Australia's Marine Bioregional Planning Areas

The Coral Sea extends east from the Queensland coast, it includes the Great Barrier Reef before continuing out past where the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park ends and the continental shelf (a shallow platform extending from the Australian coast to the 20mm depth contour) drops away to deep ocean.  Out here in the ocean, remains a great ocean wilderness of over 1 million square kilometers of ocean.  Amongst this ocean are a series of spectacular reefs and islands which rise up from oceans over a 1000m deep.  These reefs were formed by underwater mountains on the Queensland Plateau.

“The Coral Sea is a rare example of a marine environment that is thriving. Bountiful fish populations including grey and white tip reef sharks, hammerheads, manta rays, tuna, barracuda, turtles, whales and rare sea creatures such as the nautilus inhabit the waters, alongside an incredibly diverse range of corals.”

The area of the Coral Sea beyond the Great Barrier Reef has largely been protected by its remoteness in the past, however as fishing stocks are reduced in other areas, fisherman will travel further to achieve their quotas.  This includes illegal fisherman which may use more destructive fishing practices.  Current figures indicate that in the last 50 years 90% of the ocean’s fish stocks have been removed.  As we learn more about our oceans we understand that many big ocean fish species move across large areas of ocean, and a single large marine park will help ensure that the scale of management appropriately matches the biological scale of important ecosystem processes such as dispersal and migration.  This can enhance the viability of fishing in the future.

Marine Bioregional Planning Process for All Australia’s Commonwealth Waters:

Australia’s marine bioregional planning program is designed to provide a clearer focus on the protection, conservation and sustainable use of Australia’s marine environment.  The underlying principle is ecologically sustainable development.  It is important to note that it focuses only on Australia’s ‘Commonwelath Waters’. These are the waters which exist outside a state or territories ‘waters’ (typically commonwealth waters start 3 nautical miles from the coast) which means waters directly adjacent to land remains the responsibility of individual states and territories and are not included in this process.

The Coral Sea falls withing the East Marine Bioregional Planning Region.

The planning program is designed to look at the region from an ecosystem level rather than individual habitats or species but instead, consider the ‘bigger picture’ in how these work together, their role in the marine environment and  relationships with human activities.  The larger purpose is to ensure these ecosystems ‘function effectively’.

“Marine Bioregional Plans are being developed under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (national environment law) and will fulfill the Australian Government’s commitment to establishing a National Representative System of Marine Protected Areas as agreed by all Australian governments in 1998.

There are two major parts to the marine bioregional planning process: the identification of regional conservation priorities and the identification of marine reserves to be included in Australia’s National Representative System of Marine Protected Areas.”

Conservation priorities are identified within each planning area according by analysis of current conservation threats.  Australia’s National Representative System of Marine Protected Areas (NRSMPA), aims to protect representative examples of the biodiversity and ecosystems in the various marine regions of Australia

Conservation groups supporting the proposal:

PEW environment group – Australia, Project Aware Foundation, Australian Conservation Foundation, Australian Marine Conservation Society, Queensland Conservation Council and Cairns and Far North Environment Centre (CAFNEC)

Eating ‘Tuna-friendly’ tuna will ensure we can continue to eat tuna into the future.  Choosing the right tuna brand means choosing a brand which favours (or uses entirely) the sustainable tuna species of ‘skipjack’.  In addition they will favour less destructive fishing practices with lower by-catch rates.

‘Dolphin-friendly’ canned tuna you buy at the supermarket may be caught:

• from overfished stocks
• from illegal fishing vessels or companies
• using methods which result in a high level of by-catch (such as dolphins, turtles, seabirds, sharks, sea snakes and more).

Greenpeace has made it simple to make a decision when contemplating a supermarket aisle full of choices thanks to their ‘Canned Tuna Guide’.  Of the four types of tuna fished throughout the World’s oceans three are currently overfished or still being overfished.  Greenpeace’s guide is ranked according to a company’s choice to use the sustainably fishable ‘skipjack’ species of tuna (over the three other overfished species) and also fishing practices in use by their suppliers (to avoid excessive by-catch).

Why is this important?  Because as populations increase, and tuna continues to be the highest selling seafood item in Australia, we need to be smarter about our choices as consumers if we want to continue to eat tuna.

A guide to sustainable canned tuna

Supermarkets and Sustainable Tuna from our Oceans

Brands were scored with the international Greenpeace tuna ranking system:

• > 70% Good. An acceptable sustainable an equitable tuna procurement policy has been obtained. Maintaining and improving these standards is essential.

• 40 – 70% Must improve. Initial measures have been taken to obtain a sustainable and equitable tuna procurement policy. More concrete steps are needed to reach an acceptable standard.

< 40% Very poor. Urgent action is required to improve tuna procurement.

Go to www.greenpeace.org.au/tuna for a complete explanation of the ranking of each canned tuna brand.

For more information on canned tuna in Australia please read the guide ‘Out of Stock, Out of Excuses’ by Greenpeace (click on image to the left to download pdf) more information can also be found at:

More Information on the State of Tuna Stocks:

The International Seafood Sustainability Foundation (a global, non-profit partnership between the tuna industry, scientists, and the World Wide Fund for Nature), Indian Ocean yellowfin tuna, Pacific Ocean (eastern & western) bigeye tuna, and North Atlantic albacore tuna are all overfished. In April 2009 no stock of skipjack tuna (which makes up roughly 60 percent of all tuna fished worldwide) was considered to be overfished.

The following images are taken from the International Seafood Sustainability Foundation they help demonstrate the state of Tuna stocks in different areas of the World’s oceans.  Australia is located in the Western Pacific region.

This is completely legal in Australia.  While shark fishing specifically for fins (i.e. dumping the shark carcass back into the sea) is now illegal in Australia, it is still legal for sharks to be fished and then the shark fins and meat sold and unfortunately the fishery is not sustainable.

Christian Miller from Shirts4Sharks took this photo just this week at a Cairns supermarket.

Taking the pressure off sharks by ending shark fin exports from Australia will enable Australian shark populations to recover and ensure they continue their role in stabilising the marine ecosystem.

Black tip reef shark fillets on sale in Coles, Australia

To help, you can:

• refuse to buy shark meat
• raise awareness, spread this information.  Use Facebook, Twitter, talk to you friends.

More information about Shark Fishing in Australia:

Sharks are extremely vulnerable to fishing impacts. Recent research found that almost one third (32%) of open ocean sharks and rays are threatened with extinction, primarily due to overfishing. Sharks are slow growing and late to mature making them particularly susceptible to and slow to recover from overfishing. Fisheries scientists agree – they are yet to identify a single shark fishery that is sustainable. Put simply, sharks are being caught and killed faster than they can reproduce.

It is still legal to fish in the Great Barrier Reef World Heritage area.  During 2008-09, the Australian Marine Conservation Society worked with the Queensland Department of Primary Industries and Fisheries to find ways to reduce, and eventually stop shark fishing in the Great Barrier Reef World Heritage by the Queensland East Coast Inshore Finfish Fishery.   In recent years the Inshore Finfish Fishery killed between 900t and 1400t of shark per year (between 112,000 and 175,000 individual sharks in total).

In  2008 Federal Environment Minister, Hon Peter Garrett, MP,  committed to establish an independent review panel to review the sustainability of this fishery.  In March 2009, the outcomes of this review were made public. In brief, the review recommended that the Queensland government, in the short term, reduce shark fishing by one third, or 300t, and reform the Inshore Finfish Fishery into a more modern and sustainable fishery. While this makes significant progress for our World Heritage Sharks, there is still much more to be done to protect our precious sharks on the Great Barrier Reef and elsewhere around our coastline. (source: AMCS)

It is election time in Australia, and this is Australians chance to have a say about the future decisions our elected government will make.  At no other time are politicians listening more to what Australians have to say about what is important to them.  There are many things that are important to me, the future of our oceans being one of them.  So I wondered… who is going to do what to address the issues currently facing Australia’s waters, including:

• coastal development
• coastal and marine pollution
• unsustainable fishing
• loss of habitat
• climate change

In the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority’s ‘Great Barrier Reef Outlook Report 2009‘ here is what they summed up as being the biggest threats to the reef:

“Based on the outcomes of the risk assessment (figure 8.1), the greatest threats to the Great Barrier Reef ecosystem are:

• Climate change: increasing sea temperature, ocean acidification and rising sea level
• Catchment runoff: nutrients, pesticides (including herbicides) and sediments entering the Great Barrier Reef
• Coastal development: clearing or modifying wetlands, mangroves and other coastal habitats and ingestion of or entanglement in marine debris causing death in species of conservation concern.
• Direct use – extractive: extraction of top predators by fishing (e.g. sharks), incidental catch during fishing of species of conservation concern, illegal fishing or collecting (foreign or domestic), death of discarded species during fishing or collecting, fishing in unprotected fish spawning aggregations and poaching (illegal hunting) of species of conservation concern.

The threats associated with direct use of the Great Barrier Reef Region that do not involve extraction of its resources are generally of lower risk to the ecosystem.”

The plight of sharks and the collapse of fisheries is now an issue that is becoming much more widely known and accepted.  Environmental groups such as the Australian Marine Conservation Society are doing a fantastic job of generating awareness through their campaigns.

Now, in an election year, it is time for every Australian to have their say.  So who is promising to do what for our country’s environmental and marine health?

On the 27th of July the Coalition announced “The Coalition’s Plan For Real Action on Marine Protected Areas‘.  The sad thing about this document is that their first step in this action plan is to “immediately put on hold the Marine Bioregional Planning process to allow for its restructure”.  So their first step is to immediately stop all the work that is currently being done to establish marine parks.  The general gist of the document is entirely built around stopping current plans for marine protection areas, and moving forward with new plans only after proper consultation with fisherman.  There are a couple of things I find interesting about this, firstly the action = stop contradiction and secondly they don’t say ‘interested stakeholders’,  they say ‘fisherman’.  Sorry tourism operators and others who use these marine areas.

The Australian Conservation Foundation has examined the election policies of the major policies and produced a scorecard which shows how well they perform for environmental issues.

What is shows, is what I think many Australians feel…let down on environmental issues by the major Australian political parties.  The ACF also released a statement on the Coalition’s new marine policy:

ony Abbott’s announcement that a Liberal Government would suspend the marine bioregional planning process, initiated by the Howard Government, is economically and environmentally irresponsible, the Australian Conservation Foundation said.

“Mr Abbott’s proposal threatens the environment and the economy of whole communities right along the Barrier Reef coastline,” said ACF Executive Director Don Henry.

“The Great Barrier Reef contributes more than $5 billion annually to the Australian economy and supports 60,000 jobs (Access Economics, 2005).

“At a time when the Gulf of Mexico oil spill disaster has given us all a stark reminder about the dangers of unprotected marine environments, it is economically and environmentally irresponsible to be promoting a ‘drill baby drill’ approach.

“Marine protected areas are vital to recovering marine life and improving the health diversity and abundance of marine life in our oceans.

“All the Australian waters off-shore from the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park are currently unprotected and could be open to oil exploration.

“The Howard Government recognised this, responding to international marine protection targets and the growing evidence that marine protected areas are urgently needed and that they work.

“I urge the Coalition to reconsider and reverse this announcement which would hurt our oceans and the communities up and down the coast that depend upon them.”

Save our Seas Ocean Racing is the brainchild of Ian Thomson. Their mission is “to make the every day Australian think before they use plastic bags, to reduce the usage if they can, if they can’t, to reuse and eventually recycle them”. Plastic has become such an integral part of every day life that many people do not think twice when reaching for the Glad Wrap, freezer bags, bin liners, bottles of water or shopping bag. But they need to!

To raise awareness of the damage plastic bags cause to our environment, in May/June 2010 Ian Thomson set out to break the world record for the fastest solo circumnavigation of Australia. He achieved this goal by smashing in excess of 26 days off the record. Focus has now turned to Airlie Beach Race Week followed by Pittwater to Coffs and Coffs to Paradise. Early in 2011 Ian will upgrade the boat to a bigger boat (Brindabella) and compete in the Brisbane to Gladstone and then in May 2011 he will set out with a full crew to attempt to break the record for the fastest monohull circumnavigation of Australia.

If all this doesn’t sound enough to exhaust the average person he is also currently writing a book ‘Dare to Dream’ and has planned and extensive tour of Australia to talk about his experiences and raise awareness for marine conservation.

Some quick stats:

Some quick solutions:

• Cut back or don’t buy bottled water
• Don’t purchase manufactured plastic bags:
  • for bin liners use recycled shopping bags
  • utilise re-usable containers instead of freezer bags
• Avoid excess packaging such as:
  • Vegetables packaged with foam trays and gladwrap
  • Individually wrapped and bagged items
  • Avoid plastic forks, plates, etc. for take away, choose outlets which have re-usable utensils and dishes
• Make the most of re-usable containers instead of Glad Wrap or clingfilm.
• Take your own bag when going shopping (calico bags pack down small, are light, strong and made of natural fibres)

For more information on marine debris and the devastating effect of plastic in our oceans click on the links below.

- http://www.reefed.edu.au/home/explorer/hot_topics/marine_debris

- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marine_debris

- The Great Pacific Garbage Patch

Taking Action

- Make the pledge: http://myplastiki.com/takeaction.php

- Spread the word: share this information through facebook, twitter, etc.

- Bring your friends to one of Ian Thomsons talks

- Start taking steps in your life, to cut down use

Action I Am Taking:

- Raising awareness…the more people that read this the more people will understand the issue around our everyday plastic use…and more importantly, where that plastic ends up.

- In 2010/2011 I am embarking on a photographic essay of marine debris, including ghost nets and their tragic effects in some of the most remote (and what should be pristine) areas of our ocean.

- Steps I take in everyday life include: do not purchase bottled water or plastic bags; dispose of plastic responsibly; pick up litter; utilise re-usable containers instead of clingfilm; boycott products which use excessive packaging.