Letter to the Editor, The Mercury (Hobart Australia). Published April 15 2008
Scientists urge science-based marine parks:
As in many fields, scientists express divergent views concerning the value of marine protected areas, as witnessed by recent material in the Mercury from Graham Edgar and Colin Buxton. Major scientific reviews however, have greater credibility – as is also the case with climate change. The reviews undertaken under United Nations funding, through the Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity, and the Secretariat to the UN General Assembly, have strongly endorsed the value of marine reserves in respect to the protection of biological diversity – and endorsed their exploratory use in supporting fisheries.
The UN decadal environment conferences, from Stockholm 1972 to the most recent Johannesburg 2002, have resulted in the adoption of a global target of 10% of marine areas under protection by the year 2012. As a nation, Australia has endorsed this target.
The Tasmanian State Government is to be commended for initiating a program, nearly ten years ago, to create a network of marine protected areas representative of our unique and valuable marine ecosystems – which are under threat from a variety of factors including climate change and harvesting. These threats are documented world-wide and within Tasmania.
The State Government gave the job of recommending appropriate marine protected areas to the Resource Planning and Development Commission. The RPDC has been careful to listen to the views of fishers, managers, scientists and conservationists. The RPDC adopted an independent, thorough and thoughtful process in reaching its draft recommendations – which at least in part, are based on science.
Minister Llewellyn’s statement, on releasing the RPDC's final report, that the Government will not be supporting recommendations which restrict traditional fishing activities, is entirely out of keeping with this thorough and thoughtful approach.
It is to be hoped that the State Government will reconsider this position, and provide support to build a network of marine protected areas in keeping with international, national and earlier State commitments. These commitments include the creation of protected area networks “that are representative, effectively managed, ecologically based, consistent with international law, based on scientific information, and including a range of levels of protection.”
Professor Jamie Kirkpatrick, University of Tasmania
Professor Karen Edyvane, Charles Darwin University
Professor Rob White, Sociology, University of Tasmania
Associate Prof. David Ritz, University of Tasmania
Dr Greg Baxter, University of Queensland
Dr Sarah Bekessy, RMIT University
Dr Sabine Dittmann, Flinders University
Dr Simon Grove, Taroona 7053
Dr Karen Gowlett-Holmes, Eaglehawk Neck 7179
Dr Alastair Hirst, University of Tasmania
Dr Amy Jansen, Randalls Bay 7112
Dr Graeme Kelleher, Canberra 2600
Dr Hugh Kirkman, Seaholme 3018
Dr Helen Larson, Museum of the Northern Territory
Dr Jeffrey M Leis, Australian Museum, Sydney 2000
Dr Michael Lockwood, University of Tasmania
Dr Vimoksalehi Lukoschek, University of California
Dr Tara Martin, St Lucia 4067
Dr Keith Martin-Smith, Kingston 7050
Dr Richard Mount, University of Tasmania
Dr Alastair Richardson, University of Tasmania
Dr Scoresby Shepherd AO, Adelaide 5000
Dr Jonathan Stark, Fern Tree 7054
Dr Tom Trnski, Auckland War Memorial Museum
Mr Michael Baron, Eaglehawk Neck 7179
Mr Greg Clancy, Coutts Crossing 2460
Mr Hedley Grantham, University of Queensland
Mr Jon Nevill, Sandy Bay 7005
Mr Simon Talbot, Hobart 7000
Ms Ruth Young, Griffith University