Inshore

The inshore marine health of the Wet Tropics is assessed on water quality, coral and seagrass. It is intended that a marine fish index will be developed in the future to contribute towards the assessment of waterway health for the inshore zones.

There are four inshore marine reporting zones, North, Central, South, and Palm Island.

For 2024-25 the overall grades for inshore zones were all ‘moderate’.

Compared to the previous reporting period (2023-24):

• The score for the North zone decreased from 59 to 49 and the grade remained ‘moderate’.
• The score for the Central zone increased from 54 to 55 and the grade remained ‘moderate’.
• The score for the South zone decreased from 47 to 41 and the grade remained ‘moderate’.
• The score for the Palm Island zone decreased from 57 to 41 and the grade remained ‘moderate’.

Disturbance events within the area of the inshore zones of the Wet Tropics region during 2024-25 included the following.

• A tropical low in early 2025 produced storm damage to reefs in the Palm Island zone and brought heavy rainfall events with extensive flooding of rivers from the southern Wet Tropics to the Burdekin Region in February. The flooding led to discharge of more than six times the long-term medians from catchments in the Burdekin Region producing flood plumes that can extend to the southern Wet Tropics inshore zones driven by northerly coastal currents. Major floods also occurred across catchments from the Herbert River to the Tully River
• Although coral bleaching had a probable or possible likelihood across most of the inshore zones during 2024-2025 there was no major loss of coral on the reefs monitored that was attributed to heat stress.