The oceans and seas surrounding Australia and its territories are globally remarkable<\/a>, 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.<\/p>\n 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. \u201cIf we don\u2019t protect them here, it\u2019s not like we can expect somebody else to do the job, they\u2019re lost for ever.\u201d<\/p>\n About a quarter of Australian waters are currently highly protected. But these \u201cno take zones\u201d were concentrated in remote offshore and territorial waters, with minimal coverage in the waters surrounding mainland Australia, the statement said.<\/p>\n It called for \u201cat least 30%\u201d 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.<\/p>\n \u201cIn some of our regions, there\u2019s only 1% to 7% of the oceans that are highly protected, and the rest is open slather,\u201d Meeuwig said. These included marine regions off New South Wales, south-east Queensland, Western Australia, western South Australia and the Northern Territory.<\/p>\n A cock-eyed squid (Histioteuthis miranda) at the Bremer marine park on the south coast of Western Australia. Photograph: Marine Futures Lab<\/p>\n Prof David Booth, a marine ecologist at the University of Technology Sydney, said the temperate east region \u2013 one of five regions up for review \u2013 is \u201cincredibly biodiverse\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cFor instance, around Sydney, we\u2019ve got six to seven hundred species of fish, which is way more than we should have based on our latitude, and a mix of tropical and temperate species,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n The region, which stretches from the Great Barrier Reef\u2019s southern border to Bermagui on the south coast of NSW, features the East Australian Current and underwater seamounts and canyons.<\/p>\n It is also a \u201chot spot\u201d for climate-driven changes, he said, with temperate fish species \u2013 including many that people liked to eat \u2013 moving south<\/a>, and added pressure from urbanisation, industry and fishing. \u201cIt\u2019s an area of rapid change, with very little protection at the moment,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Watt said the government was \u201cwell on the way to meeting the Albanese government\u2019s commitment to highly protect 30% of Australia\u2019s ocean by 2030\u201d, and the proposed expansion of marine parks around Lord Howe and Norfolk islands would achieve the target ahead of time.<\/p>\n The marine parks review would provide \u201cfurther opportunities to better protect key ocean habitats\u201d, he said, \u201cwhile allowing for sustainable use and conservation\u201d.<\/p>\n
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