World Class Marine Environment one step closer to Protection

The Wilderness Society Inc
Media Release
22 September 2009

Leading conservation groups today welcomed the release of potential areas for marine protection in Australia’s northern oceans by the Commonwealth Government. The area under consideration extends from the Western Australian/Northern Territory border eastwards to Cape York in Queensland. This area is home to threatened and endangered wildlife including 6 of the 7 species of marine turtles and 3 species of sawfish. 

Prue Barnard from the Australian Marine Conservation Society said, ‘Today’s initiative brings us one step closer to a network of marine protected areas across Northern Australia. The release of these areas has been a long time coming. The potential must now be converted into secure protection for our precious ocean wildlife.’

Felicity Wishart, Marine Coordinator for the Wilderness Society said, ‘Today, the Australian Government is closer to achieving their 2012 international commitment to create a network of marine reserves around Australia.’

Stuart Blanch, Director of Environment Centre of Northern Territory said ‘Northern Australia’s waters are globally significant as they are the last relatively healthy tropical marine habitats left in the world¹ yet less than 1% is protected. 99% remain at risk from oil spill and over fishing.

It will be important that these potential areas form the basis of a network of large marine sanctuaries which are highly protected to ensure Australia’s superlative marine life is buffered from the negative impacts of industrial development.’

The Australian Marine Conservation Society, Environment Centre NT, Queensland Conservation Council, The Wilderness Society Inc and WWF Australia commend the Commonwealth on the scale of areas identified for further assessment and call on the Rudd Government to move ahead with its marine bioregional planning process and establish a network of large marine sanctuaries in the precious marine environment to Australia’s north through its marine bioregional planning process.

1  Halpern. B Et Al, A Global Map of Human Impact on Marine Ecosystems, Science, v 319, p946