Managing Sea Country for conservation and culture

Approximately 85% of the Northern Territory coastline belongs to its Aboriginal Traditional Owners, who have cared for their sea country for millennia. This practice continues today in the work of more than a dozen Aboriginal sea ranger groups who draw on both traditional culture and conservation science as they patrol and manage vast stretches of our remote northern coastline.

Dhimurru Sea Ranger Patrick PJ White recoding vegetation changes at Waurrwurrwuy, where Yolgnu Elders documented details of the Macassan Sea Cucumber trade using stone pictures. Photo: Jess Abrahams

All in a day’s work…

Aboriginal sea rangers keep an eye out for illegal fishing, they haul in damaging ghost nets, clean up marine pollution and monitor unusual activities on land and at sea. Sea rangers also carry out quarantine and border patrols, undertake species and habitat mapping using hand-held ‘I-Trackers’, and develop and implement conservation management plans – all the while maintaining and renewing important cultural connections to their saltwater country.

Dhimurru Sea Rangers

The Dhimurru Sea Rangers based in Nhulunbuy, northeast Arnhem Land, are one of the best known of the Territory’s sea ranger groups. Dhimurru say their vision is guided by the wisdom of their Elders who inspire them in their work. They say the Elders exhorted them to look after country for those who will follow: to protect and maintain it.

Northern Marine Campaigner Jess Abrahams, with Dhimurru Sea Rangers Malati Marawili and Patrick PJ White on Shady Beach at Yirrkala. Photo: Vanessa Drysdale

The Top End Sea Life initiative proudly supports Traditional Owners - like Dhimurru’s Managing Director, Mandaka Marika - who are leading their people to look after sea country using the ‘two ways’ of traditional cultural resource management and contemporary science based conservation.

Indigenous Protected Area (IPA)

In order to best care for their country, Dhimurru have declared an Indigenous Protected Area (IPA) over 92,000 ha of their land and sea, including registered and recorded sacred sites. The IPA allows Dhimurru to access federal funding to manage and protect their natural and cultural resources. In exchange the Australian Government can include their country as part of the national conservation reserve system.

The Djelk rangers at Maningrida and the Anindilyakwa rangers on Groote Eylandt are also developing IPA proposals that will guide management, not just of their land, but of their sea country too. Marine IPA’s like these are a great initiative, and effective when other marine users share their vision for marine conservation. Unfortunately, if marine users like fishers or resource developers don’t share a conservation agenda, Aboriginal Traditional Owners can be without powers to control or stop their degrading activities. The sea-bed mining proposal off Groote Eylandt, firmly opposed by the Anindilakwa Traditional Owners, is a case in point.

Marine Sanctuaries

This is why jointly managed marine sanctuaries with the highest level of conservation protection are so important in the North. They can empower Traditional Owners with the authority and resources they need to give their sea country the protection it deserves.

The coastline at Garanhan near the Waurrwurrwuy stone pictures. Image Jess Abrahams (300).jpeg

Pressure is now mounting on the Northern Territory and Commonwealth Governments to finally deliver their long promised network of marine protected areas in northern waters. As this pressure builds, Top End Sea Life are talking with Aboriginal Traditional Owners in the North about the role marine sanctuaries can play in helping custodians realise their aspirations to effectively managing their sea country.

Jess Abrahams is the Northern Marine Campaigner for Top End Sea Life, a partnership between the Wilderness Society, the Australian Marine Conservation Society and the Environment Centre NT.