Corporate Brochure
Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority, 2007

Order printed copy - reference number CE1263

Australia has one of the most internationally-recognised natural icons on its doorstep – the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park. Covering 344 000km² and stretching 2300km along the north-eastern Australian coastline, it is the largest coral reef ecosystem in the world.

It is also a vital economic hub. The Marine Park is central to activities such as tourism, recreational boating and fishing, commercial fishing, diving, aquaculture, research and shipping.

Keeping it great

For more than thirty years, the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority has managed this multiple-use natural resource to ensure its long-term sustainability.

The Australian Government agency does this by balancing ecologically sustainable use, commercial realities and an overarching conservation objective.

On-ground activities such as education, research, monitoring, issuing permits, Plans of Management, zoning and implementing conservation policies help manage the area.

The agency works with tourism operators, schools, local government, fishermen, landholders and Traditional Owners to achieve a shared, community approach to caring for the Marine Park’s social, economic and environmental qualities.

The agency also ensures its World Heritage obligations are met by balancing reasonable human use with maintaining the area's natural and cultural integrity.

Encouraging zoning compliance

The Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority has responsibility for ensuring people understand and adhere to the Zoning Plan and regulations.

The agency runs education programmes to raise the awareness of residents and visitors about zoning and other rules, and provides easy-to-read Zoning Maps and guides.

The coordinates of all no-take zones are shown on the maps and can be identified with a GPS, plotted on a chart or loaded into electronic navigation aids.

The Australian and Queensland Governments work in partnership to enforce the regulations.

They are involved in regular vessel and aircraft patrols to detect illegal activities, including fishing in no-take zones, pollution and shipping offences.

Tourism operators and the general public are also encouraged to report any illegal incidents they witness in the Marine Park through monitoring programmes like Eyes and Ears.

Improving water quality

Good water quality is important to maintaining a healthy and diverse coral reef ecosystem.

Rivers, drains and other waterways connect land-based activities in the home, workplace and farm to the ocean.

There are 26 major catchments flowing into the Marine Park.

The Australian and Queensland Governments are committed to improving water quality through the Reef Water Quality Protection Plan.

It focuses on working with landholders and local government to decrease nutrients, sediments and other pollutants being discharged from catchments into the Great Barrier Reef.

Landholders are taking an active role in helping look after the quality of water entering the Marine Park by implementing best practice on their properties.

Householders are also encouraged to care for their local catchment by disposing of litter appropriately, recycling, reducing the use of plastic bags, and wise water usage such as washing their car on the lawn.

Supporting Indigenous culture

There are currently more than 70 Traditional Owner groups (Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander people) with cultural connections to sea country along the Marine Park.

The relationship centres on story-telling, ceremonies, fishing, hunting and trading activities.

Traditional Owners work in partnership with the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority to achieve the sustainable use of marine resources while maintaining their strong cultural connections to the Reef.

One of the ways this is achieved is through Traditional Use of Marine Resources Agreements.

They form the basis for collaboration between the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority, Queensland Government and Traditional Owner groups on sea country use.

Responding to climate change

Changes to the Great Barrier Reef climate are already impacting on plants and animals.

Climate change will have a wide variety of potentially serious impacts on the Reef, including coral bleaching caused by hotter summer temperatures, sea level rise, increased severity of cyclones and acidification of sea water.

The Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority is taking significant action to enhance the outlook for the Reef in the face of this threat.

It includes initiatives to improve the Reef’s health and thereby its resilience, scientific research to underpin management strategies and helping coastal communities and industries that rely on the Reef, such as tourism, to anticipate and adapt to changes.

There are also two major strategies to improve the Reef’s health.

The Zoning Plan ensures more than 33 per cent of the Reef is highly protected through no-take zones.

The Reef Water Quality Protection Plan is a joint Australian and Queensland Government initiative that aims to halt and reverse the declining quality of water entering the Reef by 2013.

Educational programmes are also run to help raise the awareness of communities about climate change and what they can do to help the Reef, such as turning off lights or selecting energy efficient appliances.

Encouraging responsible tourism

Tourism and recreation is a significant use of the Marine Park, with the outstanding natural feature attracting 1.9 million visitors each year.

