John Taylor and staff ABC News 14 Nov 11;
Nine months after floods and cyclones battered Queensland, dugongs and turtles are dying in record numbers around the coast.
Just as many homes across the state were damaged, so too were seagrass beds under the water from the tip of the state to the New South Wales border.
Many of the creatures have starved to death, with those weakened also falling victim to boat strikes and fishing nets.
Despite nearly 1,000 turtles and 170 dugongs dying so far, the Queensland Government believes the animal populations will recover.
But some experts are concerned about their long-term survival.
"We've had all this silt plume go out and cover the seagrass. And as you know, it needs to photosynthesise. It can't do that," said Trevor Long, Seaworld's marine sciences director.
"The seagrass has died right back. In many areas, it's actually been lost completely."
Dugongs are a vulnerable species. An expedition into Brisbane's Moreton Bay earlier this year was just one of the scientific expeditions happening to monitor dugongs' health and long-term survival.
"I am worried. I think that as we're seeing changes with climate change, these type of events may become more common," Mr Long said.
"And that's why I think we need to act now. I think that we need to be trialling pilot programs, we need to be looking at ways - especially with dugong - is there a way that we can supplementary feed many of these animals."
But Queensland Environment Department spokeswoman Julia Playford does not believe the two species will decline overall.
"We don't think we're going to be seeing a species extinction or anything even close, but we think that the population will recover in subsequent years of good rainfall," she said.
"We don't really think it's the beginning of a trend. We think that it's been a one-off event. We don't have floods this size every year."
Even so, more dugongs and turtles are expected to die this year.
