Scientists say Australia’s marine parks protect remote places rather than fragile waters near mainland

More than 270 leading marine scientists from 84 research institutes have written to the environment minister, Murray Watt, urging stronger protections for marine ecosystems, as a once-in-a-decade review of marine parks gets under way.

The 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. About a quarter of Australian waters are currently highly protected. But these “no take zones” were concentrated in remote offshore and territorial waters, with minimal coverage in the waters surrounding mainland Australia, the statement said. While the director of the Centre for Biodiversity and Conservation Science at the University of Queensland said the current locations of highly protected areas were “biased towards places that no one goes”.

Watt said the government was “well on the way to meeting the Albanese government’s commitment to highly protect 30% of Australia’s ocean by 2030”, and the proposed expansion of marine parks around Lord Howe and Norfolk islands would achieve the target ahead of time. The marine parks review would provide “further opportunities to better protect key ocean habitats”, he said, “while allowing for sustainable use and conservation”.