World-class protection for WA’s Southern Reef

The Great Southern Reef is home to more species than the Great Barrier Reef. Giant kelp forests, sea lions, blue gropers, giant cuttlefish, rock lobsters, bluefin tuna, southern right whales, sea dragons and so many more call the Great Southern Reef home.

But, there is currently zero marine sanctuary protection in the coastal waters of the Great Southern Reef along a 1,000km stretch of WA’s south coast.

The Western Australian government has now released draft plans to create a new WA South Coast Marine Park—from east of Bremer Bay to the South Australian border.

The current draft ...

The Great Southern Reef is home to more species than the Great Barrier Reef. Giant kelp forests, sea lions, blue gropers, giant cuttlefish, rock lobsters, bluefin tuna, southern right whales, sea dragons and so many more call the Great Southern Reef home.

But, there is currently zero marine sanctuary protection in the coastal waters of the Great Southern Reef along a 1,000km stretch of WA’s south coast.

The Western Australian government has now released draft plans to create a new WA South Coast Marine Park—from east of Bremer Bay to the South Australian border.

The current draft plans are missing some crucial sanctuaries including the Recherche Archipelago off Esperance—habitat for endangered species like southern right whales and Australian sea lions.

The government wants your feedback on the new WA South Coast Marine Park. You can help make sure crucial marine sanctuary protections are increased across a diverse range of important habitats. By sending in this submission by 16 June 2024, you can help create Australia’s next world-class marine park.

The following areas need further protections:

Point Ann area: one of only three large, established calving areas known to exist for endangered southern right whales in Australia.

Mason Bay: high concentration of mapped shallow reefs.Munglinup—connectivity with land nature reserve and a unique estuary with reefs.

Investigator Island: Australian sea lion breeding habitat, also some of the area’s most unique reefs, pinnacles and banks.

Cape Le Grand: some of the most extensive rhodolith, seagrass, rocky reefs, kelp and island habitats that are under-represented in the Recherche Archipelago.

Membinup: offshore area contains extensive seagrass meadows, kelp, reefs and island habitats.

Cape Arid: high diversity of endemic fish species and extensive bare reef habitat.

Round Island: critical breeding habitat for the survival of endangered Australian sea lions, also a breeding site for little penguins.

Israelite Bay: one of only three large, established calving areas known to exist for endangered southern right whales in Australia.

Six Mile Island: one of the highest numbers of Australian sea lion pups in the region, also a breeding site for little penguins.

Image: Scott Portelli

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image of World-class protection for WA’s Southern Reef

Make a submission today!

Email the WA government today to create a world-class marine park by expanding proposed marine sanctuaries. It only takes 2 minutes to send in your submission and help protect WA’s Great Southern Reef.

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Dear Premier Cook and the Western Australian Government,

I welcome the creation of the South Coast Marine Park. This is an incredible opportunity to protect a critical stretch of Australia’s globally significant Great Southern Reef—from east of Bremer Bay to the South Australian border—and to make sure future generations can enjoy WA’s much-loved south coast.

I support the joint management plans and the aspirations of the Traditional Owners of the south coast and recognise their enduring cultural connection and management of Sea Country.
Australia’s Great Southern Reef has more unique species than the Great Barrier Reef. But there is currently no sanctuary protection in coastal waters along WA’s south coast – a huge part of this extraordinary reef. With temperate reef species at higher risk of extinction than tropical species, I commend the WA Government and Traditional Owners for taking this important step in the creation of this marine park.

I strongly support and ask you to retain the fully protected sanctuaries within the draft zoning plans.

However, I urge you to increase protection in areas where crucial sanctuaries are missing for key habitats and species, including for endangered Australian sea lions, calving hotspots for endangered southern right whales, nearshore coastal protection, and for the rich diversity of marine life in the Recherche Archipelago.

To ensure the marine park achieves the world-class conservation outcomes the environment warrants, it is critically important that the zoning design follows the established scientific principles of comprehensiveness, adequacy and representativeness to create a network of well-connected sanctuary areas.

In addition to retaining the proposed sanctuaries in the plans, I urge you to increase sanctuary protection to adequately protect the values that are missing or fall short of best practice, including the following areas and their surrounds: Point Ann area, Mason Bay, Munglinup, Investigator Island, Cape Le Grand, Membinup, Cape Arid, Round Island, Israelite Bay and Six Mile Island.

If any of these increases are not possible in these areas, I urge you to provide high levels of protection of similar values in other locations in the marine park.

Creating a world-class network of sanctuary zones within the South Coast Marine Park—like at Ningaloo and the Great Barrier Reef—is an opportunity to achieve a truly world-class conservation outcome for this unique and special part of Western Australia, to help keep our marine life healthy and support sustainable fishing and our treasured coastal lifestyle into the future.

I support the provision of fair and reasonable compensation for any affected south coast commercial fishers to adjust their operations if required.
Further, I ask for the entire marine park, from east of Bremer Bay to the SA border and out to the state water limit, to exclude oil and gas exploration and extraction as these industrial activities are incompatible with marine biodiversity conservation and would put our south coast at risk.

I urge for increased levels of protection to safeguard the south coast’s diverse marine life, sustainable fishing and treasured coastal lifestyle into the future.

Please count this as my submission to the South Coast Marine Park draft management plans.

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