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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.[ citation needed ]
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.[ citation needed ]
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]
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]
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).
As of December 2013, the following marine parks have been declared under the Marine Parks Act 2007 (SA) : [12]
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:
Kimberley region:
Gascoyne region:
Protected areas of Australia include Commonwealth and off-shore protected areas managed by the Australian government, as well as protected areas within each of the six states of Australia and two self-governing territories, the Australian Capital Territory and the Northern Territory, which are managed by the eight state and territory governments.
Natuna Regency is an islands regency located in the northernmost part of the Province of Riau Islands, Indonesia. It contains at least 154 islands, of which 127 of them are reported as uninhabited. This archipelago, with a land area of 1,978.49 km2 out of a total area of 264,198.37 km2 area, contains 17 administrative districts (kecamatan).
Mingan Archipelago National Park Reserve or Mingan Archipelago Heritage Site bathes in the waters of the Gulf of St. Lawrence, in the administrative region of Côte-Nord, in Minganie RCM, Havre-Saint-Pierre municipality, facing Anticosti Island.
The Buccaneer Archipelago is a group of islands off the coast of Western Australia near the town of Derby in the Kimberley region. The closest inhabited place is Bardi located about 54 kilometres (34 mi) from the western end of the island group.
The Shire of Wyndham East Kimberley is one of the four local government areas in the Kimberley region of northern Western Australia, covering an area of 117,514 square kilometres (45,372 sq mi) at Western Australia's northeastern corner. The Shire's seat of government was originally in Wyndham but now in the town of Kununurra, which is home to over half of the Shire's permanent population of around 7,000, while a council office is located at Wyndham.
The Horizontal Falls, or Horizontal Waterfalls, nicknamed the "Horries" and known as Garaanngaddim by the local Indigenous people, are an unusual natural phenomenon on the coast of the Kimberley region in Western Australia, where tidal flows cause waterfalls on the ebb and flow of each tide. The Lalang-garram / Horizontal Falls Marine Park is a protected area covering the falls and wider area.
Elizabeth and Middleton Reefs Marine National Park Reserve is a former marine protected area consisting of waters around Elizabeth and Middleton reefs located at the south-eastern end of the Coral Sea Islands, an Australian territory in the Coral Sea. It was incorporated into the new Lord Howe Commonwealth Marine Reserve in December 2012. The two reefs also form a Ramsar site, having been listed as Ramsar Site 1223, on 21 October 2002, under the Ramsar Convention as a wetland of international importance.
Cenderawasih Bay, also known as Sarera Bay and formerly Geelvink Bay, is a large bay in northern Province of Papua, Central Papua and West Papua, New Guinea, Indonesia.
Camden Sound is a relatively wide body of water in the Indian Ocean located in the Kimberley region of Western Australia. The Sound is bounded by the Bonaparte Archipelago to the north-east, the Buccaneer Archipelago to the south-west, and Montgomery Reef to the south.
The Chagos Marine Protected Area, located in the central Indian Ocean in the British Indian Ocean Territory of the United Kingdom, is one of the world's largest officially designated marine protected areas, and one of the largest protected areas of any type on Earth. It was established by the British government on 1 April 2010 as a massive, contiguous, marine reserve, it encompasses 640,000 square kilometres (250,000 sq mi) of ocean waters, including roughly 70 small islands and seven atolls of the Chagos Archipelago.
The Thousand Islands are a chain of islands to the north of Jakarta's coast. It forms the only regency of Special Capital Region of Jakarta, the metropolitan province of Indonesia. It consists of a string of 342 islands stretching 45 km (28 mi) north into the Java Sea at West Jakarta Bay and in fact are located to the north of Banten Province. Pramuka Island is the regency seat. The islands, along with North Jakarta City, are the only administrative divisions of Jakarta Special Capital Region with a coastline.
Nuyts Reef Conservation Park is a protected area in the Australian state of South Australia associated with Nuyts Reef, which is located off the state's west coast in the Great Australian Bight about 29 kilometres west south-west of Fowlers Bay.
The Worrorra, also written Worora, are an Aboriginal Australian people of the Kimberley area of north-western Australia.
Australian marine parks are marine protected areas located within Australian waters and are managed by the Australian government. These waters generally extend from three nautical miles off the coast to the outer limit of Australia’s Exclusive Economic Zone at 200 nautical miles while marine protected areas located closer in-shore are the responsibility of the states or the Northern Territory.
The following index is provided as an overview of and topical guide to Wikipedia's articles on recreational dive sites. The level of coverage may vary:
The Kimberley Marine Park, formerly known as the Kimberley Commonwealth Marine Reserve and also known as the Great Kimberley Marine Park, is an Australian marine park offshore of Western Australia, near the Kimberley region. Proclaimed under the EPBC Act in 2013, the marine park covers an area of 74,469 km2 (28,753 sq mi) and is assigned IUCN category VI. It is one of the 13 parks managed under the North-west Marine Parks Network. It covers a number of state-managed marine parks.
Recreational dive sites are specific places that recreational scuba divers go to enjoy the underwater environment or for training purposes. They include technical diving sites beyond the range generally accepted for recreational diving. In this context all diving done for recreational purposes is included. Professional diving tends to be done where the job is, and with the exception of diver training and leading groups of recreational divers, does not generally occur at specific sites chosen for their easy access, pleasant conditions or interesting features.
The North Kimberley Marine Park is the largest state-managed marine park in Western Australia and second largest in Australia. covering 1,845,000 ha or 18,450 km2 (7,120 sq mi) about 270 km (170 mi) north-east of Derby. It is located in the Indian Ocean and the Timor Sea, extending from York Sound north-eastwards to the WA border with the Northern Territory.
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.
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.