Limmen Bight is a

bight The word is derived from Old English ''byht'' (“bend, angle, corner; bay, bight”). In modern English, bight may refer to: * Bight (geography), recess of a coast, bay, or other curved feature * Bight (knot), a curved section, slack part, or loo ...

, or large, open bay, located in the

Northern Territory The Northern Territory (commonly abbreviated as NT; formally the Northern Territory of Australia) is an Australian territory in the central and central northern regions of Australia. The Northern Territory shares its borders with Western Aust ...

of Australia at the western end of the Gulf of Carpentaria about east of the town of

Katherine Katherine, also spelled Catherine, and other variations are feminine names. They are popular in Christian countries because of their derivation from the name of one of the first Christian saints, Catherine of Alexandria. In the early Christ ...

. It is part of the traditional lands and waters of the Marra people. It was named in April 1644 by

Abel Tasman Abel Janszoon Tasman (; 160310 October 1659) was a Dutch seafarer, explorer, and merchant, best known for his voyages of 1642 and 1644 in the service of the Dutch East India Company (VOC). He was the first known European explorer to reach New ...

for one of his ships on his voyage of exploration along the northern Australian coast. It contains the second largest area of tidal flats in the Northern Territory.

Description

Limmen Bight contains several small offshore islands, the largest of which is Maria Island; others are Edward, Sandy and Beatrice Islands, and Low Rock. It is bounded on the south-west by the Gulf Plains of the

, on the north-west by the south-eastern coast of Arnhem Land, and in the north by

Groote Eylandt Groote Eylandt ( Anindilyakwa: ''Ayangkidarrba'' meaning "island" ) is the largest island in the Gulf of Carpentaria and the fourth largest island in Australia. It was named by the explorer Abel Tasman in 1644 and is Dutch for "Large Island" i ...

. The mouth of the

Roper River The Roper River is a large perennial river located in the Katherine region of the Northern Territory of Australia. Location and features Formed by the confluence of the Waterhouse River and Roper Creek, the Roper River rises east of Mataranka ...

marks the westernmost point of the bight; other rivers flowing into the bight include the Rose, Towns and Limmen Bight Rivers. Land around the bight is predominantly Aboriginal freehold land held by the Arnhem Land and Marra Aboriginal Land Trusts, with some parts lying within the Nathan River and other pastoral leases. Port Roper, at the mouth of the Roper River, is a site for semi-permanent

fishing Fishing is the activity of trying to catch fish. Fish are often caught as wildlife from the natural environment, but may also be caught from stocked bodies of water such as ponds, canals, park wetlands and reservoirs. Fishing techniques inclu ...

camps.

Fauna

The beaches of the Bight's islands are important for nesting

tern Terns are seabirds in the family Laridae that have a worldwide distribution and are normally found near the sea, rivers, or wetlands. Terns are treated as a subgroup of the family Laridae which includes gulls and skimmers and consists of e ...

s and for

marine turtle Sea turtles (superfamily Chelonioidea), sometimes called marine turtles, are reptiles of the order Testudines and of the suborder Cryptodira. The seven existing species of sea turtles are the flatback, green, hawksbill, leatherback, loggerhead ...

s, for which the site is considered to be of national significance. The extensive coastal mudflats provide feeding habitat for flocks of over 30,000 migratory

wader 245px, A flock of Dunlins and Red knots">Red_knot.html" ;"title="Dunlins and Red knot">Dunlins and Red knots Waders or shorebirds are birds of the order Charadriiformes commonly found wikt:wade#Etymology 1, wading along shorelines and mudflat ...

s, or shorebirds, and the freshwater swamps of the river

floodplain A floodplain or flood plain or bottomlands is an area of land adjacent to a river which stretches from the banks of its channel to the base of the enclosing valley walls, and which experiences flooding during periods of high discharge.Goudi ...

s are used by tens of thousands of

waterbird A water bird, alternatively waterbird or aquatic bird, is a bird that lives on or around water. In some definitions, the term ''water bird'' is especially applied to birds in freshwater ecosystems, although others make no distinction from seabi ...

s. The coastal waters support high densities of

dugong The dugong (; ''Dugong dugon'') is a marine mammal. It is one of four living species of the order Sirenia, which also includes three species of manatees. It is the only living representative of the once-diverse family Dugongidae; its closest m ...

s. Threatened

vertebrate Vertebrates () comprise all animal taxa within the subphylum Vertebrata () (chordates with backbones), including all mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, and fish. Vertebrates represent the overwhelming majority of the phylum Chordata, with c ...

species In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate s ...

found in the area include the

Australian bustard The Australian bustard (''Ardeotis australis'') is a large ground dwelling bird which is common in grassland, woodland and open agricultural country across northern Australia and southern New Guinea. It stands at about high, and its wingspan is ...

, masked owl,

partridge pigeon The partridge pigeon (''Geophaps smithii'') is a species of bird in the family Columbidae. It is endemic to Australia. Its natural habitats are subtropical or tropical dry shrubland and subtropical or tropical dry lowland grassland. It is threate ...

and

northern hopping mouse The northern hopping mouse (''Notomys aquilo'') is a species of rodent in the family Muridae. It is found only in coastal northern Australia, from Arnhem Land to the Cobourg Peninsula. This mouse weighs 25 to 30 grams and is brown above and whi ...

, as well as the flatback,

green Green is the color between cyan and yellow on the visible spectrum. It is evoked by light which has a dominant wavelength of roughly 495570 nm. In subtractive color systems, used in painting and color printing, it is created by a combi ...

hawksbill The hawksbill sea turtle (''Eretmochelys imbricata'') is a critically endangered sea turtle belonging to the family Cheloniidae. It is the only extant species in the genus ''Eretmochelys''. The species has a global distribution, that is large ...

and

olive ridley turtle The olive ridley sea turtle (''Lepidochelys olivacea''), also known commonly as the Pacific ridley sea turtle, is a species of turtle in the family Cheloniidae. The species is the second-smallest and most abundant of all sea turtles found in th ...

Important Bird Area

A 2234 km² tract of land along the coast of the Limmen Bight has been identified by BirdLife International as an Important Bird Area (IBA) because it supports over 1% of the world populations of

grey-tailed tattler The grey-tailed tattler (''Tringa brevipes'', formerly ''Heteroscelus brevipes''Banks, Richard C.; Cicero, Carla; Dunn, Jon L.; Kratter, Andrew W.; Rasmussen, Pamela C.; Remsen, J. V. Jr.; Rising, James D. & Stotz, Douglas F. (2006):Forty-seventh ...

great knot __NOTOC__ The great knot (''Calidris tenuirostris'') is a small wader. It is the largest of the calidrid species. The genus name is from Ancient Greek ''kalidris'' or ''skalidris'', a term used by Aristotle for some grey-coloured waterside bird ...

s and white-headed stilts. The IBA includes the coastline from the Roper River to the Limmen Bight River, with the inland swamps south of and along the lower Roper River. The main habitats are intertidal mudflats, low samphire shrubland, scattered patches of dry rainforest, and channel-fringing

mangrove A mangrove is a shrub or tree that grows in coastal saline or brackish water. The term is also used for tropical coastal vegetation consisting of such species. Mangroves are taxonomically diverse, as a result of convergent evolution in severa ...

s.BirdLife International. (2011). Important Bird Areas factsheet: Limmen Bight. Downloaded from http://www.birdlife.org on 05/08/2011. Chestnut rails inhabit the mangroves of the IBA. Black-tailed godwits have been recorded in substantial numbers. A

breeding colony near the Roper River mouth held about 2500 birds, including

pied heron The pied heron (''Egretta picata''), also known as the pied egret is a bird found in coastal and subcoastal areas of monsoonal northern Australia as well as some parts of Wallacea and New Guinea. Taxonomy The species was originally described by ...

egret Egrets ( ) are herons, generally long-legged wading birds, that have white or buff plumage, developing fine plumes (usually milky white) during the breeding season. Egrets are not a biologically distinct group from herons and have the same build ...

s and cormorants.

Seabird Seabirds (also known as marine birds) are birds that are adapted to life within the marine environment. While seabirds vary greatly in lifestyle, behaviour and physiology, they often exhibit striking convergent evolution, as the same enviro ...

breeding aggregations at the site include the largest

pied cormorant The Australian pied cormorant (''Phalacrocorax varius''), also known as the pied cormorant, pied shag, or great pied cormorant, is a medium-sized member of the cormorant family. It is found around the coasts of Australasia. In New Zealand, it ...

and

little tern The little tern (''Sternula albifrons'') is a seabird of the family Laridae. It was formerly placed into the genus ''Sterna'', which now is restricted to the large white terns. The genus name is a diminutive of '' Sterna'', "tern". The specific ' ...

colonies in the Northern Territory. There are also colonies of up to 10,000 crested terns and 5000 roseate terns. Sandy Island and Low Rock form a separate IBA important for nesting terns.

References

{{coord, 14, 48, 47, S, 135, 20, 21, E, display=title, region:AU-NT_type:waterbody Bays of the Northern Territory Gulf of Carpentaria Arnhem Land Bights (geography) Important Bird Areas of the Northern Territory