Lucky_Phill
28-01-2012, 09:39 AM
Fish Facts April 2012 – Australia to have 70% of the worlds Marine Parks
Most keen recreational fishers will have by now heard about the unprecedented expansion of marine parks throughout Australia’s state and federal waters over the past several years. However information that puts Australia’s marine parks program into perspective is scarce. This month we will have a brief look at the facts and figures surrounding Australia’s Marine Bioregional Planning Process, which is being implemented by the Federal Governments (deep breath) Department of Sustainability, Environment, Water, Population and Communities.
The marine parks program is being undertaken in part to fulfil international agreements to which Australia is a signatory, which aim “to achieve placement of at least 10% of coastal and marine areas into marine protected areas by 2020”.
For the purposes of the planning process, Australia’s marine waters have been divided into 6 bioregions, namely the South East, South West, North West, North, Coral Sea and Temperate east regions. Before the 2007 election, the bioregional planning process had just finished with rezoning of the South East region, which resulted in establishment of one of the worlds largest marine parks (338,000 square km) in the waters surrounding Tasmania, Victoria , Southern NSW and the Antarctic territories (Table 1).
The planning process for the South East caused barely a ripple amongst stakeholders in the region, and the outcomes of the marine park zoning for that area were generally well accepted.
Since the 2007 election, however, the bioregional planning process really kicked into gear, but it has taken until early 2012 for fishing stakeholders around the country to have the opportunity to see what has been planned for marine parks in their regions.
The summary statistics are contained in Table 1, where it is evident that a 700% increase in marine parks area has been planned, taking up nearly 2.4 million square km or 34% of Australia’s Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ). Of this area, up to 53% of the various bioregions is being proposed to be closed to all fishing (overall average 41.69%), which equates to a staggering 16% of the entire EEZ. This means that the Australian Government plans to exceed the international marine park targets by around 339%, around 8 years ahead of schedule.
To place this into perspective, most other countries have far smaller % of their EEZs set aside in marine protected areas (MPAs) (Table 2), except for the USA who have 40% of their territorial waters in MPAs (but with the vast majority of this area being mostly in remote regions in the Pacific Islands). However, when you look at how much of the EEZ is closed to all fishing, the USA is similar to other countries at around 3% closures, so Australia is planning to have over 500% more areas closed to fishing than any other country. One final statistic is also worth noting.
In 2011 the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) calculated the entire area of the global MPAs was around 2.2 million square km, and that Australia had over 38% (840,000 square km) of this area. This was before the planned addition of 19 large marine parks in state waters in South Australia last year, not to mention the federal bioregional planning process mentioned above,.
Now ignoring the new parks in state waters for a moment, the planned additional 2,398,216 km2 of marine parks in Federal waters during the bioregional planning process are greater in area than the entire worlds MPA area as of 2010.
And if the government runs to plan, by the end of 2012, we will have 840,000 + 2,396,216 = approx 3,236,216 km2 of MPAs in Australia (both state and federal marine parks). Assuming that no other big parks are declared around the world this year (there is 8 years to go to meet the international deadline, so whats the rush ?), the world total will be
2,200,000 km2 + 2,396,216 km2 (the new parks from Australia) = 4,596,216 km2
SO, by end of 2012, it is entirely possible then that if other countries delay implementation of new parks until closer to 2020, Australia will have (3,236,216/4,596,216)*100 = 70.4% of the entire worlds marine park area........
I think the figures speak for themselves.
The above information provided by Sunfish. Qld.
LP
Most keen recreational fishers will have by now heard about the unprecedented expansion of marine parks throughout Australia’s state and federal waters over the past several years. However information that puts Australia’s marine parks program into perspective is scarce. This month we will have a brief look at the facts and figures surrounding Australia’s Marine Bioregional Planning Process, which is being implemented by the Federal Governments (deep breath) Department of Sustainability, Environment, Water, Population and Communities.
The marine parks program is being undertaken in part to fulfil international agreements to which Australia is a signatory, which aim “to achieve placement of at least 10% of coastal and marine areas into marine protected areas by 2020”.
For the purposes of the planning process, Australia’s marine waters have been divided into 6 bioregions, namely the South East, South West, North West, North, Coral Sea and Temperate east regions. Before the 2007 election, the bioregional planning process had just finished with rezoning of the South East region, which resulted in establishment of one of the worlds largest marine parks (338,000 square km) in the waters surrounding Tasmania, Victoria , Southern NSW and the Antarctic territories (Table 1).
The planning process for the South East caused barely a ripple amongst stakeholders in the region, and the outcomes of the marine park zoning for that area were generally well accepted.
Since the 2007 election, however, the bioregional planning process really kicked into gear, but it has taken until early 2012 for fishing stakeholders around the country to have the opportunity to see what has been planned for marine parks in their regions.
The summary statistics are contained in Table 1, where it is evident that a 700% increase in marine parks area has been planned, taking up nearly 2.4 million square km or 34% of Australia’s Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ). Of this area, up to 53% of the various bioregions is being proposed to be closed to all fishing (overall average 41.69%), which equates to a staggering 16% of the entire EEZ. This means that the Australian Government plans to exceed the international marine park targets by around 339%, around 8 years ahead of schedule.
To place this into perspective, most other countries have far smaller % of their EEZs set aside in marine protected areas (MPAs) (Table 2), except for the USA who have 40% of their territorial waters in MPAs (but with the vast majority of this area being mostly in remote regions in the Pacific Islands). However, when you look at how much of the EEZ is closed to all fishing, the USA is similar to other countries at around 3% closures, so Australia is planning to have over 500% more areas closed to fishing than any other country. One final statistic is also worth noting.
In 2011 the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) calculated the entire area of the global MPAs was around 2.2 million square km, and that Australia had over 38% (840,000 square km) of this area. This was before the planned addition of 19 large marine parks in state waters in South Australia last year, not to mention the federal bioregional planning process mentioned above,.
Now ignoring the new parks in state waters for a moment, the planned additional 2,398,216 km2 of marine parks in Federal waters during the bioregional planning process are greater in area than the entire worlds MPA area as of 2010.
And if the government runs to plan, by the end of 2012, we will have 840,000 + 2,396,216 = approx 3,236,216 km2 of MPAs in Australia (both state and federal marine parks). Assuming that no other big parks are declared around the world this year (there is 8 years to go to meet the international deadline, so whats the rush ?), the world total will be
2,200,000 km2 + 2,396,216 km2 (the new parks from Australia) = 4,596,216 km2
SO, by end of 2012, it is entirely possible then that if other countries delay implementation of new parks until closer to 2020, Australia will have (3,236,216/4,596,216)*100 = 70.4% of the entire worlds marine park area........
I think the figures speak for themselves.
The above information provided by Sunfish. Qld.
LP