Marine parks
Southern Australia’s coastal waters are home to an amazing diversity of marine life, with around 80% of local species found nowhere else in the world. But our marine environment is under growing pressure from a range of threats including population growth, climate change, pollution and demand for resources.
In order to protect our precious marine environment the state government established 19 multiple-use Marine Parks in 2009, following an extensive community consultation.
Like any protected area it is important to have a plan that ensures the park network is well-managed. As a consequence, draft management plans, including sanctuary zones, are being developed.
Sanctuary zones are special areas for conservation and public appreciation. They will only take up a small portion of the Marine Parks, so fishing will remain largely unaffected.
A proposal for the location of these sanctuary zones has been developed and can be previewed at Your SAy website.
These zones were developed after an extensive state-wide consultation involving key interest groups, local government, local communities and the 14 local advisory groups. Years of consultation culminated in a key stakeholder forum on 11 and 12 April 2012 where broad agreement was reached on the priority areas for conservation.
The proposed sanctuary zones and proposals for the broader marine parks will be released for a final round of public consultation in the coming months.
In the meantime, we invite you to share your perspective on marine parks and what our marine environment means to you by visiting the Your SAy website.
Getting started
- Proposed sanctuary zones
- Join the conversation on yourSAy
- Recreational fishing in marine parks – correcting the myths (429kb pdf)
- the marine park network (476kb pdf)
- marine parks fast facts (409kb pdf)
- View the evolution of the local advisory groups’ advice on marine parks zoning.
- Government submission to the Marine Parks Parliamentary Select Committee (184kb pdf)
- Marine Parks Management Planning Process timeline (15kb pdf)
