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84
Marine Pollution Bulletin
Australian Marine Park Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority--Annual Report 1983/84. Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority, Townsville, 1984. 103pp ISSN 01558072 In the 9 years since the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park (GBRMP) Act was passed the area declared under this legislation has grown to cover 344 000 km2; a massive 305 000 km 2 being added in 1983/84 by the declaration of five new sections. The Marine Park has now reached its planned final size and encompasses 98.5% of the Great Barrier Reef Region. This vast area is somewhat larger than the whole of Britain and Ireland plus their territorial seas and represents a respectable 4.5% of the Australia land mass. Unlike Britain's Marine Nature Reserve (MNR) establishment procedure which requires that the proposed zoning and management controls are ready at the time of declaration, the zoning and management regulations for the GBRMP are finalized following the declaration of the individual sections. Even so, the zoning plans for the Cairns and Cormorant Pass sections came into operation during the year--a fourfold increase in the whole zoned area of the Reef. This rate of progress is all the more remarkable when one considers that before a zoning plan is passed there are several phases of negotiation with the users of each section including the general public. From the outset their participation is sought by inviting contributions on uses and characteristics of the section being considered including any concerns, recommendations for management and particular interests. A draft zoning plan is then prepared using this information on which comments are invited in a second phase of consultation, The plan is then revised and submitted to Parliament for approval. This procedure has similarities to the approach in Great Britain known as the 'voluntary principle' which recognizes that the objectives of nature conservation are best achieved through the community's understanding and acceptance of the need for controls on certain potentially damaging or conflicting activities. In Britain the 'voluntary' refers not to conservation without statutory controls but to the need to persuade, rather than compel, other authorities to use their byelaws to enforce controls for protecting particular marine sites. However, in Australia it appears that the GBRMP Authority is greatly assisted by regulations which provide over-riding powers for controls on potentially conflicting activities, including fishing, through a permit system. One specific regulation prohibits the drilling for oil anywhere in the Reef area including the small section not in the Park. Nevertheless, in his introduction, the Chairman of the Authority emphasizes that they are under no illusion that everyone will voluntarily agree to abide by the provisions
500
of zoning plans and regulations. However, an important element of management is the commitment of other Government Agencies, such as the Boat and Fishery Patrol and the Water Police, to agree to be licensed inspectors under the Act. We hope to instigate a similar arrangement in Britain. While previous zoning plans have adopted the 'matrix conservation' strategy whereby relatively small areas of protective zoning are distributed throughout the area, a different approach is being used in the Far Northern Section. Here, because of the pristine nature of the reef ecosystem and the relatively low level of use, the opportunity has been taken to protect a whole block in a transect from coast to shelf edge. Once the GBRMPA has established a section and planned the management and research programmes, the day-to-dayjob of implementing these falls to the Queensland Government Agencies, particularly the National Parks and Wildlife Service. Costs are shared between Commonwealth and State and, out of a total budget approaching SSM, day-to-day management takes about S1M and eighty-one research projects in progress total S0.40M. As Australia forges ahead with completing the management plans for this massive Marine Park, Britain still has to establish even one tiny MNR. However, there is a major difference between a Park and a Nature Reserve in that the Park concept places more emphasis on the diverse uses of the area. In practice, the establishment of a MNR will be similar to declaring two zone types used in the management of the GBRMP--a conservation and a research area. Only those uses that are judged not to seriously interfere with these objectives will be tolerated. The necessary strict application of conservation principles is not likely to be so acceptable as a Park which is planned to accommodate a wide range of reasonable uses. Although it is really only a matter of presentation and interpretation, maybe we should take a leaf out of the Australian statute and consider extending our National Parks into the sea as buffers to our intended MNRs. Despite the constraints and difficulties of our MNR legislation, the Devon Sea Fisheries Committee has now agreed to bring in byelaws to control certain types offishing within the proposed Lundy Marine Nature Reserve. Although Lundy can hardly be compared with the greatest coral reef in the world, it is an exceptionally interesting site and does possess some spectacular and rare temperate corals. It would be a worthy first British MNR among, hopefully, many sites to follow. Meanwhile Australia plans to complete the zoning of the entire Park by 1988 which, to judge by current progress, should be easily achieved. ROGER MITCHELL
Australian Marine Park Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority--Annual Report 1983/84. Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority, Townsville, 1984. 103pp ISSN 01558072 In the 9 years since the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park (GBRMP) Act was passed the area declared under this legislation has grown to cover 344 000 km2; a massive 305 000 km 2 being added in 1983/84 by the declaration of five new sections. The Marine Park has now reached its planned final size and encompasses 98.5% of the Great Barrier Reef Region. This vast area is somewhat larger than the whole of Britain and Ireland plus their territorial seas and represents a respectable 4.5% of the Australia land mass. Unlike Britain's Marine Nature Reserve (MNR) establishment procedure which requires that the proposed zoning and management controls are ready at the time of declaration, the zoning and management regulations for the GBRMP are finalized following the declaration of the individual sections. Even so, the zoning plans for the Cairns and Cormorant Pass sections came into operation during the year--a fourfold increase in the whole zoned area of the Reef. This rate of progress is all the more remarkable when one considers that before a zoning plan is passed there are several phases of negotiation with the users of each section including the general public. From the outset their participation is sought by inviting contributions on uses and characteristics of the section being considered including any concerns, recommendations for management and particular interests. A draft zoning plan is then prepared using this information on which comments are invited in a second phase of consultation, The plan is then revised and submitted to Parliament for approval. This procedure has similarities to the approach in Great Britain known as the 'voluntary principle' which recognizes that the objectives of nature conservation are best achieved through the community's understanding and acceptance of the need for controls on certain potentially damaging or conflicting activities. In Britain the 'voluntary' refers not to conservation without statutory controls but to the need to persuade, rather than compel, other authorities to use their byelaws to enforce controls for protecting particular marine sites. However, in Australia it appears that the GBRMP Authority is greatly assisted by regulations which provide over-riding powers for controls on potentially conflicting activities, including fishing, through a permit system. One specific regulation prohibits the drilling for oil anywhere in the Reef area including the small section not in the Park. Nevertheless, in his introduction, the Chairman of the Authority emphasizes that they are under no illusion that everyone will voluntarily agree to abide by the provisions
500
of zoning plans and regulations. However, an important element of management is the commitment of other Government Agencies, such as the Boat and Fishery Patrol and the Water Police, to agree to be licensed inspectors under the Act. We hope to instigate a similar arrangement in Britain. While previous zoning plans have adopted the 'matrix conservation' strategy whereby relatively small areas of protective zoning are distributed throughout the area, a different approach is being used in the Far Northern Section. Here, because of the pristine nature of the reef ecosystem and the relatively low level of use, the opportunity has been taken to protect a whole block in a transect from coast to shelf edge. Once the GBRMPA has established a section and planned the management and research programmes, the day-to-dayjob of implementing these falls to the Queensland Government Agencies, particularly the National Parks and Wildlife Service. Costs are shared between Commonwealth and State and, out of a total budget approaching SSM, day-to-day management takes about S1M and eighty-one research projects in progress total S0.40M. As Australia forges ahead with completing the management plans for this massive Marine Park, Britain still has to establish even one tiny MNR. However, there is a major difference between a Park and a Nature Reserve in that the Park concept places more emphasis on the diverse uses of the area. In practice, the establishment of a MNR will be similar to declaring two zone types used in the management of the GBRMP--a conservation and a research area. Only those uses that are judged not to seriously interfere with these objectives will be tolerated. The necessary strict application of conservation principles is not likely to be so acceptable as a Park which is planned to accommodate a wide range of reasonable uses. Although it is really only a matter of presentation and interpretation, maybe we should take a leaf out of the Australian statute and consider extending our National Parks into the sea as buffers to our intended MNRs. Despite the constraints and difficulties of our MNR legislation, the Devon Sea Fisheries Committee has now agreed to bring in byelaws to control certain types offishing within the proposed Lundy Marine Nature Reserve. Although Lundy can hardly be compared with the greatest coral reef in the world, it is an exceptionally interesting site and does possess some spectacular and rare temperate corals. It would be a worthy first British MNR among, hopefully, many sites to follow. Meanwhile Australia plans to complete the zoning of the entire Park by 1988 which, to judge by current progress, should be easily achieved. ROGER MITCHELL