Push to save threatened Antarctica, cetacean species, pristine waters.. Australia plans largest marine reserve in Coral Sea

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Antarctic Ocean Alliance: Call to save threatened, frozen world
The Antarctic Ocean Alliance, a newly formed organisation whose membership includes such environmental campaigners as Greenpeace and Mission Blue, has called for the establishment of the world's largest marine reserve network around Antarctica.

The alliance made the call yesterday in Hobart, directing its message at the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources, which is also meeting in Hobart later this week.

Alliance coordinator Steve Campbell said the proposed marine reserve would strengthen protections already granted to the world's coldest and most remote continent. "While still one of the most pristine environments left in the world, the ocean around Antarctica is fast attracting industrial fishing interests, particularly for long-lived toothfish and krill, which could have devastating impacts," he said.

The organisation presented a map outlining key areas it would like to see protected, including the Ross Sea, Antarctic Peninsula and Weddell Sea.

Push for vast Antarctic marine reserve, for the world's biggest marine protection zone to be declared around Antarctica, heralding the possibility of a global fight over its pristine waters
SYDNEY - Conservationists called Tuesday for the world's biggest marine protection zone to be declared around Antarctica, heralding the possibility of a global fight over its pristine waters.

As fishing stocks around the world become increasingly depleted, the Antarctic Ocean Alliance is urging the international convention tasked with managing the southern seas to establish a vast no-take network. "The problem at the moment is that as fisheries resources around the world come under more and more pressure, there are going to be more distant water-fishing nations who want to go to the oceans around Antarctica to extract protein," the alliance's Steve Campbell told AFP on Tuesday.

"And they are going to do it either legally or illegally."

While the land continent has been under protection since 1991, Campbell said there is no such rule in place for the pristine waters around it, which are teeming with marine life -- much of which is seen nowhere else on the planet.

The 25-nation Convention on the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources is set to decide on a network of marine reserves by 2012.

Campbell said the alliance was calling for the creation of a reserve network "on a scale that hasn't been done anywhere else on the planet before because of the enormous value of the Antarctic wilderness to science and to humanity".

The alliance's proposed protection zone, which would loop around the continent and include the Ross Sea, would help conserve close to 10,000 species including emperor penguins, minke and killer whales, seals and colossal squid.

"There's a lot of separate national interest, I think there's a lot of industry interest here, but I don't think we can single anyone out as being the bad guy," Campbell said. "I think we've got a long way to go in terms of the political play to make this thing happen," he added. "At the end of the day everybody is going to have to contribute to a visionary outcome."

Antartica is seen as a critical resource for studying climate change, with its ice cores providing valuable data on greenhouse gas levels and temperatures.

The alliance's membership includes WWF, Greenpeace and the Antarctic and Southern Ocean Coalition.

Australia to create world's largest marine reserve in the Coral Sea

The Australian government has announced plans to create the world's largest marine nature reserve covering an area the size of Britain and France combined. The proposed Coral Sea Commonwealth Marine Reserve will cover 989,842 square kilometres off the country's northeast coast which stretches from the Great Barrier Reef to Papua New Guinea in the north and the Solomon Islands in the east.

Recent research shows the area is home to dozens of endangered species and remains one of the last places on the planet thriving with large predatory fish such as sharks and tuna. Groups of uninhabited islands which provide nesting sites for green turtles and rare seabirds will also be covered by the ban.

A 90-day public consultation period will take place during which time the government hopes to in finalise the proposals. New regulations limiting fishing will be imposed and exploration for oil and gas will be prohibited completely.

However environment minister Tony Burke claims any new regulations will not affect recreational fishing as the reserve will start 37 miles from the coast. Only a limited amount of commercial fishing takes place in the area.

Mr Burke said: 'There is no other part of Australia's territory where so much comes together - pristine oceans, magnificent coral, a military history which has helped define us and now a clear proposal for permanent protection.

'The environmental significance of the Coral Sea lies in its diverse array of coral reefs, sandy cays, deep sea plains and canyons. It contains more than 20 outstanding examples of isolated tropical reefs, sandy cays and islands.

'Australia's vast oceans provide a source of food and resources and are a place of recreation. But we cannot afford to be complacent.'

The waters are also the resting place of three US navy ships sunk in the Battle of the Coral Sea in 1942.

However environmental groups point out that the restrictions do not go far enough.

Imogen Zethoven of the Pew Environment Group said: 'We welcome the exclusion of oil and gas extraction and the ban on fishing gear that destroys seafloor habitats. 'However, protection levels need to be stronger, particularly in vulnerable areas, to ensure the Coral Sea's long-term protection.'

..marine reserves in WA's north-west does not go far enough to protect cetacean species including humpback whales and snub-nosed dolphins, leaving them increasingly vulnerable to threats from the growing oil and gas industry

The Federal Government's proposed marine reserves in WA's north-west do not go far enough to protect cetacean species including humpback whales and snub-nosed dolphins, leaving them increasingly vulnerable to threats from the growing oil and gas industry, a new report claims.

The International Fund for Animal Welfare report, compiled by marine scientists, described the region's waters extending from Kalbarri up to the WA-NT border as the "last great whale haven" in Australia, which include the world's largest humpback whale population.

The report recorded 32 cetacean species as living in or migrating to the area, but just four - the snubfin dolphin, Indo-Pacific humpback and bottlenose dolphins and humpback whale - are recognised in the Federal Government's proposed bioregional plan.

With their highly refined acoustic senses, cetaceans are vulnerable to human-generated noise pollution from dredging, construction, explosions and seismic surveys and drilling, as well as fisheries, shipping and habitat degradation.

The Government's marine reserves offered little protection to the animals when "vast tracts" of ocean were being handed over to oil and gas companies for exploitation, the report said.

Areas of greatest risk identified by the report included the Exmouth Gulf, Ningaloo Reef, Barrow Island, Quondong Point and James Price Point, Browse Island, Scott Reef and Ashmore Reef.

Environs Kimberley spokesman Martin Pritchard said less than one per cent of the north-west marine area was protected.

"We are really concerned that the Federal Government will cave into the demands of the oil and gas industry rather than protect marine life up here," he said. "In their draft plan, they could have taken the opportunity to put in a reserve adjoining the proposed State Government North Kimberley marine park proposal - but they haven't."

There was only one highly protected area within the Kimberley Marine Reserve, placed specifically to protect the humpback whale calving grounds.

Kimberley whale expert Richard Costin said the report indicated that Commonwealth and State marine reserves systems showed a lack of coordination and did not actually provide any meaningful protection for cetaceans. "The classic example, of course, is the proposed Camden Sound marine park, which has only a very small sanctuary area set aside for the humpback whales," he said.

"That hasn't continued on into Commonwealth waters to probably the most important area that runs across to Adele Island through the outer shoals and down to Eco Beach. All the boundaries for the proposed marine parks have done is provide certainty for access to the oil and gas industry."

IFAW campaigns officer Matthew Collis said the north-west waters were globally environmentally significant with incredible diversity of whales and dolphins and needed stronger protection and more research to be carried out. "Of the proposed reserves, only three are highly protected and two are far offshore," Mr Collis said. "Even that highly protected area (in the Kimberley) doesn't cover all the areas in which the humpback whales breed and calve."

Environment Minister Bill Marmion said State Government was committed to expanding the marine parks system in WA, including the four proposed in Camden Sound, Eighty Mile Beach, Roebuck Bay and North Kimberley.

He said the State and Commonwealth Governments had agreed to work collaboratively in planning processes and provide complementary conservation measures across jurisdictional boundaries wherever possible. However, there was no overlap between marine park and reserve proposals in Commonwealth waters, and those in State waters, he said.

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Photos courtesy BBC NHU, Daily Mail, Australian Government, AFP / HO / File, Richard Ling / Wikimedia Commons, RT Sea Blog, and Canberra Times