What's Being Done? | tasgiantlobster

Government Agencies Protecting the Tasmanian Giant Freshwater Lobster

The Island Fisheries service manages Tasmania's Inland Fish. The Inland Fisheries Service regularly monitors lobster populations and has developed public awareness programs to promote endangered and threatened species such as the Tasmanian Giant Freshwater Lobster.(Giant Freshwater Crayfish, 2011)

Australian Government Department of the Environment and Heritage

Any in-stream developments proposed within the range of Tasmanian Giant Freshwater Lobster must be approved. This is helpful to the Tasmanian Lobster because they are threatened by creek development and habitat destruction. Since developments must be approved, and in order to receive approval the development plans must be cautious of the surrounding environments and species, the Tasmanian Lobster is less likely to suffer from new developments. Along with considering the Tasmanian Lobster during development, this agency is also spreading awareness among developers that the natural world is important (Tasmanian Giant Freshwater Lobster, 2000).

What Else Could be Done?

Because of the Tasmanian Giant Freshwater lobsters isolated region and it being endemic to Northern Tasmania, its name is not that common in our society. We do not see ads on television about it as we do for the Tigers and Manatees that are endangered. Unfortunately, there are no organizations that exist with the sole purpose being to protect the Tasmanian Giant Freshwater Lobster. There are no programs outside of its endemic habitat working to help it, and what is being done in the region is the bare minimum. So raises the question what else can be done?

In our opinion the best solution to this issue is adapting a method of wildlife protection similar to the national parks in Costa Rica. The national parks in this region are centered around a region that does not allow any human interference, none! In the central region, no one is allowed. The next zone of the park is only accessible by scientist and anti-poaching rangers that monitor the region to ensure safety for the animals. The next zone out is considered to be an educational zone and is where the parks are able to generate income from ecotourism, as well as create a connection between the people and the natural beauty of the forests.

What's Being Done? And Who's Helping?

The Tasmanian Giant Freshwater Lobster is lucky to still be alive today. This very unique lobster has been recognized as an endangered species on the IUCN Red List. The Tasmanian Giant Freshwater Lobster is at risk of becoming extinct. However, due to the protection provided by Tasmanian laws and organizations the lobster remains alive, at least for now. In order to save the Tasmanian Freshwater Lobster population sizes need to be restored. To ensure that the Tasmanian Giant Freshwater Lobster is recovered a recovery plan has been created by the Tasmanian Department of Primary Industries and Water (IUCN Red List, 2010).

Check out the Tasmanian Giant Freshwater Lobster Recovery Plan.

Organizations and Projects That Are Helping

Natural Heritage Trust-funded project RiverWorks

RiverWorks is aimed to assist communities with identifying sources of water pollution; it focuses on rivers in the northeast of Tasmania.

The Natural Heritage Trust-funded project RiverWorks is beneficial for the Tasmanian Giant Freshwater Lobster because it is focused on water pollution in northern Tasmania. The RiverWorks project is working to ensure that the Tasmanian Lobster habitat is protected and that the water quality isn’t harmful to any riparian species. This project plays an important role in protecting the Tasmanian lobster because they are only found in norther rivers are extremely sensitive to water pollution, temperature and turbidity (Koehnken, 2001).

To learn more click here. (Link to “why it’s endangered” page)

Conservation of Freshwater Ecosystem Values project

Focused on the conservation of freshwater ecosystems

The Conservation of Freshwater Ecosystem Values project evaluated all of Tasmania’s bodies of freshwater and identified ecosystems to be assigned conservation value and a conservation management priority. Due to this project, creeks that are home to the Tasmanian Giant Freshwater Lobster have been evaluated in order to be conserved (Conservation of Freshwater Ecosystem Values (CFEV) Project, 2008).

ARKive

Creating a record of life on Earth for education, conservation and public awareness purposes

ARKive provides an opportunity for people to see and learn about animals digitally. ARKive is a valuable resource that provides pictures and information about the planets animals. Their page about the Tasmanian Giant Freshwater Lobster contains pictures, information about the lobster biology, habitat, range, threats and more (Giant Freshwater Crayfish, 2004). Check out their page about the Tasmanian Giant Freshwater Lobster.

Laws Protecting the Tasmanian Lobster

Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999

Listed as Vulnerable

The EPBC Act protects Australia's native species and ecological communities by providing for:

Identification and listing of species and ecological communities as threatened
Development of conservation advice and recovery plans for listed species and ecological communities
Development of a register of critical habitat
Recognition of key threatening processes
Where appropriate, reducing the impacts of these processes through threat abatement plan (Species Profile and Threats Database, 2015)

Threatened Species Protection Act 1995

Listed as threatened

This Act provides protection and management for threatened native flora and fauna and with the goal of promoting conservation of native flora and fauna (Tasmanian Legislation, 2004.).Under the Tasmanian Threatened Species Protection Act 1995 it is an offence to knowingly take, trade in, keep or process any listed species without a permit. Fishing is a fineable offence (up to $10,000) under the Threatened Species Protection Act 1995 (Hobart, 2006.).

Tasmanian Regional Forest Agreement 1997

Listed as a 'priority species requiring consideration'

It provides a framework for the sustainable management of Tasmania’s public and privately owned forests.

The Giant Tasmanian Lobster is protected through the CAR (Comprehensive, Adequate and Representative) Reserve System (Hobart, 2006.) The purpose of CAR is to protect old-growth forest and forested wilderness and safeguard endangered, vulnerable species and ecosystems (Reserve System for Forests in Australia, 1997).

The CAR reserve system is based on three principles:

including the full range of vegetation communities (comprehensive)
ensuring the level of reservation is large enough to maintain species diversity, as well as community interaction and evolution (adequate), and
conserving the diversity within each vegetation community, including genetic diversity (representative). (Comprehensive, Adequate and Representative Reserve System for Forests in Australia, 1997)

Inland Fisheries Act 1995

Listed as a ‘protected fish’

Since January 1998 A. gouldi fishing has been prohibited. Fishing is a fineable offence (up to $10,000) under the Inland Fisheries Act 1995 (Hobart, 2006).

Because of this Act the Tasmanian Giant Freshwater Lobster cannot be fished legally and the consequences give people an incentive not to fish for Tasmanian Lobster illegally. However, this law is hard to enforce (Tasmanian Legislation, 2004).

Forest Practices Act 1985

All areas that are reserved for threatened species purposes become vulnerable land under the Forest Practices Act. No further clearing or harvesting is permitted on such vulnerable land retained for threatened species conservation, such as the Tasmanian Giant Freshwater Lobster (Hobart, 2006.).

This Act ensures that the habitat area of the Tasmanian Lobster is protected. Since a leading cause of the Tasmanian Lobsters endangerment is habitat destruction this Act proves to be important in the survival of the lobster (Tasmanian Legislation, 2004).

The World Wildlife Fund has identified land clearing to be the largest threat to the native species in northern Tasmania (WWF, 2015). Yet, not much has been done to prevent it. In many small regions of Northern Tasmania a ban has been placed on logging, but the destruction of their habitat continues. With large amounts of fragmentation in the regions in which the Tasmanian Lobster lives, it is understandably hard for its numbers to climb. Even in the lush forests that have not yet been chopped down, roads cut their way through the green. By creating roads through these regions, the natural ecosystem is being unsorted by human presence.

A system like this could be extremely effective in helping the species in the region. Because no human interference is allowed in the central region, the animals and plants are able to return to their environment's carrying capacity and access their full biological potential. Soon, due to increasing numbers in the region, the animals and plants slowly dispersed throughout the other zones of the park. This situation benefits the people, the animals and the planet.