Reef tourism contributes to around $6 billion to the Australian economy annually and generates over 55 000 jobs in regional communities.

There are more than 900 permitted tourism operators in the Marine Park, offering everything from day tours to scenic flights.

The future well-being of the Marine Park and the tourism industry are closely linked.

A healthy Marine Park tourism industry will always need a healthy Great Barrier Reef to present to its visitors.

This drives on-ground activities to protect the Reef and provide a world-class tourism experience.

The Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority has a robust and consultative partnership with the tourism industry, which encourages and rewards high standards.

A rigorous permit and planning system is also applied to ensure tourism is well-managed and sustainable.

For high use areas such as Cairns and Whitsundays dedicated Plans of Management apply to all activities, especially in environmentally sensitive locations.

Visitors taken to the Marine Park on a commercial tourism vessel also pay an Environmental Management Charge.

This contributes approximately $8.2 million to important research, education and management initiatives on the Great Barrier Reef.

Working with communities

Many Queenslanders are lucky enough to live or work close to the Marine Park and play an important role in the future of the marine environment.

Regional offices of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority are located along the coast to foster important partnerships with communities.

Residents are also given the opportunity to be involved in the care of the Marine Park through Local Marine Advisory Committees.

Committee members represent various interests and sectors, including tourism, fishing, farming, business and conservation.

Their role is to provide advice to the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority on a range of vital local marine issues.

Another avenue for community involvement is through the popular Reef Guardian Schools programme.

Students, parents and teachers from more than 100 schools across the catchment work on projects that help to improve the health of the Reef.

These might include adopting a local beach to keep clean, revegetating wetlands and testing water quality, and recycling to reduce the use of resources.

Working with ports

Queensland’s busy maritime ports are located adjacent to the Marine Park. It is important the marine environment is protected as ports expand their infrastructure.

Marine managers work closely with port authorities to mitigate environmental issues while ensuring operational needs, such as safe navigation and berth access, are met.

Shipping contributes about $16 billion to the Australian economy each year, with about 6000 ship movements occurring in the Marine Park annually.

Navigation routes through the Great Barrier Reef have been well surveyed and clearly marked by a system of navigation lights.

Additionally, a shipping vessel tracking system, oil spill response plan and compulsory pilotage for large vessels protects the marine environment.

Ships may access designated shipping areas and the General Use (Light Blue) Zone without a permit, but accessing all other areas requires a permit.

Using good research

Using the best available social, environmental and economic information for decision-making ensures high quality, scientifically-based management of the Marine Park.

Major programmes that monitor the effectiveness of management initiatives include tracking environmental changes from the Zoning Plan and assessing the impact on fish populations.

Most scientific information needs are met through outsourcing to marine research agencies like the Marine and Tropical Sciences Research Facility.

The community and tourism industry also assist through the compliance monitoring initiative, Eyes and Ears, and the coral bleaching monitoring programme, BleachWatch.

Achieving sustainable fisheries

Sustainable recreational and commercial fishing is an important and reasonable use of the Marine Park.

Recreational fishing is a popular Queensland pastime and commercial fishing harvests about 24 000 tonnes of seafood each year.

Increasing national and global demand for fish resources means it is important to have a strategic approach to achieving ecological sustainability.

The Queensland Department of Primary Industries and Fisheries (QDPI&F) is responsible for managing fishing in the Marine Park.

The Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority works closely with the QDPI&F, as well as recreational and commercial fishing industry representatives, to minimise the impact of fishing on the Reef’s ecosystem.

The QDPI&F regulations limit fishing effort through initiatives like seasonal closures, restrictions on fishing vessel size and limits on the numbers and size of fish that can be taken.

To achieve conservation outcomes, such as protecting all plants and animals, the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority also limits fishing in some areas through zoning.

Queensland fisheries management initiatives include the East Coast Trawl Management Plan, which involves a tradeable effort quota system.

The Coral Reef Finfish Fishery Management Plan includes a total allowable catch and closures during spawning.

By-catch reduction devices and turtle exclusion devices are also mandatory in all trawl nets.