, 2012). The find more high diversity, widespread occurrence and relative sensitivity make foraminifera good bioindicator organisms to evaluate phytotoxic stress on coral reefs. Further up the food chain, the exposure of juveniles of the tropical reef fish Acanthochromis to the insecticide

chlorpyrifos resulted in elevated oxidative stress biomarkers in liver tissue ( Botté et al., 2012). This set of papers illustrates clearly that on-going exposure to pollutants, particularly herbicides, can affect GBR biota through a number of impact pathways. To prioritise management action for the GBR, managers require information from all aspects of the catchment to reef continuum including the studies described above. To date, a small number of studies have attempted to undertake a risk analysis of land-based pollutants to GBR ecosystems. Most recently, Waterhouse et al. (2012) completed a relative risk assessment of priority pollutants in the GBR catchments based on current pollutant loads, reef condition and estimates of the exposure of the reef to these pollutants. The Wet Tropics and Mackay Whitsunday regions, dominated by sugarcane cultivation, were considered as high risk areas due to high loads of pesticide and dissolved inorganic nitrogen

(DIN). The Burdekin and Fitzroy regions were ranked medium to high risk due to their suspended sediment inputs from grazing lands, and DIN and pesticide inputs from sugarcane farming in the lower Burdekin catchment. Early results of this research informed the selection of priority areas and priority land AT13387 supplier uses for a number of GBR management initiatives including the State government’s Reef Protection Package. In all, this Special Issue has brought together authors from several different research and management agencies, all working towards a sustainable and resilient reef. The role of research in guiding positive management outcomes for the iconic Great Barrier Reef depends on cross-agency cAMP communication,

engaged research users and robust collaborative research across the catchment to reef continuum. All these factors have been addressed in the selection of research papers in this Special Issue to provide a useful baseline upon which to build further ecosystem understanding and the continuous improvement of resource management and conservation efforts. “
“They lie in parallel rows, In an article in the Sunday Times on 13 June 2010, the journalist Charles Clover exhorted us to “Wake up, the mackerel war has started”! In the article, Clover pointed out that because the annual migration of the mackerel (Scomber scombrus) – our striped tiger of the sea – has shifted north, a new group of fishermen are out to catch them. Never having fished for mackerel before, in the summer of 2009, Iceland unilaterally declared for itself a quota of 112,000 tonnes. In 2010, it declared a quota of 130,000 tonnes.