The protection in the Commonwealth Marine Reserves – our 2012 proclaimed world class network of marine sanctuaries – is to be gutted by Parks Australia’s review in a massive step backwards.
Throughout the year Diveplanit has brought you news about the Marine Environment. Here’s a little summary of ocean related news for 2016 – and despite a few obvious examples – lots of it good and there are reasons to be hopeful!
A new island has been discovered off the coast of NSW that has been described as a “Divers’ Delight”. The island is roughly crescent shaped, protecting a lagoon, which is largely covered with pristine coral reefs. The biodiversity of marine life is amazing.
There are a few reasons why you might want to dive in American Samoa: it has no less than six marine sanctuaries, it’s remote – but not that remote, and it has the BIGGEST CORALS IN THE WORLD!
Everyone loves Shelly Beach and Fairy Bower, so why do we only have one marine sanctuary in the whole of Sydney? What if we had 10 such aquatic sanctuaries? Imagine waking up to that headline! Want to help make that a reality? Read on…
When is a Marine Park not a Marine Sanctuary? When fishing is allowed in it! 20 of our 30 Marine Sanctuaries enjoy full protection, but 10 are still open to fishing – hardly a Marine Sanctuary!
Confused by what’s happening to the NSW Marine Park? Re-zoning of sanctuaries and amnesties on not being able to fish? Me too. Not surprisingly though – there does seem to be a concerted effort to bamboozle the public on this one
On a recent trip to Fiji we found ourselves diving with Juliane Diamond, a program manager for the Coral Reef Alliance (CORAL), and as coral reefs are part of the reason we exist, I was keen to find out more about their work. I wanted to find out; what exactly is the Coral Reef Alliance, what do they do and how can we help?