A group representing recreational and light commercial fishing has criticised the Federal Government’s decision of making a conservation zone in the Coral Sea. Federal Environment Minister Peter Garrett informed that the zoning – covering almost 1 million square kilometres – will not mean any new restrictions on current users of the area. Wayne Bayne from Marine Queensland told that the decision may not have any immediate impacts, but he expects that will change.
Bayne questioned that government’s declaration saying that making a conservation zone for a specific period of time is useless. He said that the government should leave it as it is. He added that the decision intends to make some restrictive changes to the use of it. But the environmental groups have welcomed the announcement. Steve Ryan from the Cairns and Far North Environment Centre says he hopes it will result in further protection for the region.
According to Steve Ryan the Coral Sea is in near pristine condition, but it’s a very vulnerable and fragile system. He added that it is not like the Great Barrier Reef where you have many reefs adjacent to each other. It is opined that these are very isolated reef systems and isolated sea mounts out in the open ocean and they’re very fragile and very susceptible to disturbance.
