf; 1 word document Environment North: 1 pdf; 1 word document This work is copyright. A person using frc environmental documents or data accepts the risk of: 1 Using the documents or data in electronic form without requesting and checking them for accuracy against the original signed hard copy version; and 2 Using the documents or data for any purpose not agreed to in writing by frc environmental. Aquis Resort Technical Study: Aquatic Ecology Macintosh HD:Users:tpenfold:Desktop:130702Rv_13-12-04-1533_TP.docx frc environmental Contents Glossary Summary i 1 Introduction 1 1.1 The Proposed Development 1 1.2 Scope of This Report 2 1.3 Constraints and Limitations 2 Stage 1 Existing Situation 3 2 Project Description from the IAS 3 3 Methods 4 3.1 Literature Review 4 3.2 Field Survey 5 4 Literature Review 21 4.1 Aquatic Habitat 21 4.2 Water Quality 22 4.3 Sediment Quality 28 4.4 Macroinvertebrates 31 4.5 Fish and Fisheries 37 4.6 Marine Mammals and Reptiles 55 5 Description of Aquatic Habitat on and Around the Proposed Development Site 61 5.1 Half Moon Creek Subcatchment 63 5.2 Yorkeys Creek Subcatchment 67 5.3 Thomatis / Richters Creek Subcatchments 70 5.4 Waterbodies Within the Proposed Development Site 74 Aquis Resort Technical Study: Aquatic Ecology frc environmental 5.5 Seagrass 80 6 Water Quality 82 6.1 Water Quality Measured In Situ 82 6.2 Water Quality Measured in the Laboratory 87 6.3 Summary 100 7 Sediment Quality 103 7.1 Half Moon Creek 103 7.2 Yorkeys Creek 104 7.3 Thomatis / Richters Creek 106 7.4 Waterbodies on the Proposed Development Site 108 7.5 Summary 110 8 Estuarine Benthic Invertebrates 111 8.1 Community Composition 111 8.2 Half Moon Creek 111 8.3 Yorkeys Creek 116 8.4 Thomatis / Richters Creek 116 8.5 Invertebrates of the Open Shore 116 8.6 Summary 117 9 Freshwater Macroinvertebrates 118 9.1 Community Composition 118 9.2 Taxonomic Richness 118 9.3 Abundance 118 9.4 PET Richness 119 9.5 SIGNAL 2 Score 119 9.6 SIGNAL 2 / Family Bi-plot 120 Aquis Resort Technical Study: Aquatic Ecology frc environmental 9.7 Summary 120 10 Legislative Implications and Constraints Relevant to Aquatic Ecology 121 10.1 Commonwealth’s Environmental Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999: 121 10.2 Commonwealth’s Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Act 1975 125 10.3 Queensland’s Marine Parks Act 2004 128 10.4 Queensland’s Fisheries Act 1994 130 10.5 Queensland’s Nature Conservation Act 1992 138 10.6 Queensland’s Land Protection (Pest and Stock Route Management) Act 2002 138 10.7 Queensland’s Environmental Protection Act 1994 139 10.8 Queensland’s Water Act 2000 142 10.9 Queensland’s Coastal Protection and Management Act 1995 142 10.10 Wetlands of National, State or Regional Significance 144 11 Opportunities and Constraints 147 11.1 Opportunities 147 11.2 Constraints 147 12 Preliminary Assessment of Matters of National Environmental Significance under the EPBC Act 149 Stage 2 153 13 Potential Impacts and Mitigation 153 13.1 Disturbance and Removal of Marine Plants 157 13.2 Loss of Onsite Waterbodies 157 13.3 Changes to Water Quality of the Surrounding Environment 158 13.4 Increased Turbidity, Sediment Suspension and Smothering 162 13.5 Disturbance of Acid Sulfate or Potential Acid Sulfate Soils 163 Aquis Resort Technical Study: Aquatic Ecology frc environmental 13.6 Alteration of Local Hydrology 164 13.7 Proliferation of Pest Species 165 13.8 Changed Light Regime 172 13.9 Waste and Litter 173 13.10 Potential Impacts to Fish in the Proposed Lake 173 13.11 Potential Impacts to Fish and Fisheries in the Surrounding Estuaries 174 14 Further Baseline and Monitoring Requirements 177 14.1 Water Quality 178 14.2 Sediment Quality 182 14.3 Estuarine Macroinvertebrates in the Sediment of the Receiving Environment 182 14.4 Macroinvertebrates in Mangrove Ecosystems 182 14.5 Estuarine Fish 183 14.6 Freshwater Habitat and Aquatic Plants 183 14.7 Freshwater Macroinvertebrates 183 14.8 Freshwater Fish 184 14.9 Mosquitos and Midges 184 14.10 Marine Turtles 185 15 References 186 16 Database Searches 201 17 Agency and Community Engagement 202 Aquis Resort Technical Study: Aquatic Ecology frc environmental Tables Table 3.1 Sites sampled in detail in the current survey. 6 Table 4.1 Queensland pest aquatic plants recorded within 5 km of the proposed development site and the likelihood of occurrence in the proposed development site and surrounding waters. 21 Table 4.2 Summary of water quality data collected by the HBEEC between 2000 and 2006. 25 Table 4.3 Chemicals previously used on and in the vicinity of the proposed development site. 28 Table 4.4 Macroinvertebrates in mangrove habitats of the Wet Tropics and their relative abundance in the region. 33 Table 4.5 Estuarine and marine fish from mangrove lined waterways in the Wet Tropics region a. 38 Table 4.6 Catch and fishing data for commercial fisheries in the Cairns offshore area in 2005. 47 Table 4.7 Freshwater fish of lowland areas of the Wet Tropics. 50 Table 4.8 Non-indigenous species recorded from the Barron River Catchment and the likelihood of occurring on the proposed development site or adjoining creeks. 55 Table 4.9 Marine turtles in the region and their likelihood of occurrence in the creeks or oceanic beaches near the proposed development site. 57 Table 5.1 Aquatic Habitat along Half Moon Creek 64 Table 5.2 Aquatic Habitat along Yorkeys Creek. 68 Table 5.3 Aquatic habitat along Thomatis / Richters Creek. 71 Table 5.4 Aquatic habitat of waterbodies on the proposed development site. 75 Table 6.1 Water quality measured in situ at each site. 84 Table 6.2 Water quality in Half Moon Creek. 89 Table 6.3 Water quality in Yorkeys Creek. 92 Aquis Resort Technical Study: Aquatic Ecology frc environmental Table 6.4 Water quality in Thomatis / Richters Creek. 95 Table 6.5 Water quality of brackish waterbodies on the proposed development site. 98 Table 6.6 Water quality of freshwater waterbodies on the proposed development site. 100 Table 7.1 Sediment quality in Half Moon Creek. 103 Table 7.2 Sediment quality in Yorkeys Creek. 105 Table 7.3 Sediment quality in Thomatis / Richters Creek. 107 Table 7.4 Sediment quality at site 10 on the proposed development site. 109 Table 9.1 Taxonomic richness of macroinvertebrates in bed and edge habitat at each site. 118 Table 9.2 Abundance of macroinvertebrates in bed and edge habitat at each site. 119 Table 9.3 PET richness of macroinvertebrates in bed and edge habitat at each site. 119 Table 9.4 SIGNAL 2 scores of macroinvertebrate communities in bed and edge habitat at each site. 120 Table 12.1 Criteria used to assess the likelihood of occurrence of species. 149 Table 12.2 Threatened and migratory species recorded within 5 km of the proposed development site on the online Protected Matters Search Tool for Commonwealth protected species and Queensland’s EHP Wildlife Online search tool. 151 Table 13.1 Potential management options for tilapia in the event of establishment in the proposed lake of the Aquis Resort. 167 Table 16.1 Databases searched and coordinates used for the report. 201 Table 17.1 Agency and community engagement. 202 Aquis Resort Technical Study: Aquatic Ecology frc environmental Figures Figure 3.1 Quadrant diagram for SIGNAL 2 / Family Bi-plot. 20 Figure 8.1 Mean abundance (± SE) of estuarine benthic invertebrates at each site. 112 Figure 8.2 Mean abundance of capitellid, spionid and other polychaetes (± SE) at each site. 113 Figure 8.3 Mean taxonomic richness (± SE) of estuarine benthic invertebrates per core at each site. 114 Figure 8.4 Mean abundance of crustaceans (± SE) at each site. 115 Figure 13.1 Aquis concept land use plan. 155 Maps 130702SM Sites surveyed on and adjacent to the proposed Aquis Resort 9 1300702HBSM Holloways Beach Environmental Education Centre monitoring sites 24 130702WW Lot Boundaries and Waterways in and adjacent to the proposed Aquis Resort 62 130702SG Seagrass located close to the Aquis Resort 81 130702MPa Commonwealth Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Zones located close to Aquis Resort 127 130702MPb State Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Zones located close to Aquis Resort 129 130702SMb Preliminary map of waterway barriers on and adjacent to the proposed Aquis Resort 132 130702FHA Fish Habitat Areas located close to Aquis Resort 135 Aquis Resort Technical Study: Aquatic Ecology
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