MARINE AND COASTAL WATERS

Status of fish stocks

Australia’s coastal and marine regions support a large variety of species, many of which are only found in this country’s waters. Amongst the 97 stocks (species or groups of species) that are in Commonwealth-managed fisheries, the following trends are emerging:

• The number of stocks that are overfished (referring to the number of fish left within a stock) or subject to overfishing (referring to the amount of fishing a stock is experiencing) reached a record high level of 24 stocks (24.7%) in 2005, but fell to 19 stocks (19.6%) in 2006.
• The number of primary stocks or species classified not overfished had remained generally stable since 1997, but rose sharply to 27 stocks (27.8%) in 2006.
• The number classified uncertain has increased from a mean (average) of 13 species in 1993-96 to a mean of 44 in 2004-2006.

The number of stocks classified has increased since 1992. The fisheries included in the graph exclude those where state or territory government agencies have primary management responsibility, for example, the Norfolk Island Fishery.

Illegal fishing is an added pressure on some fisheries and fish species. The number of fishing vessels apprehended for illegal fishing increased by 250% between 1999 and 2005. Patagonian Toothfish in the Southern Ocean and species of shark in northern waters are the worst affected.

Marine parks and protected areas

Efforts to preserve Australia’s marine environment include the establishment of a system of protected areas and guidelines to select and manage protected areas.

Protected Areas are not the only mechanism for conserving biodiversity but they are an important element of the overall approach.

The World Conservation Union (IUCN) defines a protected area as: "An area of land and/or sea especially dedicated to the protection and maintenance of biological diversity, and of natural and associated cultural resources, and managed through legal or other effective means".

In 1994, Australia adopted the IUCN definition of a protected area and the internationally recognised IUCN six level system of categories used to describe the management intent as basis for documenting Australia's various types of protected areas. The six categories are:

• Category IA - Strict Nature Reserve: Protected Area managed mainly for science.
• Category IB - Wilderness Area: Protected Area managed mainly for wilderness protection.
• Category II - National Park: Protected Area managed mainly for ecosystem conservation and recreation.
• Category III - Natural Monument: Protected Area managed for conservation of specific natural features.
• Category IV - Habitat/Species Management Area: Protected Area managed mainly for conservation through management intervention.
• Category V - Protected Landscape/Seascape: Protected Area managed mainly for landscape/seascape conservation and recreation.
• Category VI - Managed Resource Protected Areas: Protected Area managed mainly for the sustainable use of natural ecosystems.

The total number of marine parks and protected areas in Australia and its external territories has increased in number from 148 (and nearly 39 million hectares) in 1997 to 212 in 2004 to encompass nearly 72 million hectares.

	1997		2002		2004
	no.	ha.	no.	ha.	no.	ha.
Category IA	16	2 779 192	18	15 207 232	26	14 689 494
Category IB	0	0	2	202	2	202
Category II	16	69 080	24	2 151 068	47	15 072 908
Category III	0	0	0	0	9	345
Category IV	80	586 334	106	12 045 534	99	17 347 773
Category V	7	4 716 993	0	0	0	0
Category VI	23	35 426 842	38	35 236 024	29	24 715 160
Category not specified	6	46 910	0	0	0	0
Total	148	38 908 358	188	64 640 060	212	71 825 882

---

Note: Includes marine, national oceanic islands & external territory protected area IUCN
Source: Department of the Environment and Heritage, Summary of Protected Areas <http://www.environment.gov.au/parks>, last viewed 7 August 2007

Previous Page

Next Page