Moreton Bay Queensland

The recent floods have turned the beautiful blue Bay to Brown Muddy Waters.

The Logan River has emptied to the sea, and the mud has made the Bay brown. It does not affect the sea life as the salt is only weakly dissolved, so though brown in color, the sea is still salty. Makes a muddy slushy trail behind the ferries

Moreton’s Bay’s iconic sea life is being threatened by an increasing amount of mud settling in the water, Brisbane researchers say.

Key points:

• Area of mud at Moreton Bay doubled over past 45 years
• Mud now covers more than 50pc of bay’s floor
• Sediment suffocating seagrass that attracts turtles, dugongs

A survey conducted by a team of researchers from the University of Queensland has found the area of mud in the bay has more than doubled in the past 45 years.

It now covers 800 square kilometres or more than 50 per cent of the bay’s floor — a significant jump from the 400 square kilometres observed during the last major survey in 1970.

UQ researcher James Lockington said the extra mud was suffocating the abundant seagrass in the bay, which is responsible for attracting some of the region’s larger marine life, such as turtles and dugongs…………………………………………..