Benefits of Marine Park Zoning to Fisheries Management
Note: Some of the material contained in this chapter is out of date and currently under review (1/7/2004)
Benefits of Marine Park Zoning to Fisheries Management
Marine Park zoning has a number of objectives including protecting biodiversity and critical sites, and managing conflicting use. Its overall goal is to contribute to ensuring the ecological health of the Great Barrier Reef World Heritage Area (GBRWHA).
There is now a wealth of literature from Australia and overseas that demonstrates that marine protected areas have significant benefits for fisheries management. Potential advantages include the protection of spawning stocks which provide recruits or larvae to replenish fished areas and, recognising that fisheries management is an imprecise science, insurance against stock depletion through overfishing
Trawl Fishery
The trawling effort for the Queensland east coast trawl fishery is spread along the coast, however most of the catch comes from the Great Barrier Reef World Heritage Area. The trawl fishery in the GBRWHA occurs predominantly within the Great Barrier Reef lagoon, the area between the Queensland coastline and the western margin of the mid-shelf reef complex.
The fishery has several components. The banana prawn fishery is an inshore fishery, which occurs during daylight in water depths of less than 25 metres. In the Great Barrier Reef lagoon, the tiger and endeavour prawn fishery is a night time fishery, which occurs over sandy and muddy bottoms in water depths of less than 20 metres. The offshore fisheries target king prawns in the central and northern sections of the Marine Park at night (30-50 metre depth) and scallops in the southern sections of the Marine Park at night (20-60 metres). In addition, Moreton Bay bugs are a valuable part of the catch in some areas (such as off Townsville and Gladstone).
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| The trawl fishery in the GBRMP occurs predominantly within the Great Barrier Reef lagoon, the area between the Queensland coastline and the western margin of the mid-shelf |
The trawl fishery is a limited entry fishery. Licensed operators can fish anywhere where trawl fishing is permitted and at anytime during permitted trawl times. Restrictions are placed on the size and number of nets used, the mesh size of nets and the size of the ground chain permitted.
Both spatial and seasonal closures under the fisheries management regime and the zonal management system for the Marine Park apply to the trawl fishery. Spatial closures are intended to protect fisheries habitat (such as inshore seagrass beds) or reserve areas free from extractive use. Seasonal closures also apply in some areas and are designed to minimise the capture of juvenile prawns recruiting to the fishery and reaching a commercial size before entering the fishery. For example, trawling is prohibited north of Cape Tribulation between 15 December and the end of February.
Under the revised East Coast Trawl Fishery (ECTF) Management Plan, some additional 96,000 kilometres square of the GBRMP was closed to trawling. These new closures prevent the expansion of the trawl fishery into areas where historically there had been no trawling. Of the total area of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park, 50 percent is not available for trawling on either a permanent or temporal basis. A major permanent closure applies to much of the Far Northern Section of the Marine Park. Apart from inshore areas, much of the lagoon south of Princess Charlotte Bay is available for trawling. Trawling is a highly aggregated activity, which occurs in some 31 percent (as opposed to 50 percent) of the Marine Park.
In August 2001, following extensive negotiations, the Queensland Government implemented an effort cap on trawling in the GBRMP. This cap ensures that there will be no migration of trawl effort into the Marine Park, following the removal of fishing licences and their associated effort under a structural adjustment scheme. As of late 2002, the number of vessels permitted to operate in the fishery was 530. Following this legislative amendment, the GBRMPA accredited the ECTF Management Plan as ensuring an ecologically sustainable trawl fishery in the Far Northern Section of the GBRMP. In making this decision the GBRMPA was mindful that almost 80 percent of the Far Northern Section of the Marine Park is closed to trawling under Great Barrier Reef Marine Park zoning or Queensland fisheries legislation.
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| Part of the ECTF Management Plan involved the capping of effort and introduction of TEDs and BRDs. |
The revised ECTF Management Plan restricts the commercial take of trawlers to principal (i.e. target) and permitted (i.e. byproduct) species. In order to reduce the incidental catch of non-target and non-byproduct (i.e. bycatch) species, the plan made the use of turtle excluder and bycatch reduction devices mandatory for all areas of the fishery as of 1 January 2002. The legislated design specifications for turtle excluder devices (TEDs) were revised in late 2002. A further review of the relevant legislation for bycatch reduction devices (BRDs) has commenced to ensure that an effective design standard is being used by the industry. The revised trawl plan also aims for a 40 percent reduction of bycatch species taken and a 25 percent reduction in the amount of benthos taken. Research is underway to assess the impact of turtle excluder and bycatch reduction devices in reducing bycatch.
The GBRMPA has completed an audit of the East Coast Trawl Fishery. It outlines the achievements and weaknesses of this fishery in achieving the objectives set out in the Trawl Plan.
A major study conducted by the CSIRO on the recovery of seabed habitat from the impact of prawn trawling in the Far Northern Section of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park is now in its final stages. Analyses of recovery rates of seabed organisms after trawling has ceased are being conducted. For more information about the condition of these seabed communities, see Environmental Status – Inter-reefal and lagoonal benthos)
- The management arrangements for the ECTF are still being assessed under the EPBC Act 1999 and the Commonwealth Guidelines for the Ecologically Sustainable Management of Fisheries.