- Huge Macquarie Island Marine Park's management arrangements should ensure protection for unique marine life in Australia's sub-Antarctic waters
- Marine sanctuaries across the rest of the South-east marine region to be more than doubled, including some new protection in high value conservation areas
- However protected area to be opened to new commercial fishing
- Australian Govt proposes banning all new oil and gas development, including seismic blasting, from Commonwealth marine parks in South-east network
The Albanese government will expand fully protected marine sanctuaries under the draft management plan for the South-east Marine Parks Network, although some areas will be opened to commercial fishing, the Australian Marine Conservation Society said today after Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek made an announcement ahead of releasing the plans on Friday.
In a welcome move, the draft plan more than doubles the area of marine sanctuaries to 73,000 square kilometres of Australia's south-eastern continental waters, including areas of the biologically productive continental shelf and slopes which encompass the Great Southern Reef.
But concerningly, the government plans to open protected waters to new commercial fishing.
The South-east marine region covers the oceans beyond state coastal waters to the edge of Australia's exclusive economic zone 370 kilometres offshore - stretching from the NSW far south coast through Bass Strait to Kangaroo Island and around Tasmania. It also includes the Macquarie Island Marine Park, halfway between Tasmania and Antarctica, which was added to the network in 2013 and will be greatly expanded to the size of Germany under the new plan, with sanctuaries accounting for 93% of the marine park.
AMCS Protected Areas Manager Adele Pedder said: "By all indications, the draft management plan will improve protection for marine life in Australia's South-east Marine Parks network, especially for the Macquarie Island Marine Park, which will give sub-Antarctic life the best possible chance to survive and thrive into the future.
"Australia's south-east continental waters contain some of the richest, most diverse life on the planet, but they are under the most pressure. Three great oceans - the Pacific, Indian and Southern oceans - combine to create an upwelling of deep, nutrient-rich water that turbocharges marine life in the region. It's home to blue whales, southern right whales, orcas, little penguins, dolphins, fur seals, leatherback sea turtles, southern bluefin tuna, fragile kelp forests and deep sea reefs.
"The vast majority of marine life in Australia's south-eastern waters are found nowhere else on Earth. About 85% of fish, 95% of molluscs, 90% of echinoderms and 65% of seaweeds there are endemic to Australian waters. If we lose them here, they're gone from the planet forever.
"The announcement includes new marine sanctuaries on the biologically productive continental shelf and slopes, which have been poorly protected since the marine park's inception with just 0.4% of the shelf and 1% of upper slope of the south-east marine region currently protected.
"In a worrying precedent, the government plans to downgrade protection for commercial fishing. With our oceans' health in serious decline, this is a time when we desperately need to be expanding marine sanctuaries, not rolling them back.
"The south-east is Australia's most exploited marine region, with most still falling outside the marine park network and exposed to impacts from oil and gas exploration and drilling, seismic blasting, industrial fishing and waters that are warming three to four times faster than the global average.
"This year the region has suffered three spills from the offshore oil and gas industry, while a huge foreign trawler has dragged nets over ancient corals fishing for endangered orange roughy. To top things off, early forecasts predict another major marine heatwave will scorch the oceans off Tasmania's east coast this summer.
"The draft plan for the first time closes all Commonwealth marine parks in the south-east to new offshore oil and exploration and drilling, including seismic blasting, fish farms and seabed mining - welcome progress that should be considered for other Commonwealth marine parks.
"We urge the Albanese government to release the full plan details, to reconsider the downgrade and finalise its draft protection increases for the South-east marine region, including Macquarie Island. Expanding marine sanctuaries is essential to safeguarding ocean ecosystems and marine life, including stocks of commercially and recreationally important fish species, through a period of great change."
The federal government has opened a short 35-day public consultation over its draft plans that closes 15 November 2024.
