How marine parks are protecting the Great Barrier Reef

Australia’s Great Barrier Reef has lost more than half its coral cover since 1985, according to a new study published Monday. The loss has been spurred by a combination of factors including hurricanes, coral-eating starfish and coral bleaching.

The paper, in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, is the most comprehensive survey of a reef system over such a long period. The researchers from the Australian Institute of Marine Science found that reef cover fell from 28 percent to 13.8 percent over the past 27 years, with two-thirds of the decline occurring since 1998.

Storm damage accounted for 48 percent of the decline, scientists said, while crown-of-thorns starfish contributed 42 percent. Coral bleaching, caused by warmer water, accounted for 10 percent of coral loss.

Nutrient runoff appears to be fueling the crown-of-thorns starfish boom: The authors note that these outbreaks occurred once in every 50 to 80 years before European agricultural runoff began. They now average once every 15 years.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/great-barrier-reef-has-lost-half-its-corals-since-1985-new-study-says/2012/10/01/c733025c-0bda-11e2-bb5e-492c0d30bff6_story.html


Wednesday, December 15, 2010

RECREATIONAL fishers have been caught off guard by a Queensland Government proposal to ban snapper fishing for six weeks next year.

State Fisheries Minister Tim Mulherin, announcing the ban yesterday, said it would apply to both recreational and commercial fishers from February 15 to March 31.

"These assessments indicate that the snapper stock is less than 35 per cent of its unfished levels," he said.

WWF fisheries spokesman Peter Trott said the Government should introduce a permanent ban.

http://www.cairns.com.au/article/2010/12/15/140471_local-news.html

Here we have a graph by the WWF, showing the increase of protection areas globally both on land and marine, almost mirroring the decline in species

The GRB marine park, one of the oldest marine parks, (no fishing areas) in Australia and what have we achieved, the coral is dying and the fish are disappearing, and what are we doing about it, introducing the same model all over the country!

All this does is highlight that this anti-fishing campaign over the last 20 years has done very little to protect our marine environment, apart from vilifying fishing.

The GBR marine park has the same level of protection being proposed all over our country, yet we constantly here the proponents claiming this will make it fully protected,  once you brain wash the public into thinking that fishing is the biggest threat to our marine environment then it’s a hard sell telling them otherwise.

It’s well and truly time anglers take greater control of how our marine life is being protected, if we leave it to them there will be nothing left for our kids and future generations to enjoy.