Danielle Ryan, NPA Conservation Campaigner
For several years, the National Parks Association of NSW has been fostering a community movement to see more “no-take” aquatic reserves established throughout NSW, through our efforts in the NSW Marine Sanctuary Alliance. With the rise of swimmer groups, the community desire to establish more aquatic reserves has never been stronger. They have seen the natural wonders of Cabbage Tree Bay Aquatic Reserve and so desire to replicate the thriving underwater scenery of marine life. Yet, there is a catch. Astonishingly, it has been 20 years since the last aquatic reserve was established in NSW.
On the surface, it looks like our state’s marine life and habitats enjoy a high level of protection, and that we are achieving the 30×30 goal to protect 30% of the sea. Marine Parks cover the largest area, almost 40% of the NSW marine estate. However, only around 7% of Marine Parks are comprised of genuine protection: highly protected marine sanctuaries. When it comes to aquatic reserves, they make up less than 0.25% of the NSW marine estate and those protected as “no-take” aquatic reserves less than 0.1% of NSW waters.
Aquatic Reserves tend to be only a fraction of the size of Marine Parks and could be considered the marine equivalent of our terrestrial nature reserves, which are also much smaller than our national parks. However, there is one key difference and that is that most of NSW’s Aquatic Reserves have inadequate protection for what they set out to achieve. Only around a third of the area gazetted as Aquatic Reserve is classified as “no-take”, where no extractive activities like fishing can occur. This means that around two thirds of the NSW Aquatic Reserve network is ineffective at achieving its purpose.
In the Hawkesbury Shelf marine bioregion (Newcastle to Shellharbour), where no Marine Park currently exists, Aquatic Reserves have an important role to play in protecting marine biodiversity. In the Sydney metropolitan area, ten aquatic reserves have been established, with varying degrees of protection. In places like Cabbage Tree Bay, Towra Point and Shiprock “no-take” aquatic reserves do an excellent job protecting marine biodiversity and studies have shown that predatory species are up to 10x more abundant in “no-take” aquatic reserves like Cabbage Tree Bay compared with areas open to fishing nearby1. However, at the other seven aquatic reserves in the Sydney region very little benefit is being observed due to the inadequacy of their protection. Whilst the collection of invertebrates is prohibited (except lobster and abalone), recreational line fishing is still permitted as well as spearfishing in aquatic reserves outside of Sydney Harbour and Botany Bay.
The Marine Estate Management Strategy has identified woeful gaps in the marine protected area estate in both the Hawkesbury Shelf and Twofold Shelf marine bioregions. Marine parks have already been established in three of the five coastal marine bioregions to protect marine biodiversity and to maintain ecological function, meaning that the Hawkesbury Shelf and Twofold Shelf are in urgent need of protection as pressure mounts from the fishing related impacts of increasing populations and climate change.
A simple first step to address the lack of protection in the Hawkesbury Shelf marine bioregion would be to lift the protected area status of all NSW Aquatic Reserves to “no-take” status, in line with Cabbage Tree Bay, Towra and Shiprock Aquatic Reserves. This would enhance marine biodiversity as well as simplifying the complexity of rules that currently govern how Aquatic Reserves are managed. This should be followed up with the identification of additional high priority areas that would protect a diversity of marine areas and would add to the connectivity of the Hawkesbury Shelf aquatic reserve network.
With numerous community proposals for new aquatic reserves currently sitting with government, what will it take for them to break the 23-year drought of aquatic reserve creation? Let’s hope that the time has come to protect special places for their biodiversity values that will also provide for enjoyment, mental health, exercise and recreational opportunities. Future generations deserve to experience the same, if not better, marine wildlife experiences that we are fortunate enough to enjoy today.
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In NSW, marine protected areas are made up of marine parks, aquatic reserves, intertidal protected areas and marine extensions to national parks. A Marine Park is a multi-use area made up of zones with varying levels of protection. Marine Parks have large areas (20,000-100,000 hectares) and are designed to protect the environmental values of the marine park whilst allowing access to extractive activities. Sanctuary zones offer the highest level of protection (IUCN II), followed by habitat protection zones (IUCN IV), special purpose zones (IUCN VI) and general use zones (IUCN VI). A marine park can only be established through an act of parliament.
Aquatic Reserves on the other hand tend to be small (< 1,000 hectares). Like marine parks they set out to protect the marine environment but offer varying degrees of protection. Aquatic Reserves can be established by the ministers jointly responsible for the marine environment. Unfortunately, the rules that determine how general Aquatic Reserves operate often contradict what they set out to achieve because they allow extractive activities to occur. “No-take” aquatic reserves are the most effective at protecting the marine environment through the exclusion of extractive activities.
Reference
1 Turnbull, John & Shah Esmaeili, Yasmina & Clark, Graeme & Figueira, Will & Johnston, Emma & Ferrari Legorreta, Renata. (2018). Key drivers of effectiveness in small marine protected areas. Biodiversity and Conservation. 27. 10.1007/s10531-018-1532-z.