the coral sea debate
Reef Check Australia began out in the Coral Sea. Our very first surveys took place there back in 2001. The current debate is therefore an issue very close to our heart. Andy Dunstan, Reef Check Australia Director and marine scientist specialising in the Coral Sea, was involved in those first surveys and has written a short introduction to the debate:
Why does it matter?
The Coral Sea is one of the few tropical ocean seamount ecosystems with a diverse range of rare habitats, flora and fauna which are relatively unimpacted by humans. The coral seamounts, oceanic sand cays, and deep ocean areas provide the environment for rare and endangered species that rely on these habitats, which are largely exploited and degraded elsewhere. These include shark, tuna, marine mammals, sea turtle, billfish, maouri wrasse, nautilus and many species of seabirds.
What happens there?
The current use of the Coral Sea region is minimal and restricted to low level diving tourism, sporadic fishing charters and a largely latent commercial fishery. The Coral Sea fishery has agreed to a Memorandum of Understanding with the Coral Sea tourism industry to effectively protect five key Coral Sea reefs from fishing.
At present the major threats to the Coral Sea environment are extractive industries, including fishing and the potential of oil exploration and mining.
What are the proposals?
The PEW proposal for total protection for the entire Coral Sea region would provide for non-extractive use and presentation to the public to embrace the principles of World Heritage status (which this area no doubt deserves). The ban on extractive use would provide a clear mechanism for protection into the future and limit the grey areas for enforcement and management.
The WWF proposal is a more complex plan with a multi-use approach, liaison and discussion between stakeholders and the need to reach an overall compromise between stakeholders which does not compromise the environment. This is obviously a more difficult approach which has ongoing enforcement and management problems but may provide a balanced and informed solution to the issue. The concern with this approach is the potential erosion of environmental values (what does 80% protection really mean?) through the perceived need to reach stakeholder agreement.
What can you do?
Reef Check Australia encourages its readers and members to explore the PEW and WWF websites as well as government and fishing media releases to gain a full understanding of the issues. Most of all we encourage your involvement to support and push for a long term formal protection policy for the Coral Sea to be implemented without delay.
Andy Dunstan, Director - Reef Check Australia
