{"id":476682,"date":"2026-02-13T05:37:08","date_gmt":"2026-02-13T05:37:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/476682\/"},"modified":"2026-02-13T05:37:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-13T05:37:08","slug":"maugean-skates-endangered-status-not-changing-environment-minister-murray-watt-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/476682\/","title":{"rendered":"Maugean skate’s endangered status not changing, Environment Minister Murray Watt says"},"content":{"rendered":"

Environment Minister Murray Watt has chosen not to change the endangered status of a rare Tasmanian skate species.<\/p>\n

The Maugean skate is found only in Macquarie Harbour on the state’s west coast.<\/p>\n

Mr Watt said he received a public request to “uplist the Maugean skate’s listing from endangered to critically endangered”.<\/p>\n

“Based on scientific advice I have decided to retain the Maugean skate’s status as endangered, on Australia’s list of threatened species,” he said on Friday.<\/p>\n

“The decision was informed by the advice of the independent Threatened Species Scientific Committee and contributions from the Tasmanian government, researchers and public comments.”<\/p>\n

Tasmania’s environment department had previously pushed for the Maugean skate to remain listed as endangered<\/a>, arguing that draft conservation advice “relies heavily on information, data or assumptions that are highly uncertain, outdated or otherwise contested”.<\/p>\n

Mr Watt said the federal government “remains steadfast in its commitment to ensure the Maugean skate does not go extinct on our watch”.<\/p>\n

“This decision does not change the need to undertake critical actions for the Maugean skate and its home in Macquarie Harbour.”<\/p>\n

A study by the Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies found Maugean skate numbers had declined by 47 per cent between 2014 and 2021 due to reduced dissolved oxygen levels.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Salmon farms were considered a main contributor.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Environment Minister Murray Watt has chosen not to change the endangered status of a rare Tasmanian skate species.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":476683,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[64,63,8426,75,94707,242669,13404,12458,128,242670,9525],"class_list":["post-476682","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-endangered","tag-environment","tag-macquarie-harbour","tag-maugean","tag-murray-watt","tag-salmon","tag-science","tag-skate","tag-threatened-species"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/476682","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=476682"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/476682\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/476683"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=476682"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=476682"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=476682"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}