Based on these findings, we provide recommendations and guidelines for the improved protection, cleanup, and monitoring of oiled mangrove habitats around Australia, and elsewhere. We highlight the importance in assembling the most recent and best available knowledge.

The survey of spill sites was an instructive exercise but it suffered from the lack of an earlier standardised approach to assessing impacts and damage. And, there have been very few assessments of recovery. Limited access to old reports and the people involved has left gaps also. The message now however, is that a strategy of cataloguing and revision needs to be maintained, especially in response to future spill incidents.