More than 270 leading marine scientists from 84 research institutes have written to Australia's environment minister, Murray Watt, urging stronger protections for marine ecosystems, as a once-in-a-decade review of marine parks gets under way. The scientists argue that the current network of highly protected marine parks is biased towards remote offshore waters, leaving coastal areas largely unprotected.
In a statement sent to Watt, the experts highlight that while about a quarter of Australian waters are currently highly protected, these “no take zones” are concentrated in remote offshore and territorial waters, with minimal coverage in the waters surrounding mainland Australia. The statement calls for “at least 30%” of every marine bioregion to be highly protected, with bans on industrial trawling, long lining, and mining across all marine parks.
Unique species at risk
Prof Jessica Meeuwig, director of the Marine Futures Lab at the University of Western Australia and an author of the statement, said many species found in Australian waters existed nowhere else on the planet. “If we don’t protect them here, it’s not like we can expect somebody else to do the job, they’re lost for ever.”
The oceans and seas surrounding Australia and its territories are globally remarkable, with tropical reefs to icy Antarctic shores, six Unesco world heritage areas, and at least 33,000 marine species. However, they face compounding pressures due to climate-driven ocean warming, fishing and extractive industries, and expanding use.
Meeuwig noted that in some regions, only 1 to 7% of the oceans are highly protected, with the rest open to exploitation. These include marine regions off New South Wales, south-east Queensland, Western Australia, western South Australia, and the Northern Territory.
Coastal regions underprotected
Prof David Booth, a marine ecologist at the University of Technology Sydney, said the temperate east region – one of five regions up for review – was “incredibly biodiverse”. “For instance, around Sydney, we’ve got six to seven hundred species of fish, which is way more than we should have based on our latitude, and a mix of tropical and temperate species,” he said.
The region, which stretches from the Great Barrier Reef’s southern border to Bermagui on the south coast of NSW, features the East Australian Current and underwater seamounts and canyons. It is also a “hot spot” for climate-driven changes, with temperate fish species – including many that people like to eat – moving south, and added pressure from urbanisation, industry, and fishing. “It’s an area of rapid change, with very little protection at the moment,” Booth said.
Associate professor Carissa Klein, director of the Centre for Biodiversity and Conservation Science at the University of Queensland, said the current locations of highly protected areas were “biased towards places that no one goes”. “We’re not actually protecting the diversity of life that we have in the ocean,” she said. “Every bioregion is unique and distinct, and has different animals and plants. We want them to get to 30% of every one.”
Government response and opportunities
Watt said the government was “well on the way to meeting the Albanese government’s commitment to highly protect 30% of Australia’s ocean by 2030”, and the proposed expansion of marine parks around Lord Howe and Norfolk islands would achieve the target ahead of time. The marine parks review would provide “further opportunities to better protect key ocean habitats”, he said, “while allowing for sustainable use and conservation”.
The scientists said no current protections should be wound back. Meeuwig argued that a representative network of protected areas would benefit fishers, boost tourism, and help the environment. For example, 80% of the coral trout caught in areas open to fishing on the Great Barrier Reef were born in highly protected areas.
The review is a “tremendous opportunity”, Meeuwig said. “When Australia leads, it keeps the bar high. When we set the bar low, it gives permission to everybody else to do a bad job. If Australia flounders at this opportunity, it will have ramifications across other places.”
