Protection push for Barrier Reef

By NICK SQUIRES in Sydney

The Australian Government yesterday released details of a plan to ban fishing and shipping in more than a third of the Great Barrier Reef, dramatically increasing the level of protection for the world's largest living organism.

The draft plan, released by the Environment Minister Dr David Kemp, would expand the green zones from which shipping and commercial fishing are prohibited from 5 per cent to nearly 33 per cent (16,000 sq km to 114,000 sq km). Only scientific research and carefully controlled tourism would be allowed in those areas.

"The Great Barrier Reef is the largest World Heritage area in the world and this zoning system will establish a new international standard for the protection of reefs."

The re-zoning proposal is based on 12 months of public consultation involving more than 10,000 submissions from lobby groups, tourism operators, environmentalists and members of the public.

Leanne Fernandes, from the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority, said most Australians were in favour of greater protection for the reef, considered the country's most prized natural asset. "We've got information that tells us over 90 per cent of Australians, including people in coastal Queensland communities, do want to see more protection of the reef and that's essentially what were delivering."

The plan is designed to protect the reef's delicate corals from damage by shipping, as well as boost fish stocks. The public now has eight weeks in which to submit their views.

John Doohan, from Sunfish Queensland, a group which represents 45,000 recreational fishermen, said they were being unfairly targeted. "There's as much or more damage done by tourism as there is by recreational fishing."

The plan would cut the area of the reef accessible to prawn trawling from 50 per cent to 34 per cent. The Queensland Seafood Industry Association said such changes would have a significant adverse economic impact on the livelihoods of hundreds of commercial fishermen, and vowed to fight the proposal.

But the Association of Marine Park Tourism Operators and the World Wide Fund for Nature called for 50 per cent of the reef to receive protection.