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https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2026/aug/24/australias-marine-parks-protect-places-no-one-goes-rather-than-fragile-coastal-zones-scientists-say>
"The Australian government has been accused of leaving waters near the mainland
largely unprotected by establishing the bulk of highly protected marine parks
in remote areas.
More than 270 leading marine scientists from 84 research institutes have
written to the environment minister, Murray Watt, urging stronger protections
for marine ecosystems, as a once-in-a-decade review of marine parks gets under
way.
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. But they also face
compounding pressures due to climate-driven ocean warming, fishing and
extractive industries, and expanding use.
Prof Jessica Meeuwig, director of the Marine Futures Lab at the University of
Western Australia and an author of the statement sent to Watt, 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.”
About a quarter of Australian waters are currently highly protected. But these
“no take zones” were concentrated in remote offshore and territorial waters,
with minimal coverage in the waters surrounding mainland Australia, the
statement said.
It called 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. The scientists said no current protections should be wound back.
“In some of our regions, there’s only 1% to 7% of the oceans that are highly
protected, and the rest is open slather,” Meeuwig said. These included marine
regions off New South Wales, south-east Queensland, Western Australia, western
South Australia and the Northern Territory."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
