Capture — land-based run-off

• Claim filed: “Land-based run-off remains the greatest contributor to poor water quality in the inshore areas of the Great Barrier Reef…”
• Who: Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority
• URL: https://www.gbrmpa.gov.au/learn/threats/declining-water-quality
• Date on page: position statement 17 February 2021; page captured 2026-08-14
• Publisher: GBRMPA
• Title: Declining water quality
• Captured: 2026-08-14
• Method: saved HTML (gbr-wq.html)

Verbatim (Reef Authority)

Land-based run-off remains the greatest contributor to poor water quality in the inshore areas of the Great Barrier Reef and is a major contributor to the current poor state of many inshore marine ecosystems.

Poor water quality is a major threat to the Great Barrier Reef, particularly…

Pollutants listed: fine sediment, excess nutrients, pesticides — “primarily from agricultural activities.”

Plibersek, 25 July 2024 (on the fishing card’s plibersek.html): $200 million for revegetation, grazing management, gully stabilisation — water quality as a UNESCO pillar.

The other meter — Senate

senate-ridd.html
Ridd and Larcombe:

the resuspension of sediment during and after cyclone events, which are far more destructive to the Reef than agricultural practices.

Ridd on COTS at Swains:

150 km from the coast and ‘completely unaffected by runoff from the land’.

COTS are a native species and evidence has shown COTS populations have reached plague proportions prior to European settlement.

The Authority’s own hedge is “inshore areas.” Mid- and outer-shelf cover highs (AIMS 2022, 2026) sit outside that sentence.

What this file does not do

It does not file “mud never hurt a coral.” It files a farm ranking against the larger cyclone pulse and an offshore starfish the river does not reach.