The Exmouth Gulf, a globally significant marine biodiversity site in Western Australia, could be in line for greater environmental protections.
The 2,600-square-kilometre body of water, once considered for inclusion with the Ningaloo Reef for World Heritage Listing, is teeming with whales, dugongs, coral and other species.
Work is underway already for the southern and eastern edges of the gulf to receive marine park protection based on the recommendations from a 2021 report by the WA Environmental Protection Authority.
But scientific knowledge gaps mean it is up to the state government's Exmouth Gulf Taskforce to look into whether other parts of the water body need protecting.
Taskforce chair Laine Ashforth-McDonald said the group's focus this year was on whether further marine protection was needed for the northern and western parts of the gulf.
"The recommendation which we'll provide to the minister in August of this year will really focus on the marine aspect of the gulf," she said.
"And really focus on what sort of further protections are needed in order to protect the marine component of the gulf.
"In the years following, we will also consider the terrestrial environment."
Ms Ashforth-McDonald said beyond the three-year term of the taskforce there might need to be recommendations for the long-term management of the gulf.
"Whether or not that that is going to involve a longer-term committee, I don't know," she said.
"We're certainly in the early stages but that's something we can consider down the track."
Another job for the taskforce is to examine potential climate change impacts and other knowledge gaps around the gulf.
Ben Fitzpatrick, a marine scientist and director of research firm Oceanwise, said many lifetimes worth of work could be done in the gulf.
"The benthic ecosystems (the ecological regions at the lowest level of a body of water) are pretty poorly defined and mapped in the gulf," he said.
"Priorities for assisting with decisions around planning boundaries, and the like, would be a better understanding of the distribution and abundance of organisms, plants [and] habitats that live on the sea floor.
"We still have pretty limited understanding of the way Exmouth Gulf … actually functions as an ecosystem."
Dr Fitzpatrick said the gulf had extensive coral reef assemblages, sea grasses, algae and sponges but there was a need for more targeted surveys.
Calls for beach protection
The first documented instance of rare hawksbill sea turtles hatching and entering the Exmouth Gulf occurred just last month.
Exmouth resident Grace Keast said she saw tracks from a female hawksbill near the town's golf club and alerted the Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions.
"A couple of Saturdays ago, we had notification from the ranger who was doing a patrol that 21 hatchlings had come out of that nest," she said.
"The following evening, we were there with a couple of people, and started seeing the sand move and another 67 hawksbill hatchlings came out."
Ms Keast had been told by the department it was the first documented instance of hawksbill hatchlings going into the gulf.
She said six other nests had been marked out on the western side of the gulf for hawksbills.
"We definitely need some protection from the motorists, but also in the waters, you know, having speed limits ... in the shallows," Ms Keast said.
"And even marine protected areas for a large part of the gulf would be ideal."
