05/05/2006 - Melbourne,
Australia – Australia has committed to creating
13 new Marine Protected Areas (MPAs), totalling
226,000km2 in Australia’s south-eastern waters.
The area covers waters off the Australian states
of Victoria, Tasmania, southern New South Wales
and eastern South Australia, paving the way for
the creation of a national network of MPAs throughout
Australia’s vast ocean territory.
While welcoming the announcement
of the MPAs, WWF expressed some concern that the
park system was still far from being comprehensive,
adequate or representative, and represent a major
concession to oil, gas and fishing interests.
“These new marine protected
areas are a significant contribution to the protection
of marine biodiversity in Australia, and certainly
impressive by world standards, but they fall short
of best practice in terms of marine science and
planning," said Dr Ray Nias, WWF-Australia's
conservation director.
This includes not adequately
addressing the very low level of protection of
the shallower coastal shelf, Bass Strait and the
Cascades where a significant amount of the region’s
biodiversity is likely to occur. Although welcoming
a provision that allows for upgrading protection
levels in many areas, WWF is disappointed that
zones closed to commercial fishing are not also
closed to recreational fishing.
Underwater, the south-east region
is a rich and complex seascape, complete with
canyons, deep sea trenches, underwater mountains
and plateaus. The area represents a significant
addition to the protection of temperate marine
biodiversity worldwide. However, it should be
noted that only around 10 per cent of the total
area will be fully protected from all extractive
uses.
"The MPAs are a good start
to building a safety net for marine biodiversity
in the south-east region, but there are some big
holes in the net," Dr Nias said. “Strong
and independent scientific advice is the best
safeguard for biodiversity in regional marine
planning."
With the clock ticking on Australia’s
commitments to build a national system of representative
marine protected networks by 2012, WWF hopes to
see an accelerated roll-out of more MPAs around
the rest of the country.
