The government aims to dramatically reduce the areas offered full protection and expand zones where fishing is allowed, while also claiming that this will still deliver good conservation.
Next year the Ross Sea will be home to the world’s largest marine reserve.
Andrew Mandemaker/Wikimedia Commons
After years of stalled negotiations, China has ended its opposition to the world’s largest marine park off Antarctica - part of a wider trend towards increased Chinese involvement in global governance.
Marlin are one of the prized fish in Australia’s oceans.
Marlin image from www.shutterstock.com
Australia has the third largest marine jurisdiction in the world, a vast ocean territory that contains important natural and biological resources. And it needs protecting.
We’ve filled our oceans with concrete.
Sea wall image from www.shutterstock.com
Marine parks need to cover large swathes of ocean, but they also need to cover the right areas if they are to deliver the best conservation. New research off Australia’s northwest suggests how.
The Chinese icebreaker Xue Long sails from Fremantle Harbour on its way home from Antarctica.
Bahnfrend/Wikimedia Commons
Australia and China both have a keen interest in the frozen continent. And while they don’t agree on everything, there is great scope for scientific collaboration.
Pristine coral on the Great Barrier Reef.
Photo copyright Tom Bridge
Camille Mellin, Australian Institute of Marine Science; Aaron MacNeil, Australian Institute of Marine Science, and Julian Caley, Australian Institute of Marine Science
Banning fishing helps fish, but it also helps reef recover from cyclones, disease, and coral bleaching.
The oceans are teeming with life and potential – but the high seas are still largely ungoverned.
Les Watling/NOAA
The open oceans are the world’s “wild west”, falling outside any nation’s jurisdiction. UN negotiations are aiming to draft new laws for the high seas.
Australia’s network of marine parks - a decade in the making and announced in 2012 - haven’t been implemented yet, and the Abbott government has already placed the plans under review. Why the hurry?
Despite the high concentration of sharks in Cocos, some species have declined in number – a signal on the effectiveness of marine preserves.
Genna Marie Robustelli
Divers at the famed Cocos site off Costa Rica record declines in a number of shark species – a sign that marine preserves are limited protection against illegal fishing.
A dredging ship in Queensland’s Gladstone Harbour.
AAP Image/Dave Hunt
A new report aims to establish exactly what we do and don’t know about the effects of dredging on the Great Barrier Reef, and suggests that managing fine sediments will be one of the biggest challenges.
After mass bleaching in 1998, more than half of coral reefs in the Seychelles have slowly recovered.
Nick Graham
Coral reefs are the poster child for the damage people are doing to the world’s oceans. Overfishing, pollution and declining water quality have all taken their toll on reefs around the world. Perhaps the…
One of the hottest topics for the upcoming election is a new forest national park to protect the critically endangered Leadbeater’s Possum, Victoria’s faunal emblem.
Greens MPs/Flickr
Less than a week out from Victoria’s state election, both major parties have been largely silent on environmental policy. Neither the Coalition nor Labor has released comprehensive documents. It also seems…