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This website will be moving soon to www.ozpolitic.com

Hello and welcome!

This site was put together in response to the Australian anti marine park lobby. It was written with them in mind as the target audience. If that is not you then you may find the style slightly off putting. I have been asked to put together a brief summary for a more general audience - members of the public, politicians, scientists, bureaucrats, etc. Here goes.

Marine parks ('no-take' zones) are good for biodiversity and good for fishing. Smaller, more numerous marine parks are best for fishing. Larger marine parks are best for biodiversity. The larger the zone, the closer you get to a 'natural' or virgin environment in the centre. However this can reduce the spillover effect - the mechanisms by which marine parks increase total fishing catches (the maximum sustainable yield). For more information on this see the Scientific Consensus Statement on Marine Reserves and Marine Protected Areas.

To give the most benefit to fishermen, marine parks should cover 20 to 40% of our waters. (Gell & Roberts, 2003).

This site promotes a fisheries management approach to marine parks. This involves smaller, more numerous marine parks designed with the benefit to fishermen in mind. This approach makes sense because marine parks only manage fishery influences - not pollution or global warming. Biodiversity protection is an indirect result of the improved fisheries management.

Minimum size limits put selective pressure on fish stocks that are ultimately harmful to the fish, and very harmful to the fishery. It has recently been discovered that the effects of this selective pressure (for slower growth rates for example) occur far more rapidly than previously thought and will take a long time to reverse. More Info. Thus there is an even greater need for suitable alternatives such as marine parks as fisheries management tools.

The anti marine park lobby (aka The Fishing Party) has been unsuccessful in blocking marine parks. The recently created Great Barrier Reef Marine Park protects more area from fishing than was previously protected in the entire world. However, they have managed to prevent authorities from promoting marine parks as fisheries management tools. This has resulted is lost opportunities for fishermen and very little consideration of the benefits to fishing in the design of marine parks.

The ultimate goal of this site is to encourage fishermen to participate constructively in the marine park debate. This is starting to happen. One good idea that has come up recently is for marine parks in popular estuarine locations that allow fishing from shore. These 'no boat fishing' zones increase the spillover effect by maximising the ratio of fishable 'border' to protected area. They also deliver the spillover to those fishermen who value the fish most - shore based recreational anglers. They could save a fisherman the need to purchase a boat, saving a lot of money and time and making fishing a more relaxing experience. Boats consume a lot of petrol so it would also reduce greenhouse emissions and marine pollution from motor discharge.

For those involved in this issue on the political side, there is a huge strategic payoff in communicating the benefits of marine parks to fishermen and listening to their needs. Fishermen are the only people who oppose marine parks and when they eventually come on-side there will be immense benefits to the environment and to the Australian public.