Marine park

A marine park is a designated park consisting of an area of sea (or lake) set aside to achieve ecological sustainability, promote marine awareness and understanding, enable marine recreational activities, and provide benefits for Indigenous peoples and coastal communities.[1] Most marine parks are managed by national governments, and organized like 'watery' national parks, whereas marine protected areas and marine reserves are often managed by a subnational entity or non-governmental organization, such as a conservation authority.[2]

The largest marine park used to be the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park in Australia, at 350,000 km² until 2010, when the United Kingdom announced the opening of the Chagos Marine Park or Chagos Archipelago.

Although for many uses it is sufficient to designate the boundaries of the marine park and to inform commercial fishing boats and other maritime enterprises, some parks have gone to additional effort to make their wonders accessible to visitors. These can range from glass-bottomed boats and small submarines, to windowed undersea tubes.

In New Zealand a marine reserve is an area which has a higher degree of legal protection than marine parks for conservation purposes.

In New South Wales, there are planned marine parks which will stretch along the coastline of the entire state.[3]

France and its territories are home to nine marine parks, known as parc naturel marin.[4][5]

List of marine parks

Africa

Americas

Chile

Canada

Mexico

United States

Hong Kong

India

Indonesia

Japan

Malaysia

Philippines

Singapore

Taiwan

Thailand

Europe

High seas

Nearly all existing marine reserves have been set close to shore, mostly in territorial waters. A main reason for this lies in the fragmented nature of maritime governance in international waters, the poor enforcement of existing regulations in the High seas, plus the difficult co-management that would be required of countries often in conflict. How to circumvent such obstacles? In 2011, based on unique biological, geological and oceanographic features, the Mediterranean Science Commission proposed the creation of eight large international, coast-to coast "Marine Peace Parks" in the Mediterranean Sea where no coastal point is farther than 200 nautical miles from waters under another jurisdiction. The trans-frontier structure of such 'Peace' Parks puts this problem aside, encouraging the local Governments involved to join forces in the pursuit of a cause higher than their national interest without prejudice to current national claims .[9]

Greenpeace is campaigning for the "doughnut holes" of the western pacific to be declared as marine reserves.[10]

They are also campaigning for 40 percent of the world’s oceans to be protected as marine reserves.[11]

Australian government

The Australian Government manages an estate of marine protected areas (MPA) that are Commonwealth reserves under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (EPBC Act).

New South Wales
Queensland
South Australia

As of December 2013, the following marine parks have been declared under the Marine Parks Act 2007 (SA) :[12]

Victoria

The state of Victoria has protected approximately 5.3% of coastal waters. In June 2002, legislation was passed to establish 13 Marine National Parks and 11 Marine Sanctuaries. Victoria is the first jurisdiction in the world to create an entire system of highly protected Marine National Parks at the same time.[13] Additional areas are listed as Marine Parks or Marine Reserves, which provides a lower level of protection and allows activities such as commercial and recreational fishing.

The marine national parks are:

Western Australia

Kimberley region:

Gascoyne region:

Micronesia

  • Enipein Pah, near Pohnpei

New Zealand

Papua New Guinea

  • Papua Barrier Reef

See also

References

  1. ""National Marine Conservation Areas"". Parks Canada. Retrieved 8 August 2014.
  2. ""Conservation Authorities"". Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry. Retrieved 8 August 2014.
  3. "Type 1 Marine Protected Areas: Marine reserves". www.doc.govt.nz. New Zealand Department of Conservation. Retrieved 2021-01-18.
  4. "Délibération 2020-06" (PDF). Office Français de la Biodiversité (in French). 2020-03-03.
  5. "Les parcs naturels marins français" (PDF) (in French). Institut océanographique. December 2013. Retrieved 19 May 2021.
  6. Jones, Nicola (2011). "Little Mexican reserve boasts big recovery". Nature. doi:10.1038/news.2011.479. Retrieved 2011-08-23.
  7. "Parque Natural Marinho Da Ponta Do Pargo". dopa-explorer.jrc.ec.europa.eu. Retrieved 4 June 2021.
  8. "Parque Natural Marinho Do Cabo Girão". Protected Planet. Retrieved 4 June 2021.
  9. Marine Peace Parks in the Mediterranean. Feb. 2011. Briand, F. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/239940856_Marine_Peace_Parks_in_the_Mediterranean
  10. "The Pacific Commons -- first high seas marine reserve?". Greenpeace Australia Pacific. 2007. Archived from the original on 2008-05-08. Retrieved 2008-04-27. The Western and Central Pacific Ocean is the world's largest tuna fishery. Over half of the tuna consumed worldwide is taken from this area. Rampant overfishing is destroying this fishery; relatively healthy just a few years ago. Today, two key Pacific species, Bigeye and Yellowfin could face collapse unless urgent action is taken.
  11. "Marine reserves". Greenpeace Australia Pacific. 2007. Archived from the original on 2008-03-31. Retrieved 2008-04-27. A growing body of scientific evidence that demonstrates what we at Greenpeace have been saying for a long time: that the establishment of large-scale networks of marine reserves, urgently needed to protect marine species and their habitats, could be key to reversing global fisheries decline.
  12. "MARINE PARKS ACT 2007: SECTION 14" (PDF). The South Australian Government Gazette. Archived from the original (PDF) on 24 September 2015. Retrieved 8 December 2013.
  13. Victoria's System of Marine National Parks and Marine Sanctuaries. Management Strategy 20032010 (PDF), Parks Victoria, 2003, retrieved 2012-02-04
  14. Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions (WA) (2020). Lalang-gaddam Marine Park amended joint management plan for the Lalang-garram / Camden Sound, Lalang-garram / Horizontal Falls and North Lalang-garram marine parks and indicative joint management plan for the proposed Maiyalam Marine Park 2020 (PDF). Government of Western Australia. ISBN 978-1-925978-20-9. Retrieved 31 December 2020.
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