Australia’s Great Barrier Reef became the world’s biggest protected marine network on Thursday, a move environmental groups hope countries in Asia and Central America will copy in a bid to save their endangered coral reefs.
Australia has slapped a ban on fishing and shipping on a third of the reef, the planet’s largest living structure, protecting one of its main tourist attractions which is threatened by over-fishing, pollution and higher temperatures.
“In terms of an insurance policy for the future of the reef, it’s an incredibly important step, to ensure that the reef is there as a major economic driver, just as it is a natural icon for the country,” said Bruce Kingston, spokesman for the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park.
Nearly two million tourists visit the world-heritage listed reef off Queensland state in Australia’s northeast, injecting around $3 billion into the economy each year.
Nearly 30 percent more protected
The new measures increase protection to 33.3 percent from 4.5 percent of the reef, which in total covers 134,400 square miles -- an area only slightly smaller than Germany or Japan.
Local fisherman are being compensated up to $130,000 each for loss of income, but the ban has infuriated many who insist moves to protect the reef, which teems with 1,500 species of fish, should also accommodate people who earn a living from its waters.
A small flotilla of fishing boats staged a protest against the ban on Thursday in the tropical Queensland town of Cairns, the base for many tourists who visit the reef each year.
“All we need to do is get a bit of a balanced approach to sustainability,” Rosemary Millward, who runs a fishing business, told Australian Associated Press.
Companies breaching green zone rules on the reef, which stretches 1,430 miles along the Australian coast, now face fines of up to $700,000 and individuals $150,000.
Other nations urged to follow
Estimating 60 percent of the world’s coral reefs will die by 2030 unless stringent protection measures are enforced, the World Wildlife Fund urged more nations to follow moves to protect the Great Barrier Reef and its more than 400 species of coral.
Only half a percent of the world’s oceans and seas are under protection and fragile reefs, such as the Meso-American, the biggest in the Western Hemisphere and which lies off the coast of Belize, or the tropical reefs of the Sulu-Sulawesi Seas in Southeast Asia, are in need of protection, the WWF said.
“The Great Barrier Reef’s network of protected areas is a global benchmark which now sets a precedent for future marine conservation,” said Simon Cripps, WWF’s global marine program director.
The WWF said Australia should impose similar restrictions to help conserve the more than 160 miles long Ningaloo Reef, which lies in the Indian Ocean off the remote west coast.
