Current view: Text account
Site description (2008 baseline):
Site location and context
This IBA comprises the oceanic sandy beaches of Marion Bay, at the head of the Tasman Peninsula in south-east Tasmania. It includes Marion Bay beach and North Bay beach in south Marion Bay, extending around Long Spit into the intertidal mud-flats of Porpoise Hole and Two-Mile Beach in Blackman Bay. These beaches and mudflats form a single system used by shorebirds. The Marion Bay and Two-Mile beaches are high-energy storm-swept sandy beaches, while Porpoise Hole is a sheltered intertidal muddy beach with extensive mudflats and sand-bars at low tide.
Red-necked Stint regularly above 600 (max count 1925 birds in 2005/06), Curlew Sandpiper 10-20, Sooty Oystercatcher above 40; one or two pairs of Little Tern (E. Woehler pers. comm. 2009). The Marion Bay IBA together with the South Arm IBA to the west are part of a network of wetlands which collectively support more than 1% of the global population of Red-necked Stint, but numbers within each individual IBA are below the 1% threshold.
Pressure/threats to key biodiversity
Control human disturbance during breeding season. Restrict dogs to dog exercise area. Encourage adoption of draft management plan for Long Spit Private Nature Reserve.
Conservation responses/actions for key biodiversity
Annual surveys of Hooded Plovers and Fairy and Little Terns, and bi-annual counts of all shorebirds by Birds Tasmania.
Long Spit Nature Reserve overlaps IBA.
Marion Bay Beach is partly privately owned to the high water mark. Some of the beach is the Long Spit Private Nature Reserve. Two-Mile Beach is Crown Land.
Eric Woehler provided much of the data, based on fieldwork and management by Birds Tasmania, Tasmanian Land Conservancy and Marion Bay Coastcare.
Recommended citation
BirdLife International (2024) Important Bird Area factsheet: Marion Bay (Australia). Downloaded from
https://datazone.birdlife.org/site/factsheet/marion-bay-iba-australia on 23/12/2024.