Conservation & Threats

Climatic

P. deltoides is a hardy species with a solid niche that is unlikely to disappear or be greatly altered. With the changing climate the sea levels are set to rise though the impact of this on the species is entirely negligible as they will simply move with the water line in line with their normal behaviours. There is some threat of ocean temperature rise impacting the temperature of the sand in which they burrow as well as sand having a low threshold for pH change though the depths that they are capable of burrowing may provide some buffer for these changes.

Human

Historically pipis have been a staple of many indigenous diets along the coastline of Australia but in more recent years they have been hunted for human consumption as well as fishing bait leading to a rapid decline in population numbers. For human consumption the species is now farmed as it is an unsustainable industry to be wild caught (Lewis et al, 2013). The offroad use of 4wd along the sandy beaches is also having a great impact on the mortality rates of pipis in their native habitat (Schlacher et al, 2008